Initial Observations on Complex Predicates in Qaqet Children's Language

Autor/in	Hellwig, Birgit
Titel	Initial Observations on Complex Predicates in Qaqet Children's Language
Quelle	In: First Language, 41 (2021) 4, S.406-429 (24 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Hellwig, Birgit)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0142-7237
DOI	10.1177/0142723720922004
Schlagwörter	Languages; Foreign Countries; Verbs; Grammar; Form Classes (Languages); Child Language; Young Children; Papua New Guinea + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Language; Sprache; Ausland; Grammatik; Analytischer Sprachbau; 'Children''s language'; Kindersprache; Frühe Kindheit; Papua-New Guinea; Papua-Neuguinea
Abstract	This article focuses on complex predicates in Qaqet, a Papuan (Baining) language of Papua New Guinea, spoken by 15,000 people and still being acquired monolingually in remote areas. A large part of the Qaqet verb lexicon is compositional, consisting of simple verb roots that combine with prepositions or particles/suffixes, jointly contributing to the overall meaning of the expression. While patterns can be discerned, the resulting meanings are only partly transparent, thus presenting challenges to the language learner. This article is a first study tracing the distribution of these complex expressions in Qaqet children's speech, drawing on a subset (31 hours) of a longitudinal corpus of children aged 2-6 (with a focus on the ages 2-4). The Qaqet complex verbs are reminiscent of West Germanic prefix and particle verbs (such as "uncover" and "cover up"), and this study therefore takes Heike Behrens' pioneering study as its point of reference. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01