EALL Colloqium Series: The Acquisition of the Japanese Imperfective Aspect Marker -teiru: Its Implications for Language Acquisition Theory

Activity Type: 
Lecture
Presenter: 
Yasuhiro Shirai, Department of Linguistics
Date: 
Friday, October 28, 2011 - 12:00
Event Status: 
As Scheduled
Location: 
4130 WWPH
Cost: 
Free

This paper investigates the acquisition of imperfective aspect marker -teiru in Japanese. Through the analysis of caretaker speech and children's speech, it tests the predictions of the Language Bioprogram Hypothesis (Bickerton, 1981) and the Distributional Bias Hypothesis (Shirai & Andersen, 1995). The results show strong correspondences between input and children's language, and support the latter hypothesis.

Light refreshments will be served.

UCIS Unit: 
Asian Studies Center
Non-University Sponsors: 
East Asian Languages and Literatures
World Regions: 
Asia
East Asia