1 / 21

Adverbs of Degree : Children , spoken language and written language

Adverbs of Degree : Children , spoken language and written language. Jack Hoeksema Symposium on the Role of Frequency and Function in Language Development. Principle of Contrast.

nayef
Download Presentation

Adverbs of Degree : Children , spoken language and written language

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Adverbs of Degree: Children, spoken language and writtenlanguage Jack Hoeksema Symposium on the Role of Frequency and Function in LanguageDevelopment

  2. Principle of Contrast • Speakers assumethateverydifference in formsignals a difference in meaning (Eve V. Clark, ‘The principle of contrast: a constraint on language acquisition.’ In: Brian MacWhinney (ed.), 1987, Mechanisms of language acquisition, 1-33. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum.)

  3. What is maximally in conflict withthis?

  4. examples • Ik ben een beetje/wat/ietsje/enigszins moe I am a bit/somewhat/a tad/a wee bit tired • Ik ben nogal/vrij/tamelijk moe I amrather/pretty/reasonablytired • Ik ben heel/erg/zeer/ontzettend moe I amvery/extremely/trulytired • Ik ben volkomen/totaal/helemaal nuchter I amtotally/completely/entirely sober

  5. Whysomuchvariation? • Degreelevels: low/mid/high/absolute • Stylisticlevels: lowbrow/highbrow/neutral • Polarity: negativepolarity items, positivepolarity items, neutral items • Syntacticcombinatorics: You are verylovely, I loveyouverymuch/He is verymuch a loner /I don’tlikehimmuch • Semantic/lexicalrestrictions: verypossible / *a bit possible / *ratherpossible / quitepossible • Phonologicalrestrictions: highly intelligent / *highly smart / highlyunlikely / *highly fat (# syllables > 1)

  6. Whynow, and not in 1600? • Emergence of writtenlanguages • And literacy • Withvariouswritingstyles • And a stylisticrequirement to avoidrepitition of words

  7. Dutch high degreeadverbs(written data: Hoeksema 2005; spoken: De Jong 1979)

  8. Most commondegreeadverbs in Dutch Written Spoken

  9. Childes data: Abel and Iris

  10. (een) beetje Abel 2-8-13 150 *GER: en ben je wel een beetje uitgeslapen ? 151 *CHI: ja, ben beetje uitgelapen. 152 *GER: ja . 153 *GER: was je een beetje moe ? 154 *CHI: ja, beetje moe .

  11. Beetje (ctnd) Abel 2-10-00 523 *GER: ik haal deze een beetje uit elkaar, ok ? 524 *CHI: ja, beetje aan mekaar . 526 *GER: nee, uit elkaar juist . 527 *CHI: oh .

  12. heel 2-04-09 ABEL 900 *CHI: Falko heel hard chaatsen . 901 *JEA: hij kan heel hard schaatsen . 902 *CHI: heel schaatsen . 903 *GER: hij kan heel hard schaatsen .

  13. Repeats (ignored in data) Abel 3-0-23 1120 *CHI: hou de toren maar even vast . 1121 *GER: ja, dat doe ik . 1122 *GER: hij staat niet heel erg stevig . 1123 *CHI: hij staat niet erg stevig .

  14. High degreevs absolute ABEL 3-4-1 583 *CHI: ik heb alleen maar xx weg . 584 *CHI: <ik heb> [//] ik ben heel weg . 585 *GER: waar ga je naartoe ? 586 *CHI: ik ga naar Artis . 587 *GER: naarArtis ? 588 *CHI: ja .

  15. Veel vs heel IRIS 3-6-15 448 *CHI: babyrups ət heel groter moet worden . 449 *FLO: ik [/] ik vind (he)t ook wel (ee)n mooie lange babyrups hoor . 450 *CHI: ja .

  16. Abel versus Iris

  17. Adultdegreeadverbs in the Abel/Iris files

  18. Written data vschildlanguage

  19. Children and caretakers Children Caretakers

  20. Conclusions • Childrenaged 2 to 3 by and large stick to the Principle of Contrast • Despitelots of variants in their input • Theylackmidleveladverbs notexplainedbyprinciple of contrast, strictlyspeaking • Midleveladverbsfarlesscommon in child-oriented speech than in adultoriented speech • Choice of degreemodifiersdeterminedbyfrequency in the input

  21. Thanks!

More Related