ERIC Number: EJ1224524
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2019-Sep
Pages: 18
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0305-0009
EISSN: N/A
The Development of Possession in the L1 Acquisition of Northern East Cree
Henke, Ryan E.
Journal of Child Language, v46 n5 p980-997 Sep 2019
This study presents the first investigation of the development of possessive constructions in Northern East Cree, a polysynthetic language indigenous to Canada. It examines transcripts from naturalistic recording sessions involving one adult and one child, from age 2;01.12 to 3;08.24. Findings reveal that, despite the frequency of possessive inflection in child-directed speech, the child overwhelmingly produces a possessive construction that circumvents this morphology. This construction, named here the equational possessive strategy (EPS), is largely undescribed in existing literature but is the primary mechanism for the child to express possession. These findings have potential implications for the cross-linguistic acquisition of possessive morphology and the connections between child-directed speech and child language production.
Descriptors: American Indian Languages, Morphology (Languages), Contrastive Linguistics, Child Language, Speech Communication, Language Acquisition, Form Classes (Languages), Phrase Structure, Adults, Toddlers, Longitudinal Studies, Foreign Countries, Interpersonal Communication, Language Usage
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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
Identifiers - Location: Canada
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A