Introduction to the Study of Language
Dr. Robert D. King

Fall 1997

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Answers to Acquisition Homework (Week 7)

2. (Refer back to ìChildren Form Rules and Construct a Grammarî). Yes, the acquisition of negation and questions is overgeneralization. Adult grammars have complicated rules for negation:

John goes	John does not go/John is not going
I am happy	I am not happy
Do it!	Donít do it!

So the adult rule of negation is: put in ìnotî but subject to all sorts of constraints and the addition of other words (like ìdoî).

Child Rule 1: Stick ìnoî at the beginning of the sentence (no heavy, no singing song, no want stand head). The child has overgeneralized the rule by using only the ìstick in noî part and riding roughshod over the rest of the constraints the adult grammar has.

Child Rule 2: Put in ìnoî but not at the beginning of the sentence. Put it before the major content word of the utterance (He no bite you, I no taste them, That no fish school)

Child Rule 3. Put in ìnoî but with lots of complications -- though still not the exact same ones the adult has (No Fraser drink all tea, He no bite you, Fraser donít want no food)

Similarly for question formation.


5.A. (S --> V N is already done in the homework)
S --> Mod N S --> N V S --> Vocative N/Adj

B. The utterances ungrammatical in an adult grammar are*A hands, *More nut, *Two tinker-toy, *(?)That Adam.
A must be followed by a singular noun
More must be followed by a plural noun, ditto Two.
That Adam needs a copula ìbeî, so That is Adam.


6.
1. Delete nasalization and the nasal [n]
2. Initial cluster [sk] --> [kh] (Asp. rule has been acquired!)
3. Replace palatoalveolar by alveolar
4. Replace interdental fricative by stop [d]
5. Initial cluster [pl] is simplified to single consonant [p] and (because the kid has learned the rule that initial voiceless stops in English are aspirated) [ph]
Generalizations about child language: they donít like initial consonant clusters and tend to reduce them to single consonants (CVCVCV ... is the preferrred syllable structure); fricatives are often replaced by stops; [l] is replaced by [w] or [j]