Cover not available
Part of
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. 203–221

Red train, big train, broken train

Semantic aspects of adjectives in child language

| Goethe University Frankfurt
| Goethe University Frankfurt

This paper investigates the role of formal semantic properties in the acquisition of adjectives. Based on these semantic properties we propose an implicational Semantic Feature Hierarchy, which postulates that the order of emergence is determined by the adjectives’ semantic complexity. To test this hierarchy a high density corpus of spontaneous speech (age 2;00–2;11 years) was analyzed regarding the adjectives’ entailment and gradability properties. The data are in line with our hypothesis that the emergence of adjective classes is based on formal semantic criteria. Moreover, our data analyses show that semantic complexity is not mirrored in type frequency. Regarding the syntactic distribution of adjectives in child language we found that as soon as adjectives and nouns are combined, attributive structures are preferred over predicative structures.

Keywords: adjectives, order of acquisition, complexity, gradability, intersectivity, subsectivity, spontaneous speech, German
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The syntax of adjectives
  • 3.The semantics of adjectives
    • 3.1Notional properties
    • 3.2Entailment properties
    • 3.3Gradability properties
    • 3.4Semantic complexity
  • 4.Previous studies on the acquisition of adjectives
    • 4.1Attributive versus predicative adjectives
    • 4.2Notional properties
    • 4.3Gradability properties
  • 5.Hypotheses for acquisition
  • 6.Adjectives in German: A case study
    • 6.1Data
    • 6.2Coding
    • 6.3Results
    • 6.4Discussion
  • Acknowledgment
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 15 April 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lald.63.11wei
References
Barner, D., & Snedeker, J.
(2008) Compositionality and statistics in adjective acquisition: 4-year-olds interpret “tall” and “short” based on the size distributions of novel noun referents. Child Development, 79, 594–608. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Behrens, H.
(2006) Input-output relationship in first language acquisition. Language and Cognitive Processes, 21, 2–24. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bierwisch, M.
(1987) Dimensionsadjektive als strukturierender Ausschnitt des Sprachverhaltens. In M. Bierwisch & E. Lang (Eds.), Grammatische und konzeptuelle Aspekte von Dimensionsadjektiven (pp.1–28). Berlin: Akademie-Verlag.Google Scholar
Bittner, D.
(2002) Emergence of grammatical complexity and markedness in the acquisition of Verb and Noun Phrases in German. In K. Dziubalka-Kolaczyk, & J. Weckwerth (Eds.), Future Challenges for Natural Linguistics (pp.25–56). Munich: Lincom.Google Scholar
Blackwell, A. A.
(2000) On the acquisition of the syntax of English adjectives. In A. Okrent & J. P. Boyle (Eds.), CLS 36: The Panels (pp.361–375). Chicago, IL: Chicago Linguistic Society.Google Scholar
(2005) Acquiring the English adjective lexicon: Relationships with input properties and adjectival semantic typology. Journal of Child Language, 32, 535–562. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cresswell, M. J.
(1976) The semantics of degree. In B. Partee (Ed.), Montague Grammar (pp.261–292). New York, NY: Academic Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Culicover, P. W.
(2013) Grammar and complexity. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Dixon, R. M. W.
(1982) Where have all the adjectives gone? And other essays in semantics and syntax. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ebeling, K. S., & Gelman, S. A.
(1988) Coordination of size standards by young children. Child Development, 59, 888–896. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hawkins, J. A.
(1987) Implicational universals as predictors of language acquisition. Linguistics, 25, 453–473. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hohaus, V., Tiemann, S., & Beck, S.
(2014) Acquisition of comparison constructions. Language Acquisition, 21(3), 215–249. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kamp, H., & Partee, B.
(1995) Prototype theory and compositionality. Cognition, 57, 129–191. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kennedy, C.
(2007) Vagueness and grammar: The semantics of relative and absolute gradable adjectives. Linguistics and Philosophy, 30, 1–45. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kennedy, C., & McNally, L.
(2005) Scale structure, degree modification, and the semantics of gradable predicates. Language, 81, 345–381. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2010) Color, context and compositionality. Synthese, 174, 79–98. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Klein, E.
(1980) A semantics for positive and comparative adjectives. Linguistics and Philosophy, 4, 1–45. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Liao, S., McNally, L., & Meskin, A.
(2016) Aesthetic adjectives lack uniform behavior. Inquiry, 9(6): 618–631. DOI: DOI logo.Google Scholar
MacWhinney, B.
(2000) The CHILDES project: Tools for analyzing talk. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Matthewson, L.
(2014) The measurement of semantic complexity: how to get by if your language lacks generalized quantifiers. In F. J. Newmeyer & L. B. Preston (Eds.), Measuring grammatical complexity (pp.241–263). Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
McNally, L.
(2016) Modification. In M. Aloni, & P. Dekker (Eds.), Cambridge handbook of formal semantics (pp.442–466). Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McNally, L., & Stojanovic, I.
(2017) Aesthetic adjectives. In J. Young (Ed.), The semantics of aesthetic judgments (pp.17–37). Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nelson, K.
(1976) Some attributes of adjectives used by young children. Cognition, 4, 13–30. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sproat, R., & Shih, C.
(1990) The cross-linguistic distribution of adjective ordering restrictions. In C. Georgopoulos, & R. Ishihara (Eds.), Interdisciplinary approaches to language: Essays in honor of S-Y. Kuroda (pp.565–593). Dordrecht: Kluwer.Google Scholar
Stromsworld, K.
(1998) Analyzing children's spontaneous speech. In D. McDaniel, C. McKee, & H. Cairns (Eds.), Methods for assessing children's syntax (pp.22–53). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Syrett, K., Bradley, E., Kennedy, C., & Lidz, J.
(2006) Shifting standards: Children’s understanding of gradable adjectives. In K. Deen, J. Nomura, B. Schulz, & B. D. Schwartz (Eds.), Proceedings of the Inaugural Conference on Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition – North America (GALANA) (pp.353–364). University of Connecticut Occasional Papers in Linguistics 4.Google Scholar
Tribushinina, E., & Gillis, S.
(2012) The acquisition of scalar structures: Production of adjectives and degree markers by Dutch-speaking children and their caregivers. Linguistics, 50, 241–268. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tribushinina, E., van den Bergh, H., Ravid, D., Aksu-Koc, A., Kilani-Schoch, M., Korecky-Kröll, K., Leibovitch-Cohen, I., Laaha, S., Nir, B., Dressler, W., & Gillis, S.
(2014) Development of adjective frequencies across semantic classes. Language, Interaction and Acquisition, 5, 185–226. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wagner, K., Storage, D., Dobkins, K., & Barner, D.
(2013) Children's acquisition of subsective and intersective adjectives. Poster presented at BUCLD 38, Boston, MA.Google Scholar
Weicker, M.
submitted). The role of semantic complexity for the acquisition of adjectives (PhD dissertation). Goethe University Frankfurt.