Children's verbalizations of motion events in German

Recent studies in language acquisition have paid much attention to linguistic diversity and have begun to show that language properties may have an impact on how children construct and organize their representations. With respect to motion events, Talmy (2000) has proposed a typological distinction between satellite-framed (S) languages that encode PATH in satellites, leaving the verb root free for the expression of MANNER, and verb-framed (V) languages that encode PATH in the verb, requiring MANNER to be expressed in the periphery of the sentence. This distinction has lead to the hypothesis (Slobin 1996) that MANNER should be more salient for children learning S-languages, who should have no difficulty combining it with PATH, as compared to those learning V-languages. This hypothesis was tested in a corpus elicited from German children and adults who had to verbalize short animated cartoons showing motion events, and the results are compared with previous analyses of French and English corpora elicited in an identical situation (Hickmann et al. 2009). As predicted, and as previously found for English, German children from three years on systematically express both MANNER (in the verb root) and PATH (in particles), in sharp contrast to French children, who rarely package MANNER and PATH together. These results suggest that, when they are engaged in communication, children construct spatial representations in accordance with the particular properties of their mother tongue. Future research is necessary to determine the extent to which cross-linguistic differences in production may reflect deeper differences in the allocation of attention and in conceptual organization

Children's verbalizations of motion events in German

Recent studies in language acquisition have paid much attention to linguistic diversity and have begun to show that language properties may have an impact on how children construct and organize their representations. With respect to motion events, Talmy (2000) has proposed a typological distinction between satellite-framed (S) languages that encode PATH in satellites, leaving the verb root free for the expression of MANNER, and verb-framed (V) languages that encode PATH in the verb, requiring MANNER to be expressed in the periphery of the sentence. This distinction has lead to the hypothesis (Slobin 1996) that MANNER should be more salient for children learning S-languages, who should have no difficulty combining it with PATH, as compared to those learning V-languages. This hypothesis was tested in a corpus elicited from German children and adults who had to verbalize short animated cartoons showing motion events, and the results are compared with previous analyses of French and English corpora elicited in an identical situation (Hickmann et al. 2009). As predicted, and as previously found for English, German children from three years on systematically express both MANNER (in the verb root) and PATH (in particles), in sharp contrast to French children, who rarely package MANNER and PATH together. These results suggest that, when they are engaged in communication, children construct spatial representations in accordance with the particular properties of their mother tongue. Future research is necessary to determine the extent to which cross-linguistic differences in production may reflect deeper differences in the allocation of attention and in conceptual organization

The impact of language-specific factors in first language acquisition (the expression of motion in French and German)

Typological approaches show striking differences in the morphosyntax and semantics of the language of motion that have implications for language acquisition presently examined in psycholinguistic research. This thesis examines the expression of voluntary and caused motion events by German and French children and adults. The results concerning the adults clearly show the expected typological patterns in these two language types (satellite- vs. verb-framed). In German, semantic components (CAUSE, MANNER and PATH) are systematically expressed in compact structures. In French, however, lexicalization patterns vary strongly because the simultaneous expression of multiple semantic components requires subordinate elements such as gerunds. From a developmental point of view, children follow the same patterns: German children from six years on use compact syntactic patterns typical of their mother tongue enabling them to encode most of the time all necessary semantic components; in contrast, French children up to ten years express less information because they have difficulties producing the complex structures that are necessary to encode multiple semantic components. In addition to these language-specific determinants, the data also clearly show developmental progressions in both languages, showing the impact of general developmental determinants.L étude de l expression du mouvement dans un cadre typologique révèle des différences importantes dans la morphosyntaxe et la sémantique de l expression du mouvement, dont les recherches en psycholinguistique commencent à étudier les implications pour l acquisition du langage. Cette thèse examine l expression du mouvement volontaire et provoqué chez des enfants et adultes français et allemands. Les résultats concernant les adultes montrent clairement l utilisation des constructions typiques attendues pour chaque type de langue (langues à satellites- vs. à cadrage verbal). En allemand, les composantes sémantiques (CAUSE, MANIERE et TRAJECTOIRE) sont systématiquement exprimées dans des structures compactes. En revanche, les constructions sont très variables en français car l expression simultanée de composantes multiples nécessite l utilisation d éléments subordonnés tels que les gérondifs. D un point de vue développemental, les enfants suivent des parcours différents : en allemand, ils utilisent à partir de six ans des constructions compactes typiques de leur langue qui leur permettent d exprimer le plus souvent toutes les composantes sémantiques nécessaires ; par contre, jusqu à dix ans, les enfants français montrent de grandes difficultés à produire des énoncés complexes nécessaires pour exprimer plusieurs informations simultanément. Hormis ces facteurs typologiques, les données montrent également une progression avec l âge dans les deux langues, montrant l impact de facteurs cognitifs genéraux.ST DENIS-BU PARIS8 (930662101) / SudocSudocFranceF

Lexicalization and Grammaticalization in the Verb and the Verbal Network: First Language Acquisition

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