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Particle placement in early child language. A case study

Particle placement in early child language. A case study. Holger Diessel University of Jena holger.diessel @uni-jena.de http://www.holger-diessel.de/. Verb-particle construction. He looked up the number. (2) He looked the number up. (3) He walked up the hill.

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Particle placement in early child language. A case study

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  1. Particle placement in early child language. A case study Holger Diessel University of Jena holger.diessel@uni-jena.de http://www.holger-diessel.de/

  2. Verb-particle construction He looked up the number. (2) He looked the number up. (3) He walked up the hill. (4) *He walked the hill up.

  3. Verb-particle construction Bolinger 1971; Fraser 1974, 1976; Bock 1977; Dixon 1982; Chen 1986; Hawkins 1994; Peters 1999; Wasow 2002; Dehé et al. 2002; Gries 1999, 2003

  4. NP-type (1) He put itdown. (2) He put the ball down. (3) *He put down it. (4) He put down the ball.

  5. Length (1) He looked the numberup. (2) He looked the number of his neighbour in the yellow pagesup.

  6. Complexity (1) He put the ball with the blue stripesdown. (2) He put the ball that Sue had given himdown.

  7. Meaning (1) He pushed the chair away. (2) He ate up his lunch. (3) He turned on the TV.

  8. Information structure • (1) What did she do with the ball? • -> She picked the ball up. • What did she pick up? • -> She picked upthe ball.

  9. Definiteness (1) I turn the light on. (2) I turn ona light.

  10. Stress (1) *Pick up him. (2) Pick up HIM (not her).

  11. Directional PP (1) Peter put the cup back. (2) Peter put back the cup. (3) Peter put the cup backon the table. (4) Peter put back the cup on the table.

  12. Research question Does the positioning of the particle in child language vary with the same factors as in adult language? Do children use the two particle positions productively?

  13. Data collection

  14. Data collection Attested: on, off, back, away, in, out, down, over, around, up Not attested: against, upon, …

  15. Data collection turn up hill / up hill . then wake up up the wall . up . Eve stand up Mommy stool . I pick up . up wall . bobbing up an(d) down . I covered it up . well this is up in the house .

  16. Data collection turn up hill / up hill . then wake up up the wall. up . Eve stand up Mommy stool . I pick up . up wall . bobbing up an(d) down . I covered it up . well this is up in the house .

  17. Types of constructions (17) He picked me up. [Transitive VPC] (18) He walked away. [Intransitive VPC] (19) I am back. [Predicative VPC] (20a) Shoes on. [Fragmented VPC] (20b) Down! [Fragmented VPC] (21) Put it on the table. [PP]

  18. Types of constructions

  19. Types of constructions

  20. Types of constructions

  21. Types of constructions

  22. Hypothetical example

  23. Hypothetical example

  24. Hypothetical example

  25. 60 50,8 50 42,7 40 transitive intransitive 26,7 predicative 30 23,8 fragmented 18,7 prepositional 20 15,3 10,7 10 4,7 1,7 0 0 1;9–2;0 2;0-2;3 age Development of construction types

  26. Construction fragments (1) Down. (2) Shoes on. (3) Me up. (4) Hat off.

  27. Construction fragments • The particles basically function as predicates. • Children acquire the meaning of the transitive VPC before they master its form.

  28. Particles

  29. Verbs

  30. Omitted object NPs

  31. Predictor variables • Length of object • Complexity of object • NP Type • Meaning of particle • Definiteness • Directional PP

  32. Dependent variables Two levels: • Construction 1 V_P_NP • Construction 2 V_NP_P

  33. Coding

  34. Coding (1) You put on lipstick on. [Eve 2;1] (2) I do it turn on the light on. [Peter 2;1] (3) Taking off one my roller skates off [Peter 2;3] (4) Turn on a light off. [Peter 2;0]

  35. Raw frequency

  36. Meaning • He pushed the chair away. Spatial • He turned on the TV. Non-spatial

  37. Meaning

  38. Statistical hypothesis testing • Null hypothesis: There is no significant difference between the two groups. • Alternative hypothesis: There is a significant difference between the two groups.

  39. -square

  40. Length • Pick him up. 1 word • Pull this thing up. 2 words • He wiping up that I spilled. 3 words

  41. Length (2 (2)=57.56; p<.001) • Pick him up. 1 word • Pull this thing up. 2 words • He wiping up that I spilled. 3 words

  42. Complexity (2(2)=29.16; p<.004) • He put the balldown. Simple • Pulls Eve sleeveup Intermediate • He wiping upthat I spilled. Complex

  43. Complexity (2(1) = 3.25; p > .102)

  44. NP type (2(2)=30.51; p<.001) • He picked itup. Third person pronoun • Put thatdown. Other pronouns • Put my glasseson. Lexical NPs

  45. Definiteness (2(2) = 28.85; p < .001) • Put the top on. Definite determiner • Picked up a ball. Indefinite determiner • Taking these off. No determiner

  46. Definiteness (2(1) = 3.076; p > .094) • Put the top on. Definite determiner • Picked up a ball. Indefinite determiner • Taking these off. No determiner

  47. Directional PP (2(1)=.849; p<.622) • Put the hat away. No PP • Put the hat down on the table. PP

  48. Interim summary Four of the six factors that correlate with particle placement in adult language are also significant in early child language: • Length of object • Complexity of object • NP type of object • Meaning of particle

  49. Multifactorial analysis complexity length V_NP_P meaning NP type V_P_NP PP definiteness

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