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Learning a morphological system without a default: the Polish genitive.

E Dabrowska1

  • 1Department of English Language and Linguistics, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK.

Journal of Child Language
|January 19, 2002
PubMed
Summary

Children learning Polish acquire complex genitive case endings early, with no default form. However, genitive plural acquisition mirrors English past tense learning, suggesting system properties, not child predispositions, drive default-like affix use.

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Area of Science:

  • Linguistics
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Child Language Acquisition

Background:

  • The English past tense inflection is a common model for studying rule learning in child language.
  • This model may be unrepresentative due to the unique properties of English tense marking.
  • Complex morphological systems offer alternative insights into language development.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To contrast the acquisition of the English past tense with the more complex Polish genitive case.
  • To investigate how children acquire a system with multiple case markers.
  • To determine if children default to a specific affix or if system properties influence acquisition patterns.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of spontaneous speech from three children aged 1;4 to 4;11 acquiring Polish.

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  • Examination of the generalization and overgeneralization of Polish genitive case endings.
  • Comparison of acquisition patterns for singular and plural genitive forms.

    • Main Results:

    • Children generalized and overgeneralized all three singular Polish genitive endings with low error rates.
    • No single ending was treated as a 'default' by the children in the singular genitive acquisition.
    • The genitive plural showed a different acquisition pattern, resembling English past tense acquisition in children.

    Conclusions:

    • The 'default-like' character of certain affixes in language acquisition is likely due to the structure of the inflectional system.
    • Child language predispositions may play a lesser role than previously assumed in determining default affix usage.
    • The Polish genitive case provides a more complex and potentially more representative model for studying morphological development than the English past tense.