Children’s Comprehension and Production of Locative Expressions

1993 ◽  
pp. 159-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morag L. Donaldson ◽  
Katrina Laing
Keyword(s):  
Locative Expressions

Lexical Arguments and Information Types in Malay Oral Narratives

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-97
Author(s):  
Siaw-Fong Chung
Keyword(s):  
Information Flow ◽  
The Other ◽  
Discourse Structure ◽  
Oral Narratives ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
The Core ◽  
New Information ◽  
Intonation Units ◽  
Locative Expressions ◽  
Transitive Verbs

The analysis in this paper was based on five Malay narratives of the “frog story”. In these narratives, the types of lexical arguments and their relations with information flow and topic continuity were analyzed. It was found that most narrators used one lexical argument in telling the frog story (e.g., sarang itu jatuh “the nest fell”). About 60% of the verbs in the narratives contained one lexical argument only. Some transitive verbs that usually require the presence of both lexical arguments were used with one lexical argument only when produced in speech (e.g., dia mencari ø di merata tempat “he searched (for) ø everywhere”). Objects were sometimes omitted, as their meanings could be predicted from previous context. Despite the omission of objects, transitive constructions still prevailed in the stories. The most frequently occurring lexical arguments were objects (O) (37%), followed by intransitive subjects (S) (29%) and transitive subjects (A) (27%). In addition, our results showed that new information in Malay was usually allocated to the core argument of the object and to locative expressions, indicating that most of the new information appeared at the end of a clause. On the other hand, topic continuity was held between the subjects in two continuous intonation units. This clear-cut division of discourse functions in the heads and tails of constructions was consistently found in the five pieces of narration. This observation not only showed how ideas could be continued in Malay oral narratives, but also contributes to the study of discourse structure in Malay.

scholarly journals Static locative expressions in Amharic

2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Gashaw Arutie Asaye
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Category ◽  
Topological Relation ◽  
Motion Event ◽  
Type Ia ◽  
Locative Expressions ◽  
A Site

Abstract This paper describes the semantics of static locative expressions in Amharic, particularly the variety spoken in Godʒdʒam. The analysis shows that the semantic category of a site subsumed under Path is exclusively expressed by an adposition. The adpositions can be specific and general locatives. The specific locatives show a specific type of topological relation (for instance, verticality as in tatʃtʃ ‘below, under,’ horizontality as in fit ‘front,’ containment as in wɨst’ ‘in’) between figure and ground entities, but not the general locatives. Besides, static positional verbs encode the conflation of the fact of locatedness with a manner of the positioning of a figure. Based on Talmy’s Motion event typology, the present study has identified that Amharic uses a satellite-framed pattern in static locative constructions exclusively. Moreover, based on Ameka & Levinson’s typology of locative predication, Amharic can be classified under type Ia where a language uses a dummy verb in basic locative construction.

The development of locative expressions in English, Italian, Serbo-Croatian and Turkish

1979 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 529-545 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith R. Johnston ◽  
Dan I. Slobin
Keyword(s):  
General Pattern ◽  
Conceptual Ability ◽  
General Order ◽  
Locative Expressions ◽  
Linguistic Means

ABSTRACTThe ability of children between the ages of 2; 0 and 4; 8 to produce locative pre- or postpositions was investigated in English, Italian, Serbo-Croatian, and Turkish. Across languages, there was a general order of development: (1) ‘in’, ‘on’, ‘under’, and ‘beside’, (2) ‘between’, ‘back’ and ‘front’ with featured objects, (3) ‘back’ and ‘front’ with non-featured objects. This order of development is discussed in terms of nonlinguistic growth in conceptual ability. Language-specific differences in the general pattern of development are discussed in terms of a number of linguistic factors which may facilitate or retard the child's discovery of the linguistic means for encoding concepts.

More on the acquisition of locative prepositions: an analysis of Hebrew data

1979 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 547-562 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esther Dromi
Keyword(s):  
Special Reference ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Sectional Study ◽  
Appropriate Use ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Linguistic Complexity ◽  
Locative Expressions ◽  
Locative Prepositions

ABSTRACTThe use of locative prepositions by Hebrew-speaking children aged 2; 0–3; 0, was investigated in a cross-sectional study. Thirty kibbutz children served as subjects. The spontaneous utterances of each child were analyzed and scored for the frequency with which the child supplied obligatory contexts for locative expressions as well as for appropriate use. The findings suggest the following order of acquisition: be- ‘in’; le- ‘to’; le+ pronominal suffixes ‘to’ (dative); al ‘on’; le ‘to’ (directional); mi- ‘from’; al-yad ‘beside’; meaxorey ‘behind’; mitaxat le- ‘under’. The role of formal linguistic complexity in determining that order is discussed. Special reference is made to the contrast between enclitic prefix prepositions and separate word prepositions that express the same locative notions.

scholarly journals The concept of space in Classic Mayan

2021 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
pp. 33-59
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Hamann
Keyword(s):  
Family Relationships ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Frames Of Reference ◽  
Historical Records ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Historical Source ◽  
The World ◽  
Locative Expressions ◽  
Event Based

The ancient Maya civilization left us a significant corpus of glyphic inscriptions, a large portion of which consists of historical records, meticulously dating events and time elapsed between them – births, accessions and deaths of rulers, wars, ceremonies, visits and family relationships between royal dynasties, etc. (see Martin and Grube 2008). Time being such a prominent topic, the texts contain a number of time-related terms, including (1) event-based expressions (ti ik’ k’in ‘at black day / at dusk / at night’; i pas ‘then at dawn’; si[h]yajiiy ‘(X years) after s/he was born’), (2) conceptualizations which are potentially and likely spatial in nature as they appear both in locative expressions and temporal adverbials (preposition ti ‘in/on/at/with/as; the verb uht ‘to happen’ and deictic verb hul ‘to arrive’; tu paat + date ‘on the back of / after), and finally, (3) non-spatial metaphorical conceptualizations, such as reification and personification of the units of time. Sweetser and Gaby (2017, 626) notice that “crosslinguistically, the single primary historical source for temporal vocabulary is spatial vocabulary” and it is an overwhelming tendency observed in numerous languages around the world. Levinson and Wilkins (2006c, 6) also pose an interesting question how much spatial information is coded in language and how much is inferred from context and our knowledge of the world around us. The concept of space being so basic and significant, surprisingly little has been published on how space was conceptualized in Maya texts of the Classic Period (250-950 CE). Thus, this paper investigates how the domain of space is coded in Classic Mayan, a grapholect recorded in Maya glyphic inscriptions, how the language expresses relationships of containment, contiguity and adjacency, the manner and path of motion events, as well as available frames of reference to locate objects which are separated in space.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document