Version v0.8

Vortrag: Pleonastic constructions in child (directed) speech

Project overview

Spatial expressions in German child language have been investigated in a number of studies (e.g., Harr 2012). However, a less common lexicalization pattern for local/directional marking has not been topic to research in greater detail, namely pleonastic constructions (henceforth: PLEO). They can be defined as constructions with two semantically congruent adpositional slots with PATH/GROUND information (underlined in the example), such as in: sie gehen in das Haus rein. PLEO have been analyzed mainly regarding their argument structure (Olsen 1996) and almost exclusively in the context of non-natural data. This project aims at filling a gap by investigating 1) frequency and 2) function of PLEO in spontaneous speech from a usage-based perspective, focusing on its role in children’s acquisition of spatial language. The study connects to research suggesting PLEO as precursor structures in children’s development of the conceptually and syntactically challenging German localization system (Bryant 2012). Preliminary results revealed an overall low usage frequency of PLEO in both, children’s and adults’ data. Furthermore, indications for a supporting function were found on a semantic-conceptual, but not on a syntactic level.

Data and method

The analysis is based on longitudinal data from 3 child-adult dyads. In a first step, a whole-corpus approach was applied in order to determine the frequency of PLEO in child speech and adults’ input. Then, for revealing insights into contextual and functional features of PLEO and following a variationist design, all PLEO were extracted and coded for semantic and structural information. However, several methodological aspects had to be taken into account: First, the three sub-corpora differ in size and measurement points, which challenges comparisons between them. Furthermore, the reliability of occurrence rates is smaller when phenomena are rarely encountered in a data set (Behrens 2008). This also complicates the objective to trace the frequency of PLEO over time since a random segmentation of the developmental data in for example 6-month-time-windows might not adequately capture infrequent forms.1 Moreover, the disposition of spoken language with commonly extraposed PP (e.g., er ist drin im Haus) leads to the question whether syntactic variants count equally as PLEO. Finally, the overall aim of detecting supporting functions of PLEO is challenged by their formal overlap with other constructions (PP), making a clear-cut boundary between construction types difficult.

References

Behrens, Heike (ed.) (2008). Corpora in language acquisition research. History, methods, perspectives. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Bryant, Doreen (2012). Lokalisierungsausdrücke im Erst- und Zweitspracherwerb. Baltmannsweiler: Schneider.
Harr, Anne-Katharina (2012). Language-specific factors in first language acquisition. The expression of motion events in French and German. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Olsen, Susan (1996). Pleonastische Direktionale. In: Harras, G.; Bierwisch, M. (Hrsg.), Wenn die Semantik arbeitet, 303–329.

Info

Tag: 24.09.2021
Anfangszeit: 10:30
Dauer: 00:40
Raum: Don Giovanni

Sprache: en

Links:

Gleichzeitige Events