Contextual Dependency and Overuse of "estar" in the Acquisition of Spanish Copula Verbs

Autor/inn/en	Aveledo, Fraibet; Sanchez-Alonso, Sara; Piñango, Maria Mercedes
Titel	Contextual Dependency and Overuse of "estar" in the Acquisition of Spanish Copula Verbs
Quelle	In: First Language, 42 (2022) 5, S.649-669 (21 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0142-7237
DOI	10.1177/01427237221100913
Schlagwörter	Verbs; Language Usage; Language Acquisition; Semantics; Pragmatics; Correlation; Context Effect; Children; Adults; Age Differences; Spanish; Prediction; Task Analysis; Foreign Countries; Sentences; Decision Making; Cues; Venezuela + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Sprachgebrauch; Sprachaneignung; Spracherwerb; Semantik; Pragmalinguistik; Korrelation; Child; Kind; Kinder; Age; Difference; Age difference; Altersunterschied; Spanisch; Vorhersage; Aufgabenanalyse; Ausland; Sentence analysis; Satzanalyse; Decision-making; Entscheidungsfindung; Stichwort
Abstract	The delayed acquisition of Spanish "ser" and "estar" is generally understood as rooted in the cognitive demands imposed by the integration of semantic-pragmatic and world-knowledge factors associated with their lexical meanings. Here we ask (1) what is the nature of this language world-knowledge integration? and (2) what is the developmental trajectory including its age distribution? We examine Spanish copula production and comprehension in 142 children (age range: 4-12 years) and 26 adults. Using two tasks, sentence-choice (comprehension) and cued-production (production), we test the hypothesis that "estar" use is constrained by an ability to construe an alternative to the copula predication; an ability that develops with life experience. We test "estar/ser" use in two contexts: alternative-supporting, favoring "estar" use; and alternative-neutral, neutral regarding "estar" use, and possibly favoring "ser" use. The results show that for comprehension, children do not reveal adult-level sensitivity to context, exhibiting instead over-selection of "estar" sentences. For production, all children over-produce the "estar" sentence, even after having just chosen the "ser" counterpart. However, in this task, the 10- to 12-year-olds do behave similarly to adults and differently from 4- to 6-year-olds, consistent with our hypothesis. Alternative construal requires exposure to entities and properties in a variety of situations; exposure that older children are more likely to exhibit. Collectively, these results (1) support the properties of "estar" use hypothesized to underlie the language-world-knowledge integration, and (2) delineate a potential developmental trajectory whereby mastery of the copula may not begin to manifest until 10-12 years of age, not because of any one linguistic factor but rather due to specific world-knowledge exposure constraints. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01