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Ryan Cronister 1 , Shu Sheng Liao 1 , Shanju Lin 1,2 , & Amanda J. Owen Van Horne 1,2

Motion verbs and associated forms in English- and Mandarin-speaking children’s narratives. Ryan Cronister 1 , Shu Sheng Liao 1 , Shanju Lin 1,2 , & Amanda J. Owen Van Horne 1,2 1 Dept of Communication Sciences and Disorders, 2 DeLTA Center The University of Iowa.

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Ryan Cronister 1 , Shu Sheng Liao 1 , Shanju Lin 1,2 , & Amanda J. Owen Van Horne 1,2

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  1. Motion verbs and associated forms in English- and Mandarin-speaking children’s narratives Ryan Cronister1, ShuSheng Liao1, Shanju Lin1,2, & Amanda J. Owen Van Horne1,2 1Dept of Communication Sciences and Disorders, 2DeLTA Center The University of Iowa • General All Purpose (GAP) Verbs • Children use GAP verbs because they provide easy access to a variety of syntactic frames/a wide range of lexical meanings. • Rice & Bode (1993) • GAP verbs are argued to represent less mature lexical knowledge. • Rice & Bode (1993) • However, GAP verb use does not differentiate SLI and TD children & does not reliably change with age. • Thordardottir & Ellis Weismer (2001) • Frozen forms • Children memorize commonly combined lexical items and treat them as a single inflexible unit. • Pine & Lieven (1993) • These units may be reanalyzed and replaced or may continue to be used in mature language users (or both). Rispoli, Hadley, & Holt (2009) • Linguistic Typology • Talmy (1991), Slobin (2004) Satellite-framed languages: English, German The girl RANINTO the house • Equipollently-framed languages: Mandarin, Thai • NǔhéiPĂOJÌNCHÙfángzilǐ. ‘Girl runentergo house inside’. (Mandarin) • Mandarin relies on serial verb constructions, many of which are frozen forms in early child language but • are more semantically complex than similar English constructions. Tardif (1996) • Typological differences may allow us to better understand the relationship between improved linguistic • skills and reliance on GAP verbs and frozen forms as compensatory strategies. Motion events One object spontaneously moves with respect to another object. Talmy (1975, 1985) • Provide a developmentally appropriate, culturally accessible linguistic task • Easy to quantify the amount of information included in responses Predictions If GAP verbs and frozen forms are associated with immature language use, then we would expect to see increased use in younger children/associated with less information content. If GAP verbs and frozen forms are associated with mature/strategic deployment of linguistic abilities, then we would expect to see increased use associated by older children/associated with more information content. Participants

  2. Task 1: Video description Coding • Describe 24 motion event videos Results Amount of information Types of linguistic structures Age: F(2,77)= 90.042, p< .001, Age 4 < Age 6 < Adult, all p < .0001 Language: F(1, 77)= 1.610, p =.208 Language * Age: F(2,77)= .0.333, p= .718 Language: F(1,35)=806.547, p <, .0001, English < Mandarin Element *Language F(3, 105)= 52.315, p < .0001 Manner, Path, Goal: English < Mandarin, all p< .05 Source: English = Mandarin, p > .05 Age: F(2,35)= 3.841, p= .031, Element*Age: F(2,35)= 0.805, p = .455 Element*Language*Age: F(2,35)= 0.852, p= .435 Amount of information increases with age, and does not differ cross-linguistically. Use of linguistic structures was typologically consistent. Types of information GAP vs. Specific verbs: English Verb tyoe: F(1,39)= 45.528, p < .0001, Spec verbs > GAP Age: F(2,39)= 2.185, p = .126 Verb type*Age: F(2,39)= 14.305, p < .0001 GAP: Age 4 < Age 6, Age 6 > Adult, all p < .05, Age 4 = Adult, p> .99 Specific: Age 4 > Age 6, Age 6 < Adult, all p < .05, Age 4 = Adult, p= .522 Element: F(3, 231)= 68.029, p < .0001, Manner = Goal > Path > Source Age: F(2,77)= 89.473, p= .721, Age 4 < Age 6 < Adult, all p < .0001 Language: F(1,77)= 1.650, p = .203 Element*Language*Age: F(2,77)= 2.006, p = .141 English vs. Mandarin Age 4: Path-- English > Mandarin, p= .043 Goal– English < Mandarin, p = .31 Manner, Source– English = Mandarin, p =.380 & p=937 Age 6: Manner– English < Mandarin, p= .017 Path– English < Mandarin, p < .001 Goal, Source– English = Mandarin, p= .153 & p = .114 Adult: All elements- English = Mandarin, all p > .05 Within English Manner: Age 4 > Age 6, p = .016 , Age 6 < Adult, p = .002, Age 4 = Adult, p > .05 Path: Age 4 < Age 6 < Adult, all p < .01 Goal: Age 4 < Age 6, Age 4 < Adult, all p < .05, Age 6 = Adult , p= .093 Source: Age 4 > Age 6 > Adult, all p < .05 Within Mandarin Manner: Age 4 = Age 6 = Adult, all p > .05 Path: Age 4 < Adult, Age 6 < Adult, all p< .001, Age 4 = Age 6, p= .158, Goal: Age 4 < Adult, p= .009, Age 4 = Age 6, p =.066, Age 6 = Adult, p > .05 Source: Age 4 < Adult, Age 6 < Adult p< .0001, Age 4 = Age 6, p >.05 English-speaking 6-year-olds produce manner less often than English speaking 4-year-olds and adults peers, perhaps due to increased reliance on GAP verbs. Information content did not decline – rather more path and goal information was included in prepositional phrases, suggesting that these children were communicating different types of information using different grammatical structures. Mandarin speakers tended not to use path as much as expected typologically because the path verbs elicited by the videos don’t fit well into the early acquired serial verb constructions and they relied heavily on frozen forms even at Age 6. Information redundancy • This analysis was not carried out for the description task because only a limited set of verbs were elicited. • In future studies, information redundancy will be examined in cross-modal comparisons, e.g., spoken language and gesture. • Gesture complements spoken language, providing redundant information. • Gesture supplements spoken language, providing non-redundant information. • Does the gesture-speech relationship relate to individual differences?

  3. Task 2: Narrative retells • 2 narrative retells following SALT protocols (Miller, 2009) • The child participants only • Similar coding as in the description task • Adding Manner+Path verbs, e.g., climb, fall, sink Results Amount of information Types of linguistic structures Langauge: F(1, 51)= 2.646, p =..110 Age: F(1, 51)= 0.454, p= .504 Language * Age: F(1, 51)= .0.438, p= .511 Language: F(1,24)=2149.048, p , .0001, English < Mandarin Element *Language F(3, 72)= 808.71, p < .0001 Path, Goal: English < Mandarin, p< .05 Manner, Source: English = Mandarin, p > .05 Age: F(1,24)= 0.765, p= .390 Element*Age: F(3,72)= 0.797, p = .5 Element*Language*Age: F(3, 72)= 0.8, p= .498 Amount of information is stable with age, and does not differ cross-linguistically. This may be because the task allowed children to divide descriptions of motion events with high information content into multiple utterances with less information overall. Use of linguistic structures was typologically consistent. Types of information GAP vs. Specific verbs: English Verb type: F(1, 26)= 63.469, p < .0001, Spec verbs > GAP Age:F(1,26)= 2.898, p = .101, Verb type*Age:F(1,26)= 0.017, p = .896 In spontaneous language, English speakers no longer show the dip in Manner production at Age 6. At both ages, Source is more commonly produced by English speakers, while Manner is more commonly produced by Mandarin speakers. Element: F(3, 153)= 186.62, p < .001 Manner > Path > Goal > Source, all p < .001 Language: F(1,51)= 3.813, p = .056, English < Mandarin Age: F(1, 51)= 0.347, p= .558 Element*Language*Age: F(3, 153)= 2.323, p = .077 Within Mandarin All elements, Age 4 = Age 6, all p > .05 English vs. Mandarin Age 4: Manner– English < Mandarin, p= .003 Source– English > Mandarin, p = .02 Path, Goal– English = Mandarin, p =.436 & p=265 Age 6: Manner, Path– English < Mandarin, p= .001 & p = .03 Goal, Source– English > Mandarin, p= .036 & p = .007 Within English All elements, Age 4 = Age 6, p > .05 Information redundancy Redundancy: F(3,153)= 29.4, p < .0001 No P > Redund P > NonRedund P > Both P, all p < .05 Language:F(1,51)= 18.955, p < .0001, English < Mandarin Redundancy*Language:F(3,153)= 5.723, p < .0001 Language*Age: F(1,51)= 4.011, p = .051 Age 4: Redund P, NonRedund P, Both P, Eng < Mand (p= .008, p= .011, p= .031) No P: English = Mandarin, p= .073 Age 6: Redund P, English < Mandarin (p= .003) NonRedund P, Both P, No P, English = Mandarin (p= .857, p= .148, p= .293) Age: F(1, 51)= 0.045, p= .832 Redundancy*Age: F(3,153)= 1.586, p = .14 Redundancy*Language*Age: F(3, 153)= 1.75, p = .159 At Age 4, English speakers were less likely than Mandarin speakers to include path information in any form (verb or PP). At Age 6, Mandarin speakers were more likely to use redundant path information due to fixed use of verbs with path information in the serial verb constructions.

  4. Conclusions • GAP verb use increased with age in English in elicited productions, but was more stable in spontaneous speech. • 4-year-olds tended to provide only a single element in elicited production AND in spontaneous speech. Most often this was manner information alone. • 6-year-olds tended to provide path and goal information together, but use a GAP verb. • This shift may be a strategy that allows children to provide more information due to easier lexical retrieval. GAP verbs, while lexically empty, are more flexible in terms of the syntactic frames they rely on and may allow combinations with a wide range of prepositional phrases. • Stable use in spontaneous speech may be because children have more control over how much information must be included in a given utterance, reducing the need to manipulate the verb/syntactic frame. • GAP verb use is not necessarily a result of immature linguistic patterns, but instead may be a strategic deployment of language resources. • Frozen serial verb combinations influenced the Mandarin speakers as late as Age 6. • Frozen forms have primarily been documented using morphological information (Theakston & Rowland, 2009; Rowland & Theakston, 2009). • Our data suggest that languages that have frequent combinations of lexical items may also promote the persistent use of these forms. • Although frozen forms have been described as stepping stones in the learning process for very young children, there is evidence that these forms persist into adulthood (e.g., Bybee, 2002; Bybee &Scheibman, 1999) and may continue to be strategically deployed to reduce processing load. • The reliance by Mandarin speakers on frozen forms led to increased redundancy and altered the use of path information, suggesting this negatively affected the information communicated. • English speakers (who relied on more flexible forms) were less redundant and adult Mandarin speakers (who also were more flexible) were more capable of including Path information in the elicited production task. • Next steps to verify this hypothesis include: • elicitation of more common Path verbs from Mandarin speakers using the video elicitation task, which will allow us to compare the task related influences to the effect of linguistic structure. • corpus analyses to verify that the Path verbs do indeed combine differently with other serial verbs in the serial verb constructions in input to children. • Frozen forms may be used strategically by mature language users, but may also limit the way information is communicated resulting in more immature patterns of use. • Some patterns of language use observed in children are often described as immature. Such descriptions should depend on cross-linguistic and cross-task analyses before becoming commonly accepted because the developmental profile changes with task demands and typological differences. GAP verb use appears to be strategic and sophisticated while frozen forms may continue to limit information content. Works Cited Bybee, J. (2002). Phonological evidence for exemplar storage of multiword sequences. Studies of second language acquisition, 24, 215-221. Bybee, J., & Scheibman, J. (1999). The effect of usage on degree of constituency: The reduction of don’t in American English. Linguistics, 37, 575-596. Rice, M. L., & Bode, J. V. (1993). GAPS in the verb lexicons of children with specific language impairment. First Language, 13, 113-131. Rowland, C. F., & Theakston, A. L. (2009). The acquisition of auxiliary syntax: A longitudinal elicitation study. Part 2: The modals and auxiliary DO. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 52(6), 1471. Slobin, D. I. (2004). The many ways to search for a frog: Linguistic typology and the expression of motion events. In S. Strӧmqvist& L. Verhoeven (Eds.), Relating events in narrative: Typological and contextual perspectives (pp. 219-257). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc. Talmy, L. (1975). Semantics and syntax of motion. In J. P. Kimball (Ed.), Syntax and semantics (Vol. IV, pp. 181-238). New York: Academic Press. Talmy, L. (1985). Lexicalization patterns: Semantic structure in lexical forms. In T. Shopen (Ed.), Language typology and syntactic description. Vol. III: Grammatical categories and the lexicon (pp. 57-149). New York: Cambridge University Press. Talmy, L., (1991). Path to realization: A typology of event conflation. Proceedings of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, 17, 480-519. Tardif, T. (1996). Nouns are not always learned before verbs: Evidence from Mandarin speakers’ early vocabularies. Developmental psychology, 32 (3), 492-504. Theakston, A.L., & Rowland, C.F. (2009). The acquisition of auxiliary syntax: A longitudinal elicitation study. Part 1: Auxiliary BE. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 52(6), 1449. Thordardottir, E. T., & Ellis Weismer, S. (2001). High-frequency verbs and verb diversity in the spontaneous speech of school-age children with specific language impairment. International Journal of Language Communication Disorders, 36, 221-244. Acknowledgements We would thank Karla McGregor, Bob McMurray, Word Learning Lab and MACLab at the University of Iowa for help and comments on the experimental design and stimuli for the video elicitation task. We also thank Hintat Cheung, Lindsey Hansen, Allison Haskill, Elizabeth Lipton, Grantwood AEA, SungMeiPrechool, FangRen Preschool, Gatelyn After School Program, for all the help with this project, and the members of Grammar Acquisition Lab at University of Iowa for assistance with data collection and transcription. Ling-Yu Guo and Li Sheng helped with Mandarin coding decisions. This project was funded by a Pre-doctoral Scholarship from Ministry of Education, Taiwan awarded to Shanju Lin, a University of Iowa Internal Funding Initiative awarded to Amanda J. Owen Van Horne, and ICRU Fellowships awarded to Shu-Sheng Liao and Ryan Cronister for completion of their undergraduate honors theses. Contacts:shan-ju-lin@uiowa.edu

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