30.1362, Books: Rule and order: Meyer

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-30-1362. Wed Mar 27 2019. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 30.1362, Books: Rule and order: Meyer

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Date: Wed, 27 Mar 2019 21:39:04
From: Janacy van Duijn Genet [lot at uva.nl]
Subject: Rule and order: Meyer

 


Title: Rule and order 
Subtitle: Acquiring ordinals in Dutch and English 
Series Title: LOT Dissertation Series  

Publication Year: 2019 
Publisher: Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics / Landelijke (LOT)
	   http://www.lotpublications.nl/
	

Book URL: https://www.lotpublications.nl/rule-and-order 


Author: Caitlin Meyer

Paperback: ISBN:  9789460933158 Pages: 195 Price: Europe EURO 31.00


Abstract:

Using novel comparative acquisition data (from a total of 250 children aged
2;08–6;04), this first book on ordinal learning presents an acquisition
pattern that is unlike any other. At first sight, the data seem
straightforward: both learners of Dutch and English acquire irregular ordinal
numerals (such as Dutch derde ‘third’ or English second) after regular ones
(such as vierde ‘fourth’ and seventh), and even after analytic ordinal forms
(hoofdstuk vijf ‘chapter five’). This holds for both comprehension and
production.

What makes this process crucially different from familiar patterns in
numerical and morphological development is that there is no evidence for an
initial lexical learning stage. Children acquire the first cardinals (one,
two, three, four) sequentially before they can count productively. In
morphological development, productive rules usually follow storage of
individual forms. In the ordinal case, however, children start out with a rule
(informally: cardinal + suffix = ordinal, or for analytic forms: cardinal
after a noun = ordinal). Though exceptions are acquired lexically, they come
in after overgeneralization errors, rather than before; ordinal acquisition is
not u-shaped.

The main claim is that children use morphosyntactic structure to acquire
ordinal meaning. By combining insights from linguistics, developmental
psychology and numerical cognition, this work not only provides an account for
how linguistic rules can be the driving force behind ordinal acquisition, but
also for why ordinals are so different in the first place. Put simply, not all
rule-learning is equal, in part because not all storage is equal.
 



Linguistic Field(s): Language Acquisition


Written In: English  (eng)

See this book announcement on our website: 
http://linguistlist.org/pubs/books/get-book.cfm?BookID=135053




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