Brittain Julie, Rose Yvan
Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada.
First Lang. 2021 Aug;41(4):376-405. doi: 10.1177/0142723720969257. Epub 2021 Jan 5.
This study is based on naturalistic speech samples produced by one child learning Cree as her first language (2;01-4;03) and presents the first investigation into the development of preverbs in the language. Preverbs are an optional class of morpheme which precede the lexical verb stem, dividing into grammatical, lexical and directional (deictic) subclasses. Of nine preverb types in the child's inventory, 47/48 tokens are grammatical. We argue that these appear early because they exhibit phonological transparency (do not alternate in form) and positional predictability (are restricted to preverb position). Lexical and directional preverbs, however, alternate in form and may appear in either preverb position or within the lexical stem. Furthermore, the child first began to use preverbs with the grammatically simpler independent (default) inflection (2;04), and 7 months later with the more syntactically restrictive conjunct inflection (2;11). She also used each preverb with one inflection type only, even where a choice of inflections was available, and she never produced more than one preverb per verb complex although multiple preverbs are common. In sum, grammatical complexity appears to be a driving factor in determining the child's development pattern.
本研究基于一个将克里语作为母语学习的儿童（年龄为2岁1个月至4岁3个月）产出的自然言语样本，首次对该语言中前附词的发展进行了调查。前附词是一类可选的语素，位于词汇动词词干之前，分为语法、词汇和方向（指示）子类。在儿童的前附词类型中，九种类型里有47/48个实例是语法性的。我们认为这些语法性前附词出现得早，是因为它们表现出语音透明度（形式上不交替）和位置可预测性（仅限于前附词位置）。然而，词汇性和方向性前附词在形式上会交替，并且可能出现在前附词位置或词汇词干内部。此外，儿童最初在2岁4个月时开始使用语法上更简单的独立（默认）词尾变化形式的前附词，7个月后在2岁11个月时开始使用句法限制更强的连接词尾变化形式的前附词。她每个前附词也只使用一种词尾变化形式，即使有多种词尾变化形式可供选择，并且在每个动词复合体中她从未产出超过一个前附词，尽管多个前附词很常见。总之，语法复杂性似乎是决定儿童发展模式的一个驱动因素。
