Novel verb experiments

[kkennedy at clarku.edu]

Dear all,

We are currently working on a senior capstone project at Clark University
trying to replicate with an adult population some of the work Nancy Budwig
and several of the graduate students (Enila Cenko, Juan Hu, Kaya Ono,
Smita Srivastava) have been doing with novel verb experiments with
preschoolers speaking a variety of languages. The question we have been
curious about is how adults do in similar tasks, in particular whether
they produce novel verbs modeled in one construction in constructions they
have not heard the verbs used in, and whether this differs when training
takes place in transitive versus intransitive constructions. Our own
search for novel verb experiments with adult populations has not turned up
much; we would be grateful for recommendations of studies that address
this topic.

Many thanks for your help.

Kevin Kennedy & Jason Edgarton
Undergraduate students, Clark U. '07

Kkennedy at clarku.edu
Jaedgarton at clarku.edu