Early Acquisition of Word Order: Evidence from Hindi-Urdu and Malayalam

193 Pages·2016·1.68 MB·English

EARLY ACQUISITION OF WORD ORDER:
EVIDENCE FROM HINDI-URDU AND
MALAYALAM
MAYA LEELA
A doctoral dissertation submitted for the degree of
Philosophiæ Doctor in Cognitive Science and Language
Supervised by Dr. Anna Gavarró
Centre de Lingüística Teòrica
Departament de Filologia Catalana
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Maya Leela: Early Acquisition of Word Order: Evidence from Hindi-Urdu
2016
and Malayalam © July
Dedicated to Unniyamma.
ABSTRACT
Theacquisitionofwordorderintwounder-researchedlanguages,Hindi-
Urdu and Malayalam, is explored under the assumptions of Univer-
sal Grammar and Very Early Parameter Setting. The acquisition of the
OV order was tested through an experiment that was conducted on
19
-month old native Hindi-Urdu infants using a combination of the
preferential-lookingmode,theweird-word-orderparadigm,andpseudo-
verbs. The results showed that the infants parsed the grammatical SOV
order and did not parse the ungrammatical VSO order, indicating that
19
the parameter responsible for the OV order was set at months of age.
The acquisition of scrambling was investigated by means of three ex-
periments in Malayalam speaking children. The first experiment tested
the acquisition of the canonical word order SOV, and the scrambled
non-canonical word orders OSV, OVS, and SVO, with no discourse con-
3 5
text, through a picture matching task in children aged to -years-old.
The experimental results showed above chance performance in the com-
prehension of the canonical and most scrambled word orders by all
age groups. The second experiment tested the acquisition of the canon-
ical and the non-canonical word orders with a discourse context, in
2
an act-out task in -year-old children. The results revealed at ceiling
2
performance by all children. The third experiment, run with -year-old
children, tested the acquisition of canonical and scrambled sentences
with an anaphor. All children performed above chance indicating that
anaphor resolution is adult like. Usage-based theories and the impli-
cations of the theory of Relativized Minimality in child grammar are
critically analyzed using the results of the Hindi-Urdu and Malayalam
experiments. The evidence gathered is in support of the fact that adult-
like competence of abstract syntax is present within child grammar at
early ages and that movement appears to be adult-like.
iv
PUBLICATIONS
Some of the results in this thesis have appeared or are to appear in the
following publications:
1 2015
. Gavarró, A., Leela, M., Rizzi, L., & Franck, J. ( ). Knowledge of
19
theOVparametersettingat months:EvidencefromHindi–Urdu.
154 27 34
Lingua, , - .
2
. Gavarró, A., Leela, M. Child Relativized Minimality and the acqui-
sitionofwordorderinMalayalam.ToappearinLinguisticAnalysis.
v
“A little parameter parametrizes the whole language”
2002 44
— (Baker, , p. )
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr. Anna Gavarró, my
supervisor,whoseselflessdedicationtoguidemeinproducinganexcel-
lent and impeccable result is the main reason for the final shape of this
thesis. Anna has given me continuous support with her most updated
knowledge on theoretical frameworks and experimental research, and
her most sensible approach towards life. I thank all her contributions to
me and my thesis.
I thank the Departament de Filologia Catalana and the Centre de
Lingüística Teòrica at the UAB for accepting me as a doctoral candi-
date and allowing me to carry out the research. I formally express my
gratitude to the Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el
Desarrollo and the Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores y de Cooperación
for the MAEC-AECID funding provided for the research.
The completion of the Hindi-Urdu experiment became possible with
the help of the amazing ladies at the Associació Cultural, Educativa i
Social Operativa de Dones Pakistaneses (ACESOP). I thank the presi-
dent and the founder of the organization, Dr. Huma Jamshed, and the
memberswhoparticipatedintherecordingofthetestsentences,aswell
as the members who helped me find the subjects. I especially thank all
themotherswhomanagedtogetpermissionfromthepatriarchybound
environments and come with their infants for the testing.
For all the technical knowledge I gathered in handling the eye-tracker,
IthankbothDavidAguilarandJuanManuelGarciaattheDepartament
de Psicologia Bàsica, Universitat de Barcelona, and Miquel Serra for
giving me permission to use the lab and the equipment.
I thank the students and teachers at the Wisdom Valley Kindergarten,
and Ananthapuri School at Trivandrum for their participation in the
Malayalamexperiments.Thedrawingsusedwereproducedbytheartist
vi
Justyna Kamykowska, and I thank her for allowing me to use the copy-
righted materials. I thank Arathy Chandini, Vaisakh Surendran and
Ahana Balan for helping me with the data collection.
I would like to thank Luigi Rizzi, Julie Franck and Akira Omaki for
giving me an opportunity to collaborate with their acquisition research.
I thank Anna Espinal at the Servei d’Estadística Aplicada, UAB and
Andrés Posada at the Université de Genève for the statistical analysis.
Words of gratitude are not enough to thank Ivo Pletìkosic´, physicist
from Croatia, for all the help in overcoming the hurdles I faced with the
classicthesis template and with LYX. He replied quickly to all my emails,
patiently guided me through every step and helped me immensely to
produce this thesis in this form. Thanks a lot, Ivo, you being in the LYX
port team of classicthesis is such a relief to the non-techie humanities
researchers like me!
I thank Io Salmons, Myriam Cantú, Jingtao Zhu, Shenai Hu from the
Acquisition and Pathology Lab at the UAB for their valuable sugges-
tions and feedback throughout my doctoral work. I thank Isabel Crespí
from the Centre de Lingüística Teòrica, UAB, who translated the ab-
stract of my thesis into Catalan. I also thank Cristina Puigdollers at
the CLT, UAB, for all the invaluable help with the documentation that
helped me to submit my thesis on time.
I am indebted to my family, especially my mother, my sister and my
little brother who stood by me when I wanted to give up a highly paid
job in the States to pursue my passion for language acquisition research.
Vishnu and Anu, thank you for being my most sincere critics and sup-
port. I would like to thank my partner Naru; his Buddha-like nature
had helped me in every way to push forward when I wanted to give
up.
Itwasadifficultjourney,Iwaspainfullyslow,butIdidthisformyself,
and I am happy I made it to the end through episodes of depression,
procrastination, complete numbness and then adamantly pursuing my
passion.
vii
DECLARATION
Icertifythatthisworkcontainsnomaterialwhichhasbeenacceptedfor
theawardofanyotherdegreeordiplomainmyname,inanyuniversity
or other tertiary institution and, to the best of my knowledge and belief,
containsno materialpreviously publishedor writtenbyanother person,
except where due reference has been made in the text.
Barcelona, July 2016
Maya Leela
ACRONYMS
ACC Accusative
ADVL Adverbial Suffix
CI Conceptual Intentional Interface
COMP Complementizer
CONJ Conjunction
DAT Dative
EMPH Emphasis
ERG Ergative
F Feminine
FUT Future tense
GEN Genitive
INF Infinitive
INST Instrumental
LOC Locative
M Masculine
NOM Nominative
PAST Simple Past Tense
PERF Perfective Aspect
POSS Possessive
PRES Present
ix
x
P&P Principles and Parameters
PROG Progressive
QP Quotative Particle
RP Relative Participle
RM Relitivized Minimality
SM Sensory Motor Interface
SMT Strong Minimalist Theory
SOC Sociative
UG Universal Grammar
VEPS Very Early Parameter Setting