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ACQUIRING AND EXPRESSING TEMPORALITY IN HEBREW: THE CASE OF A T/(M/A) LANGUAGE

This talk discusses the typological features of Hebrew, the developmental strategies in early child grammar, and the interaction between inflectional and derivational morphology. It also explores the acquisition of temporal expressions in narratives and later language development.

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ACQUIRING AND EXPRESSING TEMPORALITY IN HEBREW: THE CASE OF A T/(M/A) LANGUAGE

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  1. ACQUIRING AND EXPRESSING TEMPORALITY IN HEBREW:THE CASE OF A T/(M/A) LANGUAGE Ruth A. Berman – Tel Aviv University Journée d’études -- Temporalité: Typologie et Acquisition CNRS, Centre Pouchet, Paris - mars 2010

  2. OUTLINE OF TALK • Typological Features of Hebrew: Tense without Aspect • Early Child Grammar: Developmental strategies • Narratives -- Oral and Written: Anchor tense, Tense-shifting [Frogs] Setting the narrative scene [Fable] • Later Language Development: From Dichotomy to Diversity

  3. HEBREW TYPOLOGY5 Tense-Modal Forms, Full/Defective Consonantal Roots,in 3 (out of 7) binyan Verb Patterns

  4. INTERACTION WITH INFLECTIONAL AND DERIVATIONAL MORPHOLOGY Inflections: Rich system of SV Agreement marking for: Gender (Masculine > Feminine) Person (1st > 2nd > 3rd) Number (Singular > Plural) Derivational Morphology: Verb-Pattern alternations expressing valence-changing relations (causative, reflexive, reciprocal, middle voice, passive voice, etc.), e.g., šavar ~ nišbar ‘break’ Trans ~ Intrans šaxav ~ hiškiv ‘lie ~ lay down’ raxac ~ hitraxec ‘wash’ Trans ~ Reflexive

  5. MULTIFUNCTIONALITY[Berman, 2000, 2004; Berman & Neeman, 1994; Berman & Nir-Sagiv, 2004]

  6. MULTIFUNCTIONALITY[continued][Berman, 2000, 2004; Berman & Neeman, 1994; Berman & Nir-Sagiv, 2004]

  7. EARLY ACQUISITIONAL STRATEGIES: Form / Function Inflectional Variation I. Ambiguous “bare” stems (ber,pes,sim,xabek,šon) Multifunctional l- markedInfinitives (ledaber,lišon) Non-alternation of forms II. a. Infinitives: requests, orders b. Benoni ‘intermediate’ present tense: Reportative function, simple clauses III. Past:Immediate change-of-state verbs Later, in narrative contexts IV. Future: as Tense, not only Imperative V. Infinitives: Complements in Extended Preds: carix ledaber, roce le-exol, holex li-šon ‘must to-talk, want to-eat, go(es) to-sleep’

  8. LATER ACQUISITIONS Derivational Morphology Valence-changing Verb Patterns: • Initial non-alternation • Favoring of “basic” P1 pattern • Some use of active transitive P3, P5 patterns • Added reliance on intransitive P2, P4 patterns • Occasional use of passive patterns Complex Syntax: halax habayta ledaber ita ‘(He) went home to-talk to her’ tipes al ha-ec lexapes ta cfardéa ‘(He) climbed (on) the-tree to-look-forthe frog’

  9. ORAL (“Frog Story”) NARRATIVESAges 3, 4, 5, 9, adults • “Anchor tense” – evidence of narrative mode • Tense-shifting – from local to global • Background / Foreground distinctions: Past Tense ~ Benoni [Berman & Neeman, 1994] (no Imperfective ~ Perfective) • “Tense/Aspect shifting becomes discursively functionalonly once a dominant narrative tense is established in late preschool age, around 5 to 6 years”[Berman & Slobin, 1994: 601]

  10. NARRATIVE SETTINGS (Written Fables)Sandbank, A. (2004) “Writing a narrative text: A developmental and cross-linguistic study” Hebrew original: štey pradot halxu ba-dérex ‘two mules went=walked on-the-way’ nos’ot masa al gaban ‘bear(ing):Fm,Pl (a) load on their backs’ Spanish original: Caminaban dos mulas ‘walked:Impfv, Pl two mules’ llevando su carga ‘carrying their load’

  11. HEBREW STRATEGIES IN RECONSTRUCTED SETTINGS More stative than active verbs across age-groups relative to Spanish, e.g., • pa’am axat hayu štey pradot, hen halxu ba-ya’ar [Itay, 7;3] ‘once (there) were two mules, they walked in-the forest’ • sipurenu hu al štey pradot masa co’adot be-mas’an [Ido, adult] ‘our tale it [-is] about two pack mules marching with their load’

  12. ALTERNATION OF VERB h-l-x ‘go, walk’ Benoni: 1. štey pradot holxot ba-švil ‘Two mules go/are walking on the way’ Adverbs: 2. yom exad halxu štey pradot le-tiyul ‘One day went two mules for (a) walk’ Repetition: 3. hem halxu ve halxu ‘They walked and walked’

  13. VERBh-l-x ‘go, walk’ + REFLEXIVE DATIVE[thanks to Prof. Hava Shyldkrot] Reflexive Dative: 4. štey pradot halxu lahen ‘Two mules walked to-them(selves)’ =s'en allaient Reflexive Dative + Adverb: 5. halxu lahen štey pradot le’itan ‘’Walked to-them(selves) two mulesat-leisure’ = s'en allaient lentement Verb-Pattern Alternation: 6. štey pradot hithalxu lahen ba-derex ‘Two mules walked-to-fro to-them(selves) on-road’ = se promenaient 7. pa’am hilxu lahen štey pradot be-derex ha-melex ‘Once walked-about to-them(selves) two mules on the royal road’ = s'en sont allées

  14. RHETORICAL OPTIONS • Alternative means of expression • Non-grammaticized • Hence non-obligatory • Individual stylistic choice • Maturely literate use of language • Yields rich temporal texture

  15. LATER LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT: PERSONAL-EXPERIENCE NARRATIVES Ages 9, 13, 17, adults [Berman & Nir-Sagiv, 2004]

  16. LATER LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENTVerb-Pattern Alternations • Age-related increase in variety of 7 patterns: Children’s texts confined mainly to 2 or 3, adolescents -- wider variety, adults – most • Decrease with age in basic P1 pattern (activity verbs, transitive and intransitive), markedly in narratives and among adults • Concomitant increase in use of two typically intransitive (change-of-state, middle voice) patterns: children – under 10%, adolescents -- 20%–25%, adults -- 1/3 of all verbs • Reflects shift to more patient-oriented construal of events • Effect of genre: intransitive patterns more in expository than narrative texts

  17. LATER LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENTEXTENDED TEXTS: SUMMARY[Berman 2008; Berman & Nir-Sagiv 2007; Reilly et al 2002] Early Inter-Genre Distinctiveness Narratives (Personal-experience): Past tense, Perfective aspect Expository discussions: Extended Present + Irrealis (modals, future) Subsequent Shifts From temporal dichotomy to divergence From agent to patient orientation From deontic to epistemic modality

  18. NARRATIVE TEMPORALITY • As in all domains, age-related variety of means • Clearer distinction between “story-time” / “story-telling time” • SettingandCodaas privileged discourse sites for background, generalizations • Effect of genre – narrative / expository • Effect of typology – Hebrew reliance on verb-pattern morphology

  19. WRAP-UP Discourse context Typological imperatives Developmental route

  20. DISCOURSE CONTEXT • Discourse-embedded use of language: beyond the isolated sentence • Parallel data-bases for cross-linguistic comparisons: Hickmann, 2003; frog-story research, “Spencer” project, Sandbank’s fables • Different (sub)genres ~ rhetorical modes Evaluation – personal-experience accounts Setting and coda – in fiction, fables Narration / description – encyclopedic texts Expository discussion – propositional attitudes

  21. IMPACT TARGET-LANGUAGE TYPOLOGY[Berman, 1993; Berman & Neeman, 1994; Berman & Slobin,1994; Kupersmitt, 2006; Sandbank, 2004] • Language-Specific Forms: Grammaticized T/M/A (English, Spanish) • Narrative Discourse Functions: Foreground/ Background: Local / Global Agent-Patient Orientation Introducing and Concluding Narratives • Hebrew-Specific Strategies: Tensealternations -- Present vs Past Valencyalternations --Verb-Pattern Morphology VerbSemantics (Aktionsarten) halxu ~ pas’u Copulas, existentials, stative predicates

  22. TYPOLOGY • Children – like adults – make do with and increasingly exploit the repertoire of expressive devices available in their language • Where distinctions not grammatically marked, hence less accessible, alternative options may be sought elsewhere, as in verb semantics (stative ~ dynamic) or voice and valency alternations • In latter case, not grammatical imperative but rhetorical options, reflecting expressive richness in temporality as in other domains (e.g., clause-combining)

  23. DEVELOPMENT • From “child speaker” to “nativespeaker” to “proficient speaker-writer” [Slobin, 1990, 2004] • Early emergence of different forms for marking grammatical T/M/A • Increased bi-directional expansion of form/function relations • Increasing variety and flexibility in using linguistic forms for “textual temporality” • Later, school-age language: long developmental route “from emergence to mastery” [Berman, 2004]

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