Rules and construction effects in learning the argument structure of verbs

Area of Science:

• Linguistics
• Developmental Psychology
• Language Acquisition

Background:

• Debate on how children acquire verb argument structure, focusing on verb semantics and dative-shift alternations.
• Bantu double object constructions offer a simplified model for studying argument structure learning due to consistent object order.
• Cross-linguistic variation in Bantu languages regarding the order of benefactive and animate arguments presents a parameter-setting learning problem.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate children's understanding of word order restrictions in Sesotho double object applicative constructions.
• To determine the age at which children demonstrate rule learning for argument structure in Sesotho.
• To explore the influence of lexical construction effects on early verb argument structure acquisition.

Main Methods:

• Elicited production tasks with forced-choice responses were used.
• The study included 100 children aged three to eight years old.
• Performance was analyzed to identify evidence of rule learning and lexical effects.

Main Results:

• Four-year-old children showed initial evidence of rule learning for Sesotho double object applicatives.
• Eight-year-old children had not yet achieved adult-level mastery of these word order restrictions.
• Three-year-old children's performance was significantly influenced by lexical construction effects.

Conclusions:

• Children's acquisition of verb argument structure, even without relying on lexical semantics, is sensitive to lexical construction effects.
• Learning language-specific word order in constructions like Sesotho double object applicatives involves parameter setting.
• Developmental trajectory for acquiring complex grammatical structures extends beyond early childhood, with nuances in lexical influence.