Learning the passive in natural (istic) settings

1、Learning the passive in natural(istic) settingsKatie Alcock, Ken Rimba, Manizha Tellaie, and Charles NewtonThanks to Kamil ud DeenLearning language: passives Jack ate the ice-cream The ice-cream was eaten by Jack Learned very late in English & other languages e.g. HebrewDifferent explanations -

2、passive Maturation: Borer & Wexler (1987), Hebrew & English passives At a certain point in childhood, particular parts of grammar come “online” Passive at age 6 years Differential maturation for adjectival and verbal passive it is broken vs. John was kissedClues from other languages Early pa

3、ssive acquisition Bantu languages e.g. Sesotho Demuth (1989) Inuktitut - Crago & Allen (1996) Frequency? many more passives in these languages Function of passive e.g. for wh- questions Sesotho cant say “who cooked the food?”, must say “the food was cooked by who?” Easier construction in Inuktit

4、ut passive agrees only with grammatical subject while actives agree with both subject and objectStudy 1 Bantu languages Two Eastern Bantu languages Kiswahili (2 dialects) Kigiriama Complex morphophonemics: Affixes to indicate passive among other thingsni- li-pig-wa1S pasthitpassive“I was hit” Passiv

5、e not used for wh- questions obligatorily Some use but optional Passives, like in Inuktitut, agree with grammatical subject Actives also with grammatical object, especially if it is a person Passive very frequent in inputStudy 1 - Data collection and sources Recording of spontaneous speech samples C

6、hildren in own homes Caregivers recorded Three language groups coastal Kiswahili, Nairobi Kiswahili (distinct dialect), Kigiriama (coastal) 13 children in total Nairobi children 1-11 data points per child Coastal children 1 data point per child Ages 1:9 to 3:3Data analysis Transcription of all child

7、 and adult speech Coastal data - 10% checked by 2nd transcriber Analysis of use of verbs and passives On all verbs not just where obligatory Adults as well as children Deen data All examples of passive in children including which dated sample they appear in Proportions for adults do not have dated s

8、ample Some examples of active verbs (in thesis text)Analysis Childrens linguistic maturity Age MLU morphemes? Words? Verbal ratio Longest utterance Productive use Bates et al. (1988) definitionResults Proportion of verbs in passive = 0 to 19% by child No sig. difference between languages Youngest pr

9、oductive use 1;10ye lipigwa / -taipiga(he was beaten / he will beat) Correlation with age n.s. Ditto with all measures of linguistic maturity Significant correlation with input proportion of passivesLanguage differencesPassives by languageKiswahili (Coast)KigiriamaKiswahili (Nairobi)0.000.020.040.06

10、0.080.10Language groupChild differencesPassives in input and output0.000.050.100.150.200.000.050.100.150.20Passives outputSummary so far Passive use early in 2 languages (3 dialects) Structure similar to southern Bantu languages Frequency also similar Some differences in usage Frequency of input cru

11、cialNaturalistic exposure in English English-speaking children learn passives in experimental situation (Brooks & Tomasello, 1999) Our study exposure to passives in home setting not just input by linguists or experimentersHypotheses Naturalistic exposure to passive will lead to production of pas

12、sive Even in very young children Will be some transfer to material never heard in passive Will be no overall effect on productive language Focus of question will also affect production of passivesMethods Exposure Two books of similar length Suitable stories written Passivised as many verbs as possib

13、le Story A “Jack” (zoo story) 19 pictures, 17 with reversible verbs Story B “Puss” (animal story) 18 pictures, all with reversible verbs Parents asked to read book once a day for a week Four conditions Active-Active, Active-Passive, Passive-Active, Passive-PassiveMethods Testing Both books tested in

14、 lab Children asked questions Agent-focussed: whats Jack doing? Patient-focussed: whats happening to the box? or Neutral: whats happening here? 1/3 each, allocated to each book Books reviewed in same order though do not know order of reading at home Children then asked to tell story in own words Ver

15、y little speech produced so not analysedParticipants 40 children aged 29-38 mo 21 boys, 19 girls All from N. and E. London, recruited through local nurseries All solely English-speaking familiesResults Age no correlation with verbs/passives Verbal ratio correlates with passives No effect on number o

16、f utterances or on verbal ratio, however More passives following exposure to passiveGroup and book differencesGroup and book effects0.00.20.40.60.8Book ABook BGroupEffect of book (A vs B) Book B always tested second so had heard patient-focussed questions even if no passive story. Interaction betwee

17、n condition and book Active A-Passive B children produce more passives on their trained book than Passive A-Active B Have heard more patient-focussed questions by the time they get to testing on book B But Passive A-Active B children produce more passives on non-trained book Have produced more passi

18、ves themselves when reach book BTypes of questions and passives Patient-focused questions = more passives produced But no effect on number of utterances or verbs Interaction with condition But only because floor effect in A-A group Some children who never heard passives before produce a few in response to patient-focussed questions Types of passives: full vs. truncated vs