Arabic-L:LING:Dissertation on Berber Acquisition in Netherlands

[Dilworth Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Fri 29 Apr  2005
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1) Subject:Dissertation on Berber Acquisition in Netherlands

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1)
Date: 29 Apr  2005
From:reposted from LINGUIST
Subject:Dissertation on Berber Acquisition in Netherlands

Institution: Tilburg University
Program: Department of Linguistics
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2003

Author: Yahya E-rramdani

Dissertation Title: Acquiring Tarifit-Berber by Children in the
Netherlands and
Morocco

Dissertation URL:  http://let.uvt.nl/general/people/ye-rramd/home.htm

Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics
                      Language Acquisition

Subject Language(s): Tarifit (RIF)


Dissertation Director(s):
Abderrahman El Aissati
Guus Extra

Dissertation Abstract:

How do grammatical morphemes develop among Tarifit speaking children?
How capable are they in dealing appropriately with the different word
order
patterns Tarifit? The study carried out aims at answering these 2 major
questions with to children in the Netherlands, compared to their peers
in
Morocco. The younger group of children aged 4-5 years, referred to as
grade
1 children, and the older group up of children aged 12-13 years,
referred
to as grade 8 children.

The investigation focuses on the acquisition of morphology and syntax. 5
domains have been dealt with, i.e. 2 domains within the category of
nouns
involving plural formation and case marking, 2 other ones within the
category of verbs represented by gender-number distinction and
perfective
formation. The last domain deals with syntax, and is concerned with word
order construction.

Three stages are distinguished. Stage 1 is referred to as the lexical
stage, marked by the absence of any morphological devices, and
dominated by
the use of lexical means. Stage 2 represents the initial morphological
stage, characterized in particular by default rules which become
overgeneralized. Morphological applications at this stage result in both
correct and incorrect forms. The third stage is the final morphological
stage, marked by the correct use of morphological devices such as
prefixation, infixation and/or suffixation, as well as by the correct
morphological inflections. Overgeneralization strategies disappear in
this third
stage. When applying this developmental schema on Tarifit speaking
children in
the Netherlands, the majority of grade 1 children were in the first
stage. A
small number reached the second stage, spread over the first part of
suffixation
in which they ignored the prefixation process, and the second part in
which both
prefixation and suffixation devices were used. Very few children
reached stage
3, and succeeded in matching their peers in Morocco. Grade 8 children
in the
Netherlands were in the morphological stage, and were distributed over
stage 2
and stage 3.

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End of Arabic-L:  29 Apr  2005