ERIC Number: EJ1485755
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2023-Sep
Pages: 36
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0305-0009
EISSN: EISSN-1469-7602
Available Date: 0000-00-00
Rules and Exceptions: A Tolerance Principle Account of the Possessive Suffix in Northern East Cree
Journal of Child Language, v50 n5 p1119-1154 2023
Debate around inflectional morphology in language acquisition has contrasted various rule- versus analogy-based approaches. This paper tests the rule-based Tolerance Principle (TP) against a new type of pattern in the acquisition of the possessive suffix -im in Northern East Cree. When possessed, each noun type either requires or disallows the suffix, which has a complex distribution throughout the lexicon. Using naturalistic video data from one adult and two children -- Ani (2;01-4;03) and Daisy (3;08-5;10) -- this paper presents two studies. Study 1 applies the TP to the input to extrapolate two possible sets of nested rules for -im and make predictions for child speech. Study 2 tests these predictions and finds that each child's production of possessives over time is largely consistent with the predictions of the TP. This paper finds the TP can account for the acquisition of the possessive suffix and discusses implications for language science and Cree language communities.
Descriptors: American Indian Languages, Suffixes, Form Classes (Languages), Morphology (Languages), Verbs, Nouns, Linguistic Input, Child Language, Speech Communication, Prediction, Language Acquisition
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: National Science Foundation (NSF)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: 1912062
Author Affiliations: 1University of Wisconsin–Madison

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