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Lexical Polycategoriality: Cross-linguistic, cross-theoretical and language acquisition approaches
Edited by Valentina Vapnarsky and Edy Veneziano
[Studies in Language Companion Series 182] 2017
► pp. 307–341

Flexibles and polyvalence in Ku Waru

A developmental perspective

| Australian National University
This chapter concerns the nature and universality of word classes and their relation to syntagmatic types. Having thought through these issues on the basis of material from a Papuan language, Ku Waru, of the Western Highlands of Papua New Guinea, in this paper we make use of child language acquisition data from that language to examine the acquisition of word classes and clause-level syntactic structures. In particular, we examine the frequency and development in children’s acquisition of two distinct multi-word verbal constructions: the adjunct+verb construction and the serial verb construction. The paper considers these structures and the processes of their acquisition from two points of view: that of the adult target language towards which children’s proficiency is developing; and that of children’s speech at various points in development, from 17 to about 36 months, considered as emergent and evolving systems in their own right.
Keywords: child language acquisition, word classes, serial verb constructions, Papuan languages, longitudinal study
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Ku Waru: Background and the grammar of adjunct+verb constructions
  • 3.Ku Waru serial verb constructions and multiply-inflecting verbs
  • 4.Verbless copular clauses
  • 5.Nouns, verbs, Adjuncts and flexibles in Ku Waru Child Language
    • 5.1From 1;8 to 2;0–2;1
    • 5.2From 2;4 to 3;1
    • 5.3The role of adult input
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgement
  • Abbreviations
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 1 November 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.182.11mer
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Cited by (3)

Cited by three other publications

Reed, Lauren W.
2022. Sign networks: Nucleated network sign languages and rural homesign in Papua New Guinea. Language in Society 51:4 ► pp. 627 ff. DOI logo
Rumsey, Alan, Lauren W. Reed & Francesca Merlan
2020. Ku Waru Clause Chaining and the Acquisition of Complex Syntax. Frontiers in Communication 5 DOI logo
van Lier, Eva
2017. Introduction. Studies in Language 41:2 ► pp. 241 ff. DOI logo

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