Acquisition of Russian nominal derivation in monolingualism and bilingualism

The case study focuses on the acquisition of Russian derivational morphology in terms of nouns by monolingual (Russian) and simultaneous bilingual (Russian German) children of early age. The results are based on analysis of representative natural longitudinal recordings transcribed and stored in CHAT format using the CHILDES system. The first patterns and methods of nominal word-formation along with the morphemes used by children are revealed. The properties of word-formation that indicate the productive use of the nominal derivatives, such as the presence of simplex–derivative pairs, chains and word families, as well as occasionalisms are noted. The similarities and differences in the acquisition of nominal derivatives, including their semantic domains, in mono- and bilingual situations are discussed.Keywords: nouns, word-formation, derivatives, simplexes, compounding, Russian, Germa

The Early Expression of (Un)certainty in Typologically Different Languages: Evidence from Russian, Estonian and Hebrew

The article discusses the early means of expressing the epistemic notions of certainty and uncertainty (epistemic markers) in three typologically-different languages – Russian, Estonian and Hebrew. The results are based on an analysis of naturalistic speech samples of 9 typically-developing monolingual children, recorded from ages 1;3 to 6;2. The emergence of epistemic markers in child speech is compared to child-directed speech. Acquisition of means of expressing epistemic modality starts to develop at the end of the second year of life with the marking of uncertainty. The findings indicate an expansion of epistemic evaluation from objective situations in the physical world to the mental world. A comparison of child speech with the input reveals that both the frequency of a marker in the target system and the degree of epistemic semantics influence its emergence and development. Differences between languages mostly concern the frequency of usage of epistemic markers and the degree of epistemic evaluation children start with

Communication with diminutives to young children vs. pets in German, Italian, Lithuanian, Russian, and English

This contribution is dedicated to Steven Gillis with whom we have collaborated since the nineties within the “Crosslinguistic Project on Pre- and Protomorphology in Language Acquisition” on both child speech (CS) and child-directed speech (CDS) and also about the development of diminutives (DIMs). We investigate parallels in the use of DIMs and of hypocoristics (HYPs) between CDS and pet-directed speech (PDS), whereas CS is only marginally dealt with. When relevant, also adult-directed speech (ADS), written or oral (especially from electronic corpora, wherever available) will be compared. The presuppositions of this investigation will be stated at the beginning of the Introduction (§ 1). This involves several innovations (beyond descriptions of new data), when compared with existing literature, relevant to theoretical and typological problem areas. We will show that also in DIMs and HYPs used in CDS and PDS semantics only plays a partial or even marginal role when using more DIMs to communicate with young children and young and/or small pets, because it is more relevant that both younger and smaller pets are emotionally closer to us, which is again a pragmatic factor. In regard to language typology, we will apply our concepts of morphological richness and productivity, as argued for and supported in our previous publications, to CDS and PDS and show that richer and more productive patterns of DIM formation of a language also have a typological impact on more frequent and more productive use both in CDS and PDS. We will also apply our concepts of grading morphosemantic transparency/opacity, as argued for and supported in our previous publications, and we start to show, as al- ready shown for CS, that also in CDS towards young children (and similarly in PDS) more morphosemantically transparent DIMs are used than in ADS. This is also connected to their predominantly pragmatic meanings in CDS and PDS (obviously not exclusively pragmatic as in early CS). The languages and authors were selected according to who among the participants in the Crosslinguistic Project on Pre- and Protomorphology in Language Acquisition had CDS and PDS available, plus Elisa Mattiello who has collected English and Italian PDS data.Dit artikel gaat over het gebruik van verkleinwoorden en koosnamen (hypocoristics) in twee taalregisters: taal gericht tot kinderen (child-directed speech, CDS) en taal gericht tot huisdieren (pet-directed speech, PDS). De semantiek van verkleinwoorden blijkt een minder grote rol te spelen dan de pragmatiek: de emotionele nabijheid van kinderen en huisdieren. De studie, waarin vijf talen worden vergeleken, verkent ook de typolo- gie: de morfologische rijkdom van verkleinwoorden in een taal beïnvloedt de produc- tie.Daarnaast speelt de semantische transparantie van verkleinwoorden crosslinguïs- tisch een rol. In CDS en PDS worden meer transparante verkleinwoorden gebruikt

CHILD NOMINAL DERIVATION AND PARENTAL INPUT: EVIDENCE FROM MORPHOLOGY-RICH RUSSIAN

The purpose of current article is to describe the early phases of first language acquisition of nominal derivatives in morphology-rich Russian approaching an ideal inflecting-fusional language type. The results are based on the naturalistic longitudinal observations of two typically developing monolingual children (1;5–3;0) growing up in middle socio-economic status families (33 hours of recorded spontaneous speech). It has been revealed that derivation morphology, viz. affixation, starts to develop early and precedes compounding. Within nouns, suffixation is the main method of word-formation. Prefixation and mixed methods are rare. Although nouns can be formed from almost any grammatical classes, they are mainly formed from nouns in child speech. Early compounds can be described as right-headed endocentric ones where their main component is a noun or a verb. The preference for certain patterns and models rarely differs in child speech corpora. Both children have similar development of semantic categories and only a few innovations. The morpheme and semantic (cognitive) complexity of nominal derivatives in child speech increase by the end of the observation period. The influence of parental input is significant for the mechanisms of derivation morphology acquisition. This is confirmed by the presence of a positive correlation for both lemmas and tokens of nominal derivatives. The most frequent patterns in parental input are acquired by a child earlier

Epistemic modality in the speech of Russian young children and adolescents [Episteemiline modaalsus vene keelt omandavate väikelastejanoortekõnes]

This paper considers the early and later stages of the acquisition of epistemic modality, focusing on certainty and uncertainty, and such basic forms of their expression as parenthetical modal words (e.g. navernoe ‘probably’, možet byt’ ‘maybe’, konečno ‘of course’, dejstvitel’no ‘really’), along with sentential complement constructions (e.g. I dumaju/sčitaju, (čto) p ‘I think/believe (that) p’), which are closely connected in semantics and functions. Epistemic and – more broadly – subjective (modus) markers are interpreted as linguistic tools, conveying the propositional attitudes and feelings of the speaker/writer to a given state of affairs. Sequences in the development of epistemic repertoire, the epistemic density of spoken speech and the written texts of Russian children and adolescents, as well as the functions performed by epistemic markers, both at utterance level and text level, are discussed.Keywords: (Un)certainty, propositional attitudes, epistemic markers, early and late language development, oral and written language, Russia

CHILD NOMINAL DERIVATION AND PARENTAL INPUT: EVIDENCE FROM MORPHOLOGY-RICH RUSSIAN

The purpose of current article is to describe the early phases of first language acquisition of nominal derivatives in morphology-rich Russian approaching an ideal inflecting-fusional language type. The results are based on the naturalistic longitudinal observations of two typically developing monolingual children (1;5–3;0) growing up in middle socio-economic status families (33 hours of recorded spontaneous speech). It has been revealed that derivation morphology, viz. affixation, starts to develop early and precedes compounding. Within nouns, suffixation is the main method of word-formation. Prefixation and mixed methods are rare. Although nouns can be formed from almost any grammatical classes, they are mainly formed from nouns in child speech. Early compounds can be described as right-headed endocentric ones where their main component is a noun or a verb. The preference for certain patterns and models rarely differs in child speech corpora. Both children have similar development of semantic categories and only a few innovations. The morpheme and semantic (cognitive) complexity of nominal derivatives in child speech increase by the end of the observation period. The influence of parental input is significant for the mechanisms of derivation morphology acquisition. This is confirmed by the presence of a positive correlation for both lemmas and tokens of nominal derivatives. The most frequent patterns in parental input are acquired by a child earlier

Lithuanian and Russian child-directed speech : why do we ask young children so many questions?

Reikšminiai žodžiai: Kalbos raida; Kalbos įvaldymas; Pokalbio strategija, rusų kalba; Pokalbių strategija; Psicholingvistika; Rusų kalba; Vaikų tiesioginė kalba; Į vaiką nukreipta kalba; CDS; Child-directed speech; Conversational strategy; Language acquisition; Lithuanian; Psycholinguistics; Russian; Russian languageThe main objective of the study was to identify and compare the variety and distribution of interrogatives in Lithuanian and Russian child-directed speech (CDS) from the perspective of the functional and structural characteristics of questions addressed to young children. The analysis was based on the longitudinal data of two monolingual typically developing children, a Lithuanian girl (2;0–2;8) and a Russian boy (2;0–2;8). The transcribed corpus of conversations between the children and their parents was annotated for multipurpose automatic linguistic analysis, using tools of the program CHILDES (Child Language Data Exchange System). During the investigation, the functional and structural features of parental interrogatives were analysed. After the analysis of conversations between the children and their parents, the following can be stated: in both Lithuanian and Russian CDS, interrogatives are more numerous than imperatives, statements and exclamations. The main objective of the study was to identify and compare the variety and distribution of interrogatives in Lithuanian and Russian child-directed speech (CDS) from the perspective of the functional and structural characteristics of questions addressed to young children. The analysis was based on the longitudinal data of two monolingual typically developing children, a Lithuanian girl (2;0–2;8) and a Russian boy (2;0–2;8). The transcribed corpus of conversations between the children and their parents was annotated for multipurpose automatic linguistic analysis, using tools of the program CHILDES (Child Language Data Exchange System). During the investigation, the functional and structural features of parental interrogatives were analysed. After the analysis of conversations between the children and their parents, the following can be stated: in both Lithuanian and Russian CDS, interrogatives are more numerous than imperatives, statements and exclamations

Acquisition of noun derivation in Estonian and Russian L1

Acquisition of derivation is not a well-studied area in first language research and a comparative approach to the acquisition of derivation in different languages doesn’t exist. There is no information on how a child acquires derivation in a language with a rich and regular system of derivational patterns, or in a language where derivation is productive, but the system of derivational patterns is opaque. According to general ideas of complexity in a language, the child should start to use simplex stems first and, only after that, complex ones, that is, complexity should increase in the course of acquisition. Our paper is intended to address these issues, based on longitudinal child data from typologically different languages, Estonian and Russian. The results revealed significant differences in the acquisition of noun derivation in the two languages under observation. The system of noun derivation is acquired at a faster pace in Russian, while Estonian children have far fewer noun derivatives in their speech and they use different derivation suffixes with less regularity. Even so, the so-called building block model may be applied for both languages only partially

Lithuanian and Russian child-directed speech : why do we ask young children so many questions?

The main objective of the study was to identify and compare the variety and distribution of interrogatives in Lithuanian and Russian child-directed speech (CDS) from the perspective of the functional and structural characteristics of questions addressed to young children. The analysis was based on the longitudinal data of two monolingual typically developing children, a Lithuanian girl (2;0–2;8) and a Russian boy (2;0–2;8). The transcribed corpus of conversations between the children and their parents was annotated for multipurpose automatic linguistic analysis, using tools of the program CHILDES (Child Language Data Exchange System). During the investigation, the functional and structural features of parental interrogatives were analysed. After the analysis of conversations between the children and their parents, the following can be stated: in both Lithuanian and Russian CDS, interrogatives are more numerous than imperatives, statements and exclamations. A number of parental interrogatives are used (similar to natural adult conversation) as requests for information, clarifications of incomprehensible utterances or demonstrations of disagreement. Despite this, the majority of them appear to be used for a very specific purpose (e.g., negative evidence) and in specific forms (e.g., repetitions, reformulations or corrections), which would be inappropriate and/or redundant in a natural adult conversation.With the exception of a few differences, interrogatives in both Lithuanian and Russian CDS are generally used for the same purpose, and their forms and structures seem to be similar or even identical. This leads us to the conclusion that a correlation can be identified between parental conversational strategy and the type of language, i.e., adults speaking typologically, culturally and geographically close languages demonstrate the same or similar strategy of conversation with their childrenLituanistikos katedraVytauto Didžiojo universiteta