Chapter published in:
Three Streams of Generative Language Acquisition Research: Selected papers from the 7th Meeting of Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition – North America, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Edited by Tania Ionin and Matthew Rispoli
[Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 63] 2019
► pp. 143–157

The acquisition of V-V compounds in Japanese

| Tokyo University of the Arts
| Senshu University
Japanese verbal compounds (V-V compounds) are known to consist of two verbs where a first verb in the preverbal form is adjoined to a second verb. Theoretical studies have demonstrated that there are two types of V-V compounds in Japanese: lexical and syntactic V-V compounds. Although the two classes of V-V compounds are superficially similar, they are notably distinct in many syntactic and semantic aspects and thus a question arises as to how children come to distinguish these two types of compounds. This study examines whether Japanese-speaking children aged 4–5 can differentiate the two types of Japanese V-V compounds. Our experiment revealed that there is a developmental stage in which children have acquired lexical V-V compounds but not syntactic ones.
Keywords: verbal compounds, Japanese, experiment
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Previous studies
    • 2.1Syntactic background
    • 2.2Acquisition studies
      • 2.2.1Lexical V-V compounds
      • 2.2.2Syntactic V-V compounds
  • 3.Experiment
    • 3.1Method
      • 3.1.1Participants
      • 3.1.2Procedure and materials
    • 3.2Results
  • 4.Discussion and concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgement
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 15 April 2019
https://doi.org/10.1075/lald.63.08iso
References
Alsina, A., Bresnan, J., & Sells, P.
(Eds.) (1997) Complex predicates. Stanford, CA: CSLI.Google Scholar
Amberber, M., Baker, B., & Harvey, M.
(Eds.) (2010) Complex predicates: Cross-linguistic perspectives on event structure. Cambridge: CUP. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Isobe, M., Okabe, R., & Kido, Y.
(2014) Lexical V-V compounds in child Japanese: An experimental study. Paper presented at the 9th International Workshop on Theoretical East Asian Linguistics, Nantes, France, September.
(2018) Lexical V-V compounds in child Japanese: An experimental study. Journal of Japanese Linguistics, 34, 3–21. doi: CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Kageyama, T.
(1993) Bumpoo to gokeisei [Grammar and word formation]. Tokyo: Hituzi Syobo.Google Scholar
(2013) Goiteki fukugodosi-no sin-taikei [A new architecture of lexical compound verbs]. In T. Kageyama (Ed.), Fukugodosi-kenkyu-no sai-sentan [New explorations into the mysteries of compound verbs] (pp.3–46). Tokyo: Hituzi Syobo.Google Scholar
(2016a) Agents in anticausative and decausative compound verbs. In T. Kageyama & W. M. Jacobsen (Eds.), Transitivity and valency alternations: Studies on Japanese and beyond (pp.89–124). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2016b) Verb-compounding and verb-incorporation. In T. Kageyama & H. Kishimoto (Eds.), Handbook of Japanese lexicon and word formation (pp.273–310). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Kido, Y.
(2013) Nihongo-o bogo-to-suru yoji-niyoru fukugodosi-no kakutoku [Acquisition of complex verbs by native Japanese-speaking children] (Unpublished MA thesis). Nanzan University, Nagoya.Google Scholar
(2015) Goiteki fukugodosi-no kakutoku: CHILDES-o siyo-sita jissyo-kenkyu [Acquisition of complex verbs: An empirical study using CHILDES]. KLS, 35, 61–72.Google Scholar
(2016) Nihongo fukugodosi no kakutoku – Niju mekanizumu moderu no kanten kara – [The acquisition of V-V compounds in child Japanese: From the dual mechanism model perspective]. Kobe Papers in Linguistics, 10, 1–23.Google Scholar
Kishimoto, H., & Y. Yumoto
(Eds.) (2014) Fukuzatu-jutugo kenkyu no genzai [Current issues in complex predicate research]. Tokyo: Hituzi Syobo.Google Scholar
MacWhinney, B.
(2000) The CHILDES project: Tools for analyzing talk (3rd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Miyata, S.
(2004a) Japanese: Miyata-Aki Corpus. Pittsburgh, PA: TalkBank.Google Scholar
(2004b) Japanese: Miyata-Ryo Corpus. Pittsburgh, PA: TalkBank.Google Scholar
(2004c) Japanese: Miyata-Tai Corpus. Pittsburgh, PA: TalkBank.Google Scholar
Miyata, S., & Nisisawa, H.
(2009) Japanese: MiiPro-Asato Corpus. Pittsburgh, PA: TalkBank.Google Scholar
(2010) Japanese: MiiPro-Tomito Corpus. Pittsburgh, PA: TalkBank.Google Scholar
Morita, Y.
(1994) Doosi-no imiron-teki bumpo kenkyu [Semantic grammar resaerch on verbs]. Tokyo: Meiji Shoin.Google Scholar
Nakatani, K.
(2003) Analyzing ‑te . In W. McClure (Ed.), Japanese/Korean Linguistics, 12 (pp.377–387). Stanford, CA: CSLI.Google Scholar
National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics
(2013–2015). The compound verb lexicon [Software]. Retrieved from http://​vvlexicon​.ninjal​.ac​.jp Google Scholar
Nisisawa, H., & Miyata, S.
(2009) Japanese: MiiPro-Nanami Corpus. Pittsburgh, PA: TalkBank.Google Scholar
(2010) Japanese: MiiPro-ArikaM Corpus. Pittsburgh, PA: TalkBank.Google Scholar
Noji J., Naka, N., & Miyata, S.
(2004) Japanese: Noji Corpus. Pittsburgh, PA: TalkBank.Google Scholar
Okabe, R. & Isobe, M.
(2015) Nihongo no togoteki fukugodosi no kakutoku: rikai jikken o tosite [The acquisition of Japanese syntactic V-V compounds: Through a comprehension experiment]. Paper presented at the 151st Meeting of the Linguistic Society of Japan, Nagoya, Japan, November.
Okubo, A.
(1967) Yooji gengo no hattatu [Child language development]. Tokyo: Tokyodo.Google Scholar
Oshima-Takane, Y., MacWhinney, B., Sirai, H., Miyata, S., & Naka, N.
(Eds.) (1998) CHILDES for Japanese (2nd ed.). The JCHAT Project. Nagoya: Chukyo University.Google Scholar
Saito, M.
(2014) Case and labeling in a language without φ-feature agreement. In A. Cardinaletti, G. Cinque, & Y. Endo (Eds.). On peripheries (pp.269–297). Tokyo: Hituzi Syobo.Google Scholar