Although the English language consists of only little verbal morphology nowadays, the development of morphological first language acquisition of growing children is critically discussed. Specialists argue whether one can say that there is a clear development which appears during the same stages of different children.
This paper will shed light on morphological aspects, especially on verbal and nominal morphological developments. The examined approaches are of English-speaking children. However, the primarily involved morphological phenomenon is contemporary over- and undermarking, as well as over regularizations. To begin with, general errors in morphological language acquisition will be displayed, followed by a concrete example of the child Nina from the CHILDES Database of the Suppes corpus. In order of being more comparative, some examples of the Brown study will be given.
In the second part, the results of the children acquiring English in my own observation study will be discussed and compared to the results given. All these examples and comparisons of the first language acquisition of English-speaking children will lead to questioning, if different children acquire language during the same period of time and if they pass through equal stages on their way to an "own" and independent adult language.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Language Acquisition Errors
2.1. General Errors
2.2. CHILDES Database: Nina
2.3. Brown Study
3. Study: Comparison of Childrens Language Acquisition in America
3.1. Observation of Michael and Erin
3.2. Differences and Correlations
4. Conclusion
Objectives and Core Themes
The primary objective of this paper is to examine the developmental stages of verbal and nominal morphological first language acquisition in English-speaking children, specifically focusing on common error patterns such as over-regularization and over-marking. The central research question explores whether children follow uniform stages during language acquisition or if individual learning processes significantly influence the development towards adult grammar.
- Morphological development of verbal and nominal categories in children.
- Analysis of error phenomena like over-regularization and the "acceptance of partial regularity."
- Empirical review of the CHILDES database (case study: Nina) and Brown’s longitudinal studies.
- Direct observational study of children in a preschool environment.
- Discussion on individual variance in language acquisition timelines and intensity.
Excerpt from the Book
2.1. General Morphological Errors in L1 Acquisition
Generally speaking, there are a number of errors that children have in common during the acquisition of their mother tongue. In his model, MacWhinney (1984: 532) believes that „children are seen as moving through a cycle which leads in successive approximations toward the adult grammar“. According to him, children either learn by simple memorization or rote of their first words, or they produce others by morpheme combination, and yet others by analogies, when there is no direct rule available. However, they prefer rote over combination and combination over analogy, so the three can be ordered serially (1984: 532). Nevertheless, MacWhinney (1984: 532) argues that at the same time there is the so called “competition system”, in which all three processes can operate in parallel.
As already mentioned, regarding one first error which often happens in first language acquisition, children universally tend to (over-) regularize (MacWhinney et al. 1984: 529). To give an example, children have a late acquisition of “shwa-insert” affixes. This means that the regular plural and past allomorphs /әz, әd/ are usually left out in early stages of acquisition of plural and past morphemes. As an example, children often use the word kiss for both singular and plural types of the noun (MacWhinney et al. 1984: 529). This explains why children who are still acquiring language would possibly see nothing wrong in saying “Mom gave me two kiss”. In addition, they generally avoid zero morphological marking on semantically marked categories (MacWhinney et al. 1984: 529). One can therefore generally say, that children avoid the / әz/ in word stems that already sound like plurals. In addition, the several studies propose that children have a “late acquisition of the syllabic form of the English past tense” (cf. MacWinney et al. 1984: 530).
Summary of Chapters
1. Introduction: This chapter outlines the scope of the study, emphasizing morphological development in English-speaking children and the research interest in developmental stages and potential individual deviations.
2. Language Acquisition Errors: This chapter provides a theoretical foundation by discussing universal morphological errors, such as over-regularization and the acceptance of partial regularity, supported by existing linguistic models.
2.1. General Errors: This section explores specific error types like shwa-insert omission and the competition between rote learning and rule-based morpheme combination.
2.2. CHILDES Database: Nina: This chapter presents a longitudinal analysis of the child Nina, tracking her usage of verbal inflections over time based on data from the Suppes corpus.
2.3. Brown Study: This section contrasts the findings from Nina with Brown’s study, highlighting differences in the order of acquisition for verbal affixes.
3. Study: Comparison of Childrens Language Acquisition in America: This chapter introduces a practical observational study conducted by the author at a preschool, providing a snapshot of language production in three-year-old children.
3.1. Observation of Michael and Erin: This section details specific case observations, noting the frequent use of the progressive marker and identifying individual differences in past-tense formation errors.
3.2. Differences and Correlations: This section evaluates the observational findings against the longitudinal data, acknowledging the limitations of a cross-sectional "snapshot" compared to long-term studies.
4. Conclusion: The final chapter synthesizes the results, concluding that while developmental stages are generally predictable, the timeframe and intensity of acquisition are highly individualized.
Keywords
First language acquisition, morphology, verbal inflections, nominal morphology, over-regularization, CHILDES database, morpheme, linguistic development, past tense marker, suffix, grammatical error, developmental stages, nominal acquisition, language production, child linguistics.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the fundamental focus of this paper?
The paper focuses on the first language acquisition of English-speaking children, specifically analyzing morphological development and the occurrence of common error patterns in early childhood.
What are the central thematic fields covered?
The themes include morphological processing, the acquisition of verbal and nominal inflections, the role of over-regularization, and the comparison between longitudinal database studies and direct observational snapshots.
What is the primary research question?
The research investigates whether children pass through universal, standardized developmental stages during language acquisition or if individual learning trajectories result in significant variations in timing and error production.
Which scientific methodologies are utilized?
The work employs a combination of literature review, analysis of existing corpus data (CHILDES Database/Suppes corpus), and an empirical observational study conducted in a preschool setting.
What is discussed in the main body?
The main body examines theoretical models of language errors, reviews longitudinal data of a specific child (Nina), compares these findings with Brown’s classic studies, and reports on a personal observation of two three-year-old children.
Which keywords best characterize the work?
Key terms include first language acquisition, verbal/nominal morphology, over-regularization, CHILDES database, developmental stages, and language production.
How does the author explain the error of producing "hitted"?
The author attributes this to the "acceptance of partial regularity," where children identify a connection between a stem ending in a stop consonant and the past tense marker /әd/, leading to an over-application of the rule.
What is the main finding regarding "universal stages" in language development?
The author concludes that while stages of language development are predominant and predictable, they are not strictly universal; individual children vary significantly in the timeframe and intensity of their acquisition process.
- Arbeit zitieren
- Anonym (Autor:in), 2014, First Language Acquisition from a Verbal and Nominal Morphological Perspective, München, GRIN Verlag, https://www.hausarbeiten.de/document/538805
