ERIC Number: EJ1449957
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024-Dec
Pages: 28
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0142-7237
EISSN: EISSN-1740-2344
The Acquisition of Directionals in Q'anjob'al
First Language, v44 n6 p629-656 2024
This article evaluates the acquisition of directionals in Q'anjob'al, a Western Mayan language of Guatemala. The data come from a longitudinal study of two Q'anjob'al monolingual children of Santa Eulalia, Huehuetenango, Guatemala: Xhuw (1;9-2;5) and Xhim (2;3-3;5). The results show how these children acquire the morphological distribution of motion verbs and directionals in Q'anjob'al. They produce directionals parallel to motion verbs. Xhuw produced more motion verbs than directionals, while Xhim produced more directionals than motion verbs. Despite the omission of tense/aspect and agreement in the verb complex, these children produce two types of suffixes that distinguish motion verbs from directionals. The children acquired three groups of directionals in the following order: DIR3 (teq 'toward X', toq 'away from X') > DIR2 (el 'out' aj 'up' ok 'enter, in' ek' 'pass' ay 'down') > DIR1 (kan 'stay').
Descriptors: American Indian Languages, Native Language, Language Acquisition, Verbs, Motion, Foreign Countries, Longitudinal Studies, Monolingualism, Child Language, Morphemes, Infants, Toddlers, American Indians
SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: https://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2993
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: National Science Foundation (NSF), Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences (BCS)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Guatemala
Grant or Contract Numbers: 0515120; 0613120