Acquisition and Development of Verb/Predicate Chaining in Hebrew

Abstract

The study considers development and use of verb/predicate chaining constructions by Hebrew speakers from early childhood to adolescence, based on analysis of authentic conversational and narrative corpora. Three types of constructions are analyzed, ordered hierarchically by degree of cohesivity and obligatoriness of chaining: (1) monoclausal complex predicates (the "extended predicates" of traditional Hebrew grammars); (2) coreferential interclausal predicate chaining; and (3) discursively motivated topic chaining. Relevant typological features of Modern Hebrew are reviewed as accounting for the absence of canonical clause chaining in the language (the paucity of non-finite constructions in everyday usage, absence of an uninflected basic form of verbs, lack of auxiliary verbs, and monolexemic verb-internal complexity). Monoclausal verb chaining emerges early in the speech of toddlers in interaction with their caretakers, whereas predicate chaining by coordination across clauses occurs only later, and chunking of such constructions at the service of discourse connectivity is found only from school-age. Non-finite subordination emerges as an advanced form of clause combining, in contrast to straightforward subordination with the multifunctional subordinator še 'that'. Two main conclusions follow from the study: First, the innovative hierarchy defined here for different degrees of verb/predicate linkage mirrors developmental phases in child language; and, second, monoclausal chains of finite verbs or verbal operators followed by infinitival complements are grammatically obligatory, and are common from an early age, whereas bi-and multi-clausal predicate chaining represents an optional rhetorical choice on the part of a given speaker-writer in a particular communicative context.

Stages rather than ages in the acquisition of movement structures: Data from sentence repetition and 27696 spontaneous clauses

“…Nonfinite complement clauses of modals were the first to appear, before finite embedded clauses. They appeared already at age 1;6, and until age 2;5 were the only embedding structures in the children's spontaneous speech (in line with Bowerman 1979;Kaplan 1983;Bloom et al 1989;Diessel 2004;Owen & Leonard 2006;Berman 2018;Berman & Lustigman 2020). Then, from age 2;5, 89% of the children had already produced finite embedded clauses, and from age 3;3 all have.…”

“…In children's spontaneous speech the first complement clauses appear around the age of two years. Embedded nonfinite clauses precede finite ones (Diessel 2004;Owen & Leonard 2006;Berman 2018;Berman & Lustigman 2020), with the first nonfinite embedding restricted to a limited number of early quasi-modals and aspectual verbs (Armon-Lotem 2005;Bloom et al 1989).…”

The emergence and development of complex predicates in early child Hebrew

“…1 In traditional Hebrew grammar, the category of ‘extended predicates’ includes combinations of modal/aspectual tensed operators followed by an infinitival verb form (e.g., asuy lalexet ‘(is) likely to.go’, alul lalexet ‘(is) liable to.go’, carix lalexet ‘must/need/has to.go’, hitkaven lalexet ‘meant to.go’, and (aspectual) omed lalexet ‘(is) about to.go’, hitxil lalexet ‘started to.walk’, atid lalexet ‘(is) due to.go’) (Azar, 1977; Blau, 1966; Cadqa, 1987). Such extended predicates manifest clear relations of dependency between the modifying operator and its associated infinitival verb form and constitute the most commonly used means of elaborating verb phrases in Hebrew (Berman & Lustigman, 2020).…”