ERIC Number: EJ984107
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2012-Aug
Pages: 15
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1092-4388
EISSN: N/A
Sequence and System in the Acquisition of Tense and Agreement
Rispoli, Matthew; Hadley, Pamela A.; Holt, Janet K.
Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, v55 n4 p1007-1021 Aug 2012
Purpose: The relatedness of tense morphemes in the language of children younger than 3 years of age is a matter of controversy. Generativist accounts predict that the morphemes will be related, whereas usage-based accounts predict the absence of relationships. This study focused on the increasing productivity of the 5 morphemes in the tense productivity score (copula BE, third-person singular present--"3s", past--"ed", auxiliary DO, auxiliary BE; Hadley & Short, 2005) and their relationship to one another. Method: Twenty typically developing children were observed longitudinally from 21 to 33 months of age. One hour of naturalistic caregiver-child interaction sampled every 3 months was analyzed. Results: Copula BE was more productive than all other morphemes from age 27 months onward. Auxiliary BE was significantly less productive than--"3s",--"ed", and DO from age 27 months onward. Evaluation of third-person singular tense morphemes at age 33 months revealed that the productivity scores of copula "is",--"3s", and "does" were all correlated. Conclusions: There is sequence and simultaneity in development that no prior framework has fully explained, as well as evidence of cross-morpheme relationships. In this article, the authors interpret these findings as support for the gradual morphosyntactic learning hypothesis (Rispoli & Hadley, 2011; Rispoli, Hadley, & Holt, 2009).
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A