134x Filetype PDF File size 1.76 MB Source: clt.uab.cat
EARLY ACQUISITION OF WORD ORDER: EVIDENCE FROM HINDI-URDU AND MALAYALAM MAYA LEELA Adoctoral dissertation submitted for the degree of Philosophiæ Doctor in Cognitive Science and Language Supervised by Dr. Anna Gavarró Centre de Lingüística Teòrica Departament de Filologia Catalana Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Maya Leela: Early Acquisition of Word Order: Evidence from Hindi-Urdu and Malayalam © July 2016 Dedicated to Unniyamma. ABSTRACT Theacquisitionofwordorderintwounder-researchedlanguages,Hindi- Urdu and Malayalam, is explored under the assumptions of Univer- sal Grammar and Very Early Parameter Setting. The acquisition of the OV order was tested through an experiment that was conducted on 19-month old native Hindi-Urdu infants using a combination of the preferential-lookingmode,theweird-word-orderparadigm,andpseudo- verbs. The results showed that the infants parsed the grammatical SOV order and did not parse the ungrammatical VSO order, indicating that the parameter responsible for the OV order was set at 19 months of age. The acquisition of scrambling was investigated by means of three ex- periments in Malayalam speaking children. The first experiment tested the acquisition of the canonical word order SOV, and the scrambled non-canonical word orders OSV, OVS, and SVO, with no discourse con- text, through a picture matching task in children aged 3 to 5-years-old. Theexperimental results showed above chance performance in the com- prehension of the canonical and most scrambled word orders by all age groups. The second experiment tested the acquisition of the canon- ical and the non-canonical word orders with a discourse context, in an act-out task in 2-year-old children. The results revealed at ceiling performance by all children. The third experiment, run with 2-year-old children, tested the acquisition of canonical and scrambled sentences with an anaphor. All children performed above chance indicating that anaphor resolution is adult like. Usage-based theories and the impli- cations of the theory of Relativized Minimality in child grammar are critically analyzed using the results of the Hindi-Urdu and Malayalam experiments. The evidence gathered is in support of the fact that adult- like competence of abstract syntax is present within child grammar at early ages and that movement appears to be adult-like. iv
no reviews yet
Please Login to review.