Acquisition of multi-verb predicates in Nungon

Abstract

Studies of the acquisition of verbs tend to focus on one-verb predicates of the prevalent English type. But in hundreds of languages around the world, multi-verb predicates like serial verb constructions are widely used. It could be reasoned that children should begin producing simple, single-verb predicates before they are able to produce multi-verb predicates. But alternatively, many multi-verb predicates are idiomatic and could, as chunks, lend themselves to holophrastic acquisition by small children. This article examines early productions of multi-verb predicates in the speech of three children (aged 1;1–2;4, 2;1–3;3, and 2;10–3;3) acquiring the Papuan language Nungon, comparing patterns there with productions in the child-directed speech of their parents, and with the children’s productions of simple, one-verb predicates. The study’s youngest child never produces multi-verb predicates in the study period, but the child studied for the widest age range produces them from age 2;4, when she has still not acquired productive use of all verbal inflections, and both older children show proportionally increasing trends in multi-verb predicate use. Semantically, the earliest multi-verb predicates can be analyzed as describing multidimensional unitary events, with this expanding to events that can be divided into multiple distinct components at later ages. Delays in production of certain other multi-verb predicate types that are robustly present in parental input at all ages cannot be linked to a single factor, but likely relate to a combination of increased phonological or morphological complexity and increased conceptual difficulty.

Vowel acoustics of Nungon child-directed speech, adult dyadic conversation, and foreigner-directed monologues

“…Case studies of child acquisition of Nungon morphosyntax established that morphosyntactic complexity (verbal inflections, length of complex sentences, use of complex predicates) in the speech of two children increased substantially from about 3 years of age. By the same measures, morphosyntactic complexity in CDS to the same children also increased from when the children were about 3 years old (Sarvasy, 2019 , 2020 , 2021a ). Further, a special Nungon morphosyntactic alteration found only in young children's speech, IDS, and CDS (not ADS) declines markedly in frequency in maternal CDS to children of about 3 years of age or more (Sarvasy, 2019 ).…”

“…In other words, CDS to both 2-year-olds and 3-year-olds featured higher pitch and greater pitch range than conversational ADS. Previous research (Sarvasy, 2019) suggested that a special morpho-syntactic alteration found in Nungon CDS is most prevalent in speech to children under 3;0, with phasing out thereafter; earlier studies also showed that the morpho-syntactic complexity of Nungon CDS increases from when the child is 3 years old (Sarvasy, 2019(Sarvasy, , 2020(Sarvasy, , 2021a. The current results imply that elevated mean pitch and increased pitch range may be evident in CDS even after caregivers no longer use special morpho-syntactic alterations, and have already increased the morpho-syntactic complexity of their CDS.…”

“…Previous work established that Nungon CDS involves several optional features that differentiate it from ADS: nursery lexicon, consonant alteration, and special morphosyntax (Sarvasy, 2019 , 2020 , 2021a ). These features are evident in speech to infants and in speech to children of up to 3 years and even older.…”

Early verb production in Nungon

“…As for verb use in context (multi-verb predicates and clause chains), TO's early clause chains and multi-verb predicates were investigated alongside those of a slightly older child, NN (Sarvasy, 2020(Sarvasy, , 2021. Her clause chain data contributed to Sarvasy & Choi's finding (2020b) that children learning clause chaining languages, including Nungon, always produce two-clause chains before producing longer chains of three or more clauses.…”

“…Her clause chain data contributed to Sarvasy & Choi's finding (2020b) that children learning clause chaining languages, including Nungon, always produce two-clause chains before producing longer chains of three or more clauses. TO's multi-verb predicate use emerged at about the same age as clause chain use (2,4-2;5), and she showed upticks in proportional use of both complex structures from the same age (3,1; Sarvasy, 2021).…”