The Acquisition of Swahili (Language Acquisition and Language Disorders, Volume 40)

257 Pages·2005·0.96 MB·English

by  Kamil Ud Deen

<DOCINFOAUTHOR""TITLE"TheAcquisitionofSwahili"SUBJECT"LanguageAcquisition&LanguageDisorders,Volume40"KEYWORDS""SIZEHEIGHT"240"WIDTH"160"VOFFSET"4">
TheAcquisitionofSwahili
Language Acquisition & Language Disorders
Volumesinthisseriesprovideaforumforresearchcontributingtotheoriesof
languageacquisition(firstandsecond,childandadult),languagelearnability,
languageattritionandlanguagedisorders.
SeriesEditors
HaraldClahsen LydiaWhite
UniversityofEssex McGillUniversity
EditorialBoard
MelissaF.Bowerman LuigiRizzi
MaxPlanckInstitutfürPsycholinguistik,Nijmegen UniversityofSiena
KatherineDemuth BonnieD.Schwartz
BrownUniversity UniversityofHawaiiatManao
WolfgangU.Dressler AntonellaSorace
UniversitätWien UniversityofEdinburgh
NinaHyams KarinStromswold
UniversityofCaliforniaatLosAngeles RutgersUniversity
JürgenM.Meisel JürgenWeissenborn
UniversitätHamburg UniversitätPotsdam
WilliamO’Grady FrankWijnen
UniversityofHawaii UtrechtUniversity
MabelRice
UniversityofKansas
Volume40
TheAcquisitionofSwahili
byKamilUdDeen
The Acquisition of Swahili
Kamil Ud Deen
UniversityofHawaiiatManoa
JohnBenjaminsPublishingCompany
Amsterdam(cid:1)/(cid:1)Philadelphia
TM Thepaperusedinthispublicationmeetstheminimumrequirements
8
ofAmericanNationalStandardforInformationSciences–Permanence
ofPaperforPrintedLibraryMaterials,ansiz39.48-1984.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
KamilUdDeen
TheAcquisitionofSwahili / KamilUdDeen.
p. cm.(LanguageAcquisition&LanguageDisorders,issn
0925–0123;v.40)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindexes.
1.Swahililanguage--Acquisition.2.Swahililanguage--Dialects--
Kenya--Nairobi.3.Swahililanguage--Verb.4.Swahililanguage--Affixes.5.
Children--Language.I.Title.II.Series.
PL8701.U33 2005
496’.3928--dc22 2005053684
isbn9027253005(Hb;alk.paper)
©2005–JohnBenjaminsB.V.
Nopartofthisbookmaybereproducedinanyform,byprint,photoprint,microfilm,or
anyothermeans,withoutwrittenpermissionfromthepublisher.
JohnBenjaminsPublishingCo.·P.O.Box36224·1020meAmsterdam·TheNetherlands
JohnBenjaminsNorthAmerica·P.O.Box27519·Philadelphiapa19118-0519·usa
For Jung Eun

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements.......................................................................................xi
List of Abbreviations...................................................................................xiii

Chapter 1. Setting the Scene...........................................................................1
1.0. Introduction....................................................................................1
1.1. The Study........................................................................................6
1.2. Early Morphosyntactic Convergence.............................................8
1.2.1 The Frequency of Omission...................................................9
1.2.2 The Paucity of Agreement Errors.........................................10
1.2.3 Root Infinitives.....................................................................12
1.3. Acquisition of Bantu Languages..................................................18
1.3.1 Sesotho..................................................................................19
1.3.2 Siswati..................................................................................21
1.4. Other Morphologically Rich Languages......................................23
1.4.1 Quechua................................................................................24
1.4.2 Inuktitut................................................................................25
1.5. Organization.................................................................................27

Chapter 2. The Swahili Language................................................................31
Part I: Description........................................................................................31
2.1. Basic Facts....................................................................................33
2.2. General Phonological Facts..........................................................34
2.3. Noun Classes................................................................................37
2.4. The Verbal Complex....................................................................38
2.4.1 Subject Agreement Paradigm...............................................39
2.4.1.1 Nairobi Swahili vs. Standard Swahili.............................40
2.4.1.2 SA Omission...................................................................41
2.4.2 Tense/Aspect........................................................................42
2.4.3 Negation................................................................................44
2.4.4 Object Agreement Marking..................................................46
2.4.5 Roots.....................................................................................47
2.4.6 Suffixes.................................................................................49
2.4.7 Final Vowel..........................................................................51
2.4.8 Imperatives...........................................................................53
Part II. Theoretical Analysis of Swahili.......................................................55
2.5. The Derivation of a Tensed Clause..............................................55
2.6. Null Subjects – Null pro...............................................................59
2.7. Rate and Context of Null Subjects...............................................63
2.8. Subject Agreement Omission.......................................................67
2.8.1 Imperatives...........................................................................69
viii THE ACQUISITION OF SWAHILI
2.8.2 Infinitives..............................................................................69
2.8.3 Habituals...............................................................................70
2.8.4 Continuative Clauses............................................................71
2.8.5 Differences Between Habituals and Continuatives..............72
2.8.5.1 Optionality of SA............................................................72
2.8.5.2 Optionality of Subjects...................................................72
2.8.5.3 Embedding......................................................................74
2.9. [-SA] Clauses................................................................................76
2.9.1 Frequency of [-SA] Clauses.................................................77
2.9.2 Tense in [-SA] Clauses.........................................................77
2.9.3 Implicit Reference of [-SA] Clauses....................................78
2.9.4 Overt Subjects in [-SA] Clauses...........................................79
2.9.5 Contexts in Which [-SA] Clauses Occur..............................80
2.10. Null Subjects in [-SA] Clauses.....................................................82
2.11. Rizzi’s Null Constant....................................................................85
2.12. Null Constants in Swahili.............................................................87
2.12.1 Accounting for [-SA] Characteristics...................................88
2.12.2 Identification in [-SA] Clauses.............................................89
2.12.3 Ariel (1990) and Gutman (1999)..........................................91
2.13. Conclusion....................................................................................96

Chapter 3. Theories of Language Acquisition..............................................99
3.1 Theories of Omission in Child Language...................................100
3.1.1 Metrical Omission Model...................................................100
3.1.2 The Truncation Hypothesis................................................104
3.1.3 Underspecification of Tense...............................................107
3.1.4 Underspecification of Agr..................................................109
3.1.5 Agr-Tense Omission Model (ATOM)................................110
3.2 Predictions of The Theories of Omission for Swahili......................114
3.2.1 Metrical Omission Model...................................................114
3.2.2 Truncation Hypothesis........................................................117
3.2.3 Underspecification Theories...............................................121
3.3 Theories of Null Subjects in Child Language..................................123
3.3.1 Processing Limitations.......................................................124
3.3.2 Null Subjects as PRO.........................................................126
3.3.3 Topic-Drop.........................................................................129
3.3.4 Valian (1991)......................................................................133
3.3.5 Wang et al. (1992)..............................................................135
3.4 Predictions of Null Subject Theories for Swahili.............................137
3.4.1 Predictions of Bloom (1990)..............................................137
3.4.2 Predictions of a Null Subjects as PRO Hypothesis............137
3.4.3 Predictions of a Null Subjects as Topic Drop Hypothesis..138
CONTENTS ix
Chapter 4. Results and Evaluating Theories...............................................139
4.0. Introduction and the Children..........................................................139
4.1 Results – Clause Types in Child Swahili..........................................141
4.1.1 Mood Omission and the Rate of RIs in Swahili.................142
4.1.2 A Note About Object Agreement.......................................149
4.1.3 Full Clauses........................................................................153
4.1.4 [-SA] Clauses......................................................................155
4.1.5 [-T] Clauses........................................................................159
4.1.6 Bare Stems..........................................................................163
4.1.7 Tense Omission versus SA Omission.................................166
4.1.8 Similar Omissions in Adult Swahili...................................167
4.1.9 Summary of Results............................................................169
4.2 Results – Null Subjects in Child Swahili..........................................170
4.2.1 Full Clauses........................................................................171
4.2.2 [-SA] Clauses......................................................................173
4.2.3 [-T] Clauses........................................................................175
4.2.4 Bare Stems..........................................................................179
4.2.5 Summary.............................................................................180
4.3 Revisiting Theories of Omission......................................................182
4.3.1 Metrical Omission Model...................................................182
4.3.2 Truncation Hypothesis........................................................183
4.3.3 Underspecification of T......................................................184
4.3.4. Underspecification of Agr..................................................184
4.3.5 ATOM...............................................................................184
4.4 Revisiting Theories of Null Subjects................................................184
4.4.1 Processing Theories on the Omission of Subjects..............185
4.4.1.1 Measuring Processing Load..........................................185
4.4.1.2 Utterance Length in Words/Morphemes......................187
4.4.1.3 Are Null Subjects Correlated with Processing Load?..188
4.4.1.4 Correlation of SA Omission and Processing Load.......188
4.4.2 Child Null Subjects as PRO................................................189
4.4.3 Topic-Drop.........................................................................190
4.5 Remaining Questions........................................................................190
4.6 Conclusion........................................................................................194
4.6.1 Summary.............................................................................194
4.6.2 Issues of Frequency in the Input.........................................194
4.6.3 Poverty of the Stimulus......................................................196
4.6.4 Returning to Bare Verbs.....................................................198

Appendix 1: Methodology and Related Issues...........................................201
1.1 Children............................................................................................201
1.2 Data Collection.................................................................................203
1.3 Linguistic Measures..........................................................................205