On the acquisition of potential verbs and conjugation types of verbs in Japanese

Abstract It is well-known that children whose native language is Japanese first begin vocalizing potential verbs at about the age of 2 years and continue to utter ungrammatical forms which are not used in adults’ speech as well as correct ones until approximately at the age of 5 years when their acquisition of potential verbs completes, with virtually no erroneous uses observed. Interestingly enough, the process of the acquisition of potential verbs proceeds in a manner parallel with that of causative/inchoative alternation. In this study, based on children’s natural speech data reported in previous research, we argue that the approach put forth in Fuji, Hashimoto, and Murasugi (2008a. “A VP-shell analysis for the undergeneration and the overgeneration in the acquisition of Japanese causatives and potentials.” Nanzan Linguistics 4: 21–41; 2008b. “VP-shell analysis for the acquisition of Japanese potentials.” Nanzan Linguistics: Special Issue 3(2): 65–102) is not empirically valid in that it cannot correctly predict changes in morphological patterns of potential verbs uttered by children along the period of language acquisition. Moreover, in the course of our discussion, it is shown that the acquisition process of the potential morpheme e by children can be identified as that of (in)transitive morpheme e which forms the class of mono-grade vowel-ending verbs.

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Intra-individual variation in adults and children: measuring and conceptualizing individual dialect–standard repertoires

Linguistics Vanguard ◽

10.1515/lingvan-2020-0032 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 7 (s2) ◽

Author(s):

Irmtraud Kaiser ◽

Andrea Ender

Keyword(s):

Language Acquisition ◽

Individual Variation ◽

The Other ◽

Standard Language ◽

Methodological Choices ◽

Standard Spectrum ◽

Speech Data ◽

Adults And Children ◽

The One ◽

The Individual

Abstract This paper explores intra-individual variation as a manifestation of language-internal multilingualism in the Central-Bavarian Austrian context. Based on speech data from children and adults in different contexts, we discuss different methods of measuring and analyzing inter-situational variation along the dialect and standard language spectrum. By contrasting measures of dialectality, on the one hand, and proportions of turns in dialect, standard language or intermediate/mixed forms on the other, we gain complementary insights not only into the individual dialect-standard repertoires but also into the consequences of different methodological choices. The results indicate that intra-individual variation is ubiquitous in adults and children and that individual repertoires need to be taken into account from the beginning of the language acquisition process. We suggest that while intra-individual variation can be attested through the use of various methods, the revealed level of granularity and the conclusions that can be drawn as to the individual repertoires on the dialect-standard spectrum largely depend on the measures used and their inherent assumptions and intrinsically necessary categorizations.

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The Role of Musical Development in Early Language Acquisition

The Oxford Handbook of Music and the Brain ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198804123.013.23 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 565-591

Author(s):

Anthony Brandt ◽

L. Robert Slevc ◽

Molly Gebrian

Keyword(s):

Language Acquisition ◽

Cultural Transmission ◽

Developmental Disorders ◽

Native Language ◽

Current Understanding ◽

Early Language ◽

Music And Language ◽

Language And Music ◽

Infant Brain

Language and music are readily distinguished by adults, but there is growing evidence that infants first experience speech as a special type of music. By listening to the phonemic inventory and prosodic patterns of their caregivers’ speech, infants learn how their native language is composed, later bootstrapping referential meaning onto this musical framework. Our current understanding of infants’ sensitivities to the musical features of speech, the co-development of musical and linguistic abilities, and shared developmental disorders, supports the view that music and language are deeply entangled in the infant brain and modularity emerges over the course of development. This early entanglement of music and language is crucial to the cultural transmission of language and children’s ability to learn any of the world’s tongues.

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Phonological Processes in ESL Five-Year-Olds

TESL Canada Journal ◽

10.18806/tesl.v1i1.425 ◽

1984 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 71 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Terry Piper

Keyword(s):

Language Acquisition ◽

Language Learners ◽

First Language ◽

Syllable Structure ◽

First Language Acquisition ◽

Sound System ◽

Phonological Processes ◽

Structure Changes ◽

Speech Data ◽

Esl Learners

This paper reports the results of a study investigating the acquisition of the sound system by fifteen ESL five-year-olds. Segmental consonant errors drawn from speech data collected over ten months were categorized according to eight phonological processes in three categories, assimilation. substitution, and syllable structure changes. Eighty-six percent of the errors corresponded to those identified by Ingram (1979) and others as universal in first language acquisition. The author advises caution in the interpretation of this result, however, since there were certain differences in the particular errors made by the ESL learners within each category as well as processes considered universal among first language learners which were not found among the ESL learners.

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Vocabulary acquisition, input, and extensive reading: A conversation

The Language Teacher - The Language Teacher 39.1 ◽

10.37546/jalttlt37.4-8 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 37 (4) ◽

pp. 56

Author(s):

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Language Acquisition ◽

Vocabulary Acquisition ◽

Online Discussion ◽

Word Knowledge ◽

Relative Importance ◽

Extensive Reading ◽

Acquisition Process

JALT member Joseph Poulshock recently posted a video entitled “How do humans acquire language?” to the extensive reading (ER) website BeeOasis.com. In it, he describes his ALBUM Theory (acquire language by understanding messages), by which he means that the comprehension of input―for example, through ER―is the best way to acquire a second language. The video prompted an online discussion in which a number of JALT members exchanged ideas about the acquisition of vocabulary, the role of ER in the acquisition of various aspects of word knowledge, and the relative importance of input to the language acquisition process. An abbreviated version of this conversation is presented here.

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The Correlation between Language Acquisition and Language Planning

Budapest International Research and Critics Institute (BIRCI-Journal) Humanities and Social Sciences ◽

10.33258/birci.v1i1.3 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 20-26

Author(s):

Ramlan Ramlan

Keyword(s):

Language Acquisition ◽

Native Language ◽

First Language ◽

Language Planning ◽

First Language Acquisition ◽

Unconscious Learning ◽

Acquisition Planning

Language acquisition is a process which can take place at any period of one's life. In the sense of first language acquisition, however, it refers to the acquisition (unconscious learning) of one's native language (or languages in the case of bilinguals) during the first 6 or 7 years of one's life (roughly from birth to the time one starts school).Language acquisition planning has a significant correlation to the language acquisition by the students. Because the students’ age in between zero up to five years is the appropriate moment to acquire a certain language.

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The second language acquisition: problems and challenges for Georgian Deaf community

International Journal of Multilingual Education ◽

10.22333/ijme.2021.190011 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol X (3) ◽

pp. 95-100

Author(s):

Tamar Makharoblidze ◽

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Second Language Acquisition ◽

Language Acquisition ◽

Hard Of Hearing ◽

Native Language ◽

The State ◽

Short Paper ◽

Deaf People ◽

Key Issues ◽

State Language

As stated in the title, the paper is devoted to the issue of second language acquisition by Deaf people in Georgia, describing the current situation and the challenges. There are about 2500 Deaf and hard of hearing residents in Georgia. Being the linguistic minority in the country, these people communicate with each-other in the Georgian Sign Language – GESL. The second native language for local Deaf and hard of hearing people is the Georgian spoken language – the State language. In many countries Deaf people are bilingual, while it is hard to consider the local Deaf and hard of hearing people bilingual, as the knowledge of spoken Georgian on the level of a native language among the Deaf residents is not observed. Unfortunately in Georgia there are no studies concerning the second language acquisition for Deaf and hard of hearing people. The main problems are the agrammatism in written communication on the state language and the ignorance of deferent hierarchical levels of spoken Georgian. This short paper offers the key issues for the plan of strategy of spoken Georgian acquisition for local Deaf and hard of hearing residents.

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Labels and Realities: The Relevance of Terms like ESL and EFL in a Linguistically Complex World

International Journal of TESOL Studies ◽

10.46451/ijts.2021.10.01 ◽

2021 ◽

Keyword(s):

Foreign Language ◽

English Language ◽

Native Language ◽

World Englishes ◽

English Language Teaching ◽

Complex World ◽

Special Issue ◽

Expanding Circle ◽

Long Time ◽

Efl Students

For a long time, ELT (‘English language teaching’) scholars and practitioners have used terms like ‘ESL’ (‘English as a second language’) and ‘EFL’ (‘English as a foreign language’) unquestioningly to describe the English used by people outside the so-called ENL (‘English as a native language’) circle. For example, ELT practitioners may conveniently refer to students from places like China, Vietnam and Thailand as EFL students. Interestingly, we find counterparts of such terms in ‘World Englishes’ studies; Braj Kachru’s ‘Inner Circle English’, ‘Outer Circle English’ and ‘Expanding Circle English’ essentially refer to ENL ESL and EFL respectively. Despite the popularity of such terms in scholarly circles, the problems associated with their use have not often been explored in depth. Nevertheless, some authors have described such problems. For example, commenting on the distinction between ESL and EFL, Nayar (1997, p. 10) states, “a great deal of referential fuzziness within the two and denotative overlap between the two are making the terminological distinctions unclear, impractical, and ineffective or, worse still, in some cases inauspicious and irrelevant.” This special issue aims to further examine the use and relevance of these terms.

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