Cover not available
Part of
Lexical Polycategoriality: Cross-linguistic, cross-theoretical and language acquisition approaches
Edited by Valentina Vapnarsky and Edy Veneziano
[Studies in Language Companion Series 182] 2017
► pp. 307–341

Flexibles and polyvalence in Ku Waru

A developmental perspective

| Australian National University

This chapter concerns the nature and universality of word classes and their relation to syntagmatic types. Having thought through these issues on the basis of material from a Papuan language, Ku Waru, of the Western Highlands of Papua New Guinea, in this paper we make use of child language acquisition data from that language to examine the acquisition of word classes and clause-level syntactic structures. In particular, we examine the frequency and development in children’s acquisition of two distinct multi-word verbal constructions: the adjunct+verb construction and the serial verb construction. The paper considers these structures and the processes of their acquisition from two points of view: that of the adult target language towards which children’s proficiency is developing; and that of children’s speech at various points in development, from 17 to about 36 months, considered as emergent and evolving systems in their own right.

Keywords: child language acquisition, word classes, serial verb constructions, Papuan languages, longitudinal study
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Ku Waru: Background and the grammar of adjunct+verb constructions
  • 3.Ku Waru serial verb constructions and multiply-inflecting verbs
  • 4.Verbless copular clauses
  • 5.Nouns, verbs, Adjuncts and flexibles in Ku Waru Child Language
    • 5.1From 1;8 to 2;0–2;1
    • 5.2From 2;4 to 3;1
    • 5.3The role of adult input
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgement
  • Abbreviations
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 1 November 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.182.11mer
References
Ambridge, B. & Lieven, E
2011 Child Language Acquisition: Contrasting Theoretical Approaches. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Andrews, A. & Manning, C.D
1999 Complex Predicates and Information Spreading in Lexical Functional Grammar. Stanford CA: CSLI.Google Scholar
Braine, M.D.S
1992 What sort of innate structure is needed to bootstrap into syntax? Cognition 45: 77–100. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brown, P
1998 Children’s first verbs in Tzeltal: Evidence for an early verb category. Linguistics 36(4): 713–53. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Danziger, E
2007 A person, a place, or a thing? Whorfian consequences of syntactic bootstrapping in Mopan Maya. In Crosslinguistic Perspectives on Argument Structure: Implications for Learnability, M. Bowerman & P. Brown (eds), 29–48. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Foley, W.A
1986 The Papuan Languages of New Guinea. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Lieven, E
2010 Input and first language acquisition: Evaluating the role of frequency. Lingua 120: 2546–56. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lois, X. & Vapnarsky, V
2003 Polyvalence of Root Classes in Yukatekan Mayan Languages [Studies in Native American Linguistics 47]. Munich: Lincom.Google Scholar
2006 Root indeterminacy and polyvalence in Yukatekan Mayan languages. In Lexical Categories and Root Classes in Amerindian Languages, X. Lois & V. Vapnarsky (eds), 69–115. Bern: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Luuk, E
2009a The Noun/verb and Predicate/argument Structures. PhD dissertation, The Institute of Estonian and General Linguistics, Tartu.Google Scholar
2009b The noun/verb and predicate/argument structures. Lingua 119: 1707–1727. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2010 Nouns, verbs and flexibles: Implications for typologies of word classes. Language Sciences 32: 349–365. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McGregor, W
2002 Verb Classification in Australian Languages. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2010 Optional ergative case marking systems in a typological-semiotic perspective. Lingua 120: 1610–1636. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Merlan, F. & Rumsey, A
1986. A marriage dispute in the Nebilyer Valley, Western Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea. In Studies in New Guinea Linguistics [Pacific Linguistics, Series A 74], 69–180. Canberra: Australian National University.Google Scholar
1991 Ku Waru: Language and Segmentary Politics in the Western Nebilyer Valley. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pinker, S
1984 Language Learnability and Language Development. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Ross, M
2005 Pronouns as a preliminary diagnostic for grouping Papuan languages. In Papuan Pasts: Cultural, Linguistic and Biological Histories of Papuan-speaking Peoples, A. Pawley, A.R. Attenborough, R. Hide & J. Golson (eds), 15–66. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar
Rumsey, A
2002 Men stand, women sit: On the grammaticalization of posture verbs in Papuan languages, its bodily basis and cultural correlates. In The Linguistics of Standing, Sitting and Lying [Typological Studies in Language 51], J. Newman (ed.), 179–211. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2010 ‘Optional’ ergativity and the framing of reported speech. Lingua 120: 1652–1676. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 3 other publications

Reed, Lauren W.
2022. Sign networks: Nucleated network sign languages and rural homesign in Papua New Guinea. Language in Society 51:4 ► pp. 627 ff. DOI logo
Rumsey, Alan, Lauren W. Reed & Francesca Merlan
2020. Ku Waru Clause Chaining and the Acquisition of Complex Syntax. Frontiers in Communication 5 DOI logo
van Lier, Eva
2017. Introduction. Studies in Language 41:2 ► pp. 241 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 21 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.