The Acquisition of Aspect and Motion Verbs in the Native Language

374 Pages·2015·3.11 MB·English

The Acquisition of Aspect and Motion Verbs
in the Native Language

by
Maria Kotroni

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy in Psycholinguistics and Language Acquisition
at the Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics
School of English
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
2014
Acknowledgements | ii

Acknowledgements

The completion of this dissertation was made possible due to the contribution of a
number of people.
First and foremost, I would like to express my deep gratitude to Ianthi-Maria
Tsimpli, my supervisor, for her patient guidance, enthusiastic encouragement and
constructive suggestions during the planning and development of this research work.
Her willingness to give her time so generously has been very much appreciated. She
has been a constant source of inspiration, not only during the completion of the thesis,
but also since 1998 when she first introduced me to the field of linguistics. I count
myself fortunate indeed to have been her student. I would also like to express my
very great appreciation to my co-supervisors, Melita Stavrou and Eleni Agathopoulou,
for providing me with important insights and crucial points and for always being
willing to offer support when I needed it.
I owe a warm thank you to Eliza Kitis, Marina Mattheoudakis, Harald
Clahsen, Claudia Felser and Andrew Radford, for inspiring my interest in linguistic
research, as well as Sonja Eisenbeiss for teaching me statistical autonomy. I would
like to offer my special thanks to Anastasios Tsangalidis, for intriguing linguistic
discussions and insightful comments on aspect and motion literature. I am
particularly grateful for the assistance given by Anastasios Paschalis in technical
emergences. Special thanks go to my colleagues whose help proved invaluable
throughout the different stages of my research: Maria Papakonstantinou and Maria
Kaltsa.
Acknowledgements | iii

I am also very grateful to the 564 participants in my study, as well as the
parents and teachers who accepted me warmly and encouraged me positively. I wish
to acknowledge the help provided by Thomas Dallas, the headmaster of the school
where I have been teaching for three years. Without his support the completion of
this thesis would be impossible. Finally, I am particularly grateful for the assistance
given by my brother, Sotirios Kotronis, in accessing international libraries.
This dissertation is dedicated to Nikos Sanidas, my husband, for his
unconditional support and constant encouragement. I owe him a debt of love and
gratitude I can never repay.

The work reported in this thesis has benefited from discussions in the 20th
Symposium in Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, Aristotle University of
Thessaloniki: 1-3 April, 2011. Parts of the work reported in this thesis have been
published in Major Trends in Theoretical and Applied Linguistics: Selected Papers
from the 20th ISTAL. London: Versita de Gruyter. 2013. vol. 2 (pp 289-311)

The research was funded by:
 the Greek Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs (2007-2011)
 the National Scholarship Foundation (IKY) (2007-2009)
 the Foundation Propondis (2009-2011)
 the A.G. Leventis Foundation (2010-2011)
Table of Contents | iv

Table of Contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................................. II
TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................................... IV
LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................................... VI
LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................................... VIII
ABBREVIATIONS.............................................................................................................................. IX
ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................................ XII
1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................... 13
2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ON ASPECT AND MOTION ............................................ 16
2.1 DEFINING ASPECT ......................................................................................................................... 16
2.1.1 Lexical Aspect ...................................................................................................................... 17
2.1.2 Grammatical Aspect ............................................................................................................. 30
2.2 MANNER-OF-MOTION VERBS ....................................................................................................... 36
2.3 DEFINING TELICITY ....................................................................................................................... 53
2.4 ASPECT IN MODERN GREEK .......................................................................................................... 66
2.4.1 The Greek Viewpoint Aspect ................................................................................................. 70
2.4.1.1 Aspect marking and stem allocation .............................................................................................. 72
2.4.1.2 Scope/allocation of viewpoints ..................................................................................................... 75
2.4.1.3 Aspectual meanings of Viewpoint Aspect ..................................................................................... 76
2.4.2 Situation type (Lexical) Aspect ............................................................................................. 84
2.4.3 Viewpoint and Situation Type interaction ............................................................................. 86
2.5 MOTION VERBS IN MODERN GREEK ............................................................................................ 101
2.6 ACTIVITY VERBS OF CREATION AND MOTION: COERCION REVISITED ........................................... 110
3. THE ACQUISITION OF ASPECT AND MOTION ................................................................. 118
3.1 PSYCHOLINGUISTIC EVIDENCE ON THE ACQUISITION OF ASPECT ................................................. 118
3.1.1 Early acquisition of aspect: Production evidence .............................................................. 120
3.1.2 Early acquisition of aspect: Comprehension evidence ....................................................... 125
3.1.3 Late acquisition of aspect: a compositional approach ....................................................... 128
3.2 THE ACQUISITION OF ASPECT IN MOTION PREDICATES ................................................................. 143
3.3 AN INTERFACE-BASED PROPOSAL .............................................................................................. 155
3.3.1 Formalization of the notion of interface in the linguistic history ........................................ 156
3.3.2 From a Semantics-Syntax to a Discourse-Syntax Interface account of late acquisition ..... 160
4. RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND PREDICTIONS .................................................................... 170
5. THE PRE-STUDY ......................................................................................................................... 179
5.1 PARTICIPANTS AND MATERIALS ................................................................................................. 179
5.2 SUB-TASK A: RESULTS ............................................................................................................... 183
5.3 SUB-TASK B: RESULTS ............................................................................................................... 187
6. THE COMPREHENSION STUDY ............................................................................................. 195
6.1 LOCATIVE VS. DIRECTIONAL SENTENCE-VIDEO MATCHING TASK ............................................... 195
6.1.1 Participants......................................................................................................................... 196
6.1.2 Materials ............................................................................................................................. 197
6.1.3 Procedure ........................................................................................................................... 199
6.1.4 Locative vs. Directional sentence-video matching task: Results ....................................... 200
| v

6.1.5 The role of ambiguity .......................................................................................................... 213
6.1.6 The role of frequency .......................................................................................................... 217
6. 2 TELIC VS. ATELIC LOCATIVE SENTENCE-VIDEO MATCHING TASK ................................................................. 221
6.2.1 Participants......................................................................................................................... 223
6.2.2 Materials ............................................................................................................................. 223
6.2.3 Telic-atelic sentence video matching task: Results ............................................................. 225
6.2.4 The role of ambiguity .......................................................................................................... 236
6.2.5 The role of frequency .......................................................................................................... 238
6.3 BETWEEN-TASK ANALYSIS .......................................................................................................... 239
6.4 SUMMARY OF RESULTS AND PARTIAL CONCLUSIONS................................................................... 241
7. THE PRODUCTION STUDY ...................................................................................................... 250
7.1 PARTICIPANTS ............................................................................................................................. 250
7.2 MATERIALS ................................................................................................................................. 252
7.3 PROCEDURE ................................................................................................................................ 253
7.4 CODING ....................................................................................................................................... 254
7.5 RESULTS ..................................................................................................................................... 259
7.5.1 Appropriateness .................................................................................................................. 259
7.5.2 Target/non-target responses ............................................................................................... 262
7.5.3 Aspect in target responses .................................................................................................. 268
7.5.4 Non-specified aspect and verb type (light vs. non-light verb) ............................................ 273
7.5.5 Prepositional phrase (overt or null) ................................................................................... 277
7.5.6 Type of Preposition: complex or simple ............................................................................ 282
7.5.7 Type of construction............................................................................................................ 286
7.5.8 Motion ................................................................................................................................. 290
7. 6 SUMMARY OF RESULTS AND PARTIAL CONCLUSIONS ................................................................. 294
8. DISCUSSION ................................................................................................................................. 301
8.1 RESEARCH QUESTIONS REVISITED ....................................................................................................... 301
8.1.1 1st research question .......................................................................................................... 301
8.1.2 2nd Research Question ....................................................................................................... 304
8.1.2.1 Comprehension ........................................................................................................................... 304
8.1.2.2 Production ................................................................................................................................... 307
8.1.3 3rd research question ......................................................................................................... 310
8.2 THEORETICAL IMPLICATIONS .............................................................................................................. 312
8.2.1 Nature of aspectual meaning ............................................................................................ 312
8.2.2 Interfaces ............................................................................................................................ 313
8.2.3 Markedness ......................................................................................................................... 315
8.2.4 Crosslinguistic variation and acquisition ............................................................................. 316
8.3 FURTHER RESEARCH ......................................................................................................................... 318
9. CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................. 321
REFERENCES ................................................................................................................................... 322
APPENDICES .................................................................................................................................... 343
List of Tables | vi

List of Tables
Table 1: Situation types and features ........................................................................... 23
Table 2: Satellite/Verb framed construction types ....................................................... 39
Table 3: Lexicalisation of motion events in English ................................................... 40
Table 4: Lexicalisation of motion events in Greek ...................................................... 40
Table 5: Lexicalisation of motion events: crosslinguistic divergence ......................... 42
Table 6: Aspect Marking in Modern Greek ................................................................. 73
Table 7: Inflectional categories of the Greek active voice .......................................... 75
Table 8: Viewpoint Aspect and aspectual meaning ..................................................... 79
Table 9: Aspectual meanings of perfective aspect ....................................................... 80
Table 10: Patterns of correspondence between situation type and viewpoint aspect .. 87
Table 11: General Predictions ................................................................................... 171
Table 12: Pre-study: conditions ................................................................................. 182
Table 13: Pre-study: V-PP -PP (Means) ........................................................... 185
path temp
Talbe 14: Pre-study: V-PP -PP ( Means) .......................................................... 189
temp path
Table 15: Pre-study: Means of responses in both word orders .................................. 192
Table 16: Pre-study: Hierarchy of acceptability ........................................................ 193
Table 17: Comprehension: Locative vs. Directional task : Participants ................... 197
Table 18: Comprehension: Locative vs. Directional task: Conditions ..................... 198
Table 19: Comprehension: Locative vs. Directional task: Variables ....................... 200
Table 20: Comprehension: Locative vs. Directional task: Results ........................... 200
Table 21: Comprehension: Locative vs. Directional task: The role of verb type ..... 206
Table 22: Comprehension: Locative vs. Directional task: The role of ambiguity .... 213
Table 23: Comprehension: Locative vs. Directional task: Frequency (HNC) .......... 218
Table 24: Comprehension: Locative vs. Directional task : The role of frequency ... 218
Table 25: Comprehension: Telic vs. Atelic task: Participants .................................. 223
Table 26: Comprehension: Telic vs. Atelic task: Conditions .................................. 224
Table 27: Comprehension: Telic vs. Atelic task: Variables ..................................... 225
Table 28: Comprehension: Telic vs. Atelic task: Results ......................................... 226
Table 29: Comprehension: Telic vs. Atelic task: The role of verb type ................... 230
Table 30: Comprehension: Telic vs. Atelic task: The role of ambiguity .................. 237
Table 31: Comprehension: Telic vs. Atelic task: The role of frequency .................. 238
Table 32: Between Task qualitative analysis ............................................................. 240
Table 33: Comprehension tasks and implications for acquisition ............................. 242
Table 34: Production: Participants ............................................................................. 251
Table 35: Production: Conditions .............................................................................. 252
Table 36: Production: Coding (Target responses) ..................................................... 255
Table 37: Production:Coding (Non-target responses) ............................................... 255
Table 38: Production: Target predicates (examples) ................................................. 256
Table 39: Production: Non-target predicates (examples) .......................................... 257
Table 40: Production: Variables ................................................................................ 258
Table 41: Production: Appropriateness ..................................................................... 260
Table 42: Production: Target and non-target responses ............................................ 263
List of Tables | vii

Table 43: Production: Aspect in target responses ...................................................... 269
Table 44: Production: Non-specified aspect and verb type ....................................... 275
Table 45: Production: Overt or null Prepositional Phrase ......................................... 278
Table 46: Production: Type of preposition (simple or complex) ............................... 283
Table 47: Production: Type of construction .............................................................. 287
Table 48: Production: Expression of motion ............................................................. 291
List of Figures | viii

List of Figures
Figure 1: Pre-study: V-PP -PP (Preference).................................................................. 186
path temp
Figure 2: Pre-study: V-PP -PP (Preference).................................................................. 190
temp path
Figure 3: Comprehension: Locative vs. Directional task: Real verbs ................................. 202
Figure 4: Comprehension: Locative vs. Directional task : Novel verbs .............................. 202
Figure 5: Comprehension: Locative vs. Directional task: Real vs. Novel verbs (5;7) ........ 206
Figure 6: Comprehension: Locative vs. Directional task: Real vs. Novel verbs (9;6) ........ 207
Figure 7: Comprehension: Locative vs. Directional task: Real- Novel verbs (control) ....... 207
Figure 8: Comprehension: Locative vs. Directional task: The role of ambiguity ................. 214
Figure 9: Comprehension: Locative vs. Directional task: The role of frequency.................. 219
Figure 11: Comprehension:Telic vs. Atelic task: Novel verbs ............................................. 227
Figure 10: Comprehension:Telic vs. Atelic task: Real verbs ............................................... 227
Figure 12: Comprehension: Real vs. Novel verbs in the Telic vs. Atelic task (5;7) ........... 231
Figure 13: Comprehension: Real vs. Novel verbs in the Telic vs. Atelic task (9;6) ........... 231
Figure 14: Comprehension: Real vs. Novel verbs in the Telic vs. Atelic task (Adults) ...... 231
Figure 15: Comprehension: Telic vs. Atelic task: The role of ambiguity ............................ 237
Figure 16: Comprehension:Telic vs. Atelic task: The role of frequency ............................. 239
Figure 17: Production: Type of construction ......................................................................... 288
Abbreviations | ix

Abbreviations
ADD TO Additivity
AFT Aspect First Hypothesis
Asp Aspect
AspP Aspectual Phrase
beL Be located
CA Constructed action
DP Determiner Phrase
DS Deep-Structure
F Final Point
Farb Arbitrary Final Point
Fnat Natural Final Poing
IQ Intelligence quotient
I Initial Point
IMP Imperfective
IMPERF Imperfective
IP level Intermediate Phrase
L1 First Language
L2 Second Language
LF Logical Form
LOC Locative
LPMT Left posterior middle temporal gyrus
NP Noun Phrase
NON-PROG Non-progressive
P Preposition
Abbreviations | x

PAST. PART Past participle
PERF Perfective
PAST. PERF Past Tense and Perfective Aspect
PAST. IMPERF Past Tense and Imperfective Aspect
PF Phonological Form
POA Primacy of Aspect Hypothesis
PP Prepositional Phrase
PP Prepositional Phrase functioning as an adjunct
adj
PP Prepositional Phrase functioning as an adjunct and denoting Location
adj-LOC
Pp Prepositional Phrase functioning as a complement
compl
PP Prespositional Phrase functioning as a complement and denoting Goal
compl-GOAL
PP Prepositional Phrase denoting Goal
goal
PP Prepositional Path Phrase
path
PP Prepositional Phrase denoting Location
loc
PP Prepositional Temporal Phrase
temp
PRES Present tense
PROG Progressive
R Resultative
S Sentence
S-Language Satellite-Framed Language
1SG/2SG/3SG First person Singular/second person singular/third person singular
SING Singular
SES Socioeconomic Status
Spec Specifier Position
SQA Specified Quantity of A