One potential challenge for children learning Inuktitut comes from the ergative case marking system, because of the contrast between the ergative system in morphology and the accusative system governing syntax. However, no studies have yet been published focusing on how Inuktitut-speaking children acquire ergativity. In this chapter, we investigate this process using naturalistic spontaneous speech data from four Inuktitut-speaking children aged 2;0–3;6. We find that these children largely avoid producing structures that require ergative morphology. Analysis of caregiver speech and spoken narratives from older children and adults shows that this avoidance occurs regardless of age. We conclude that Inuktitut may be in the process of historical change from an ergative-absolutive system to a nominative-accusative system, and that the children’s language reflects that change.
2021. Alignment Change and the Emergence of the Thematic Conjugation from Proto‐Indo‐European to Indo‐European: A Wedding of Hypotheses*. Transactions of the Philological Society 119:2 ► pp. 107 ff.
Michael Fortescue, Marianne Mithun & Nicholas Evans
2017. The Oxford Handbook of Polysynthesis,
Allen, Shanley E. M. & Catherine Dench
2015. Calculating mean length of utterance for eastern Canadian Inuktitut. First Language 35:4-5 ► pp. 377 ff.
Kelly, Barbara F., William Forshaw, Rachel Nordlinger & Gillian Wigglesworth
2015. Linguistic diversity in first language acquisition research: Moving beyond the challenges. First Language 35:4-5 ► pp. 286 ff.
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