First Contact in Verb Acquisition: Defining a Role for Syntax

Abstract

The goal of this research was to address 2 questions regarding children's use of syntactic information in acquiring verbs: First, what are children's biases for actions in the absence of syntactic information; and second, how specific is the meaning derived for verbs when syntactic information is present? In 3 experiments we presented nonsense verbs either in syntactic isolation (e.g., "Look! Sebbing!") or embedded within a transitive syntactic frame (e.g., "The frog is sebbing the duck"). These actions were then separated, and the children (mean age = 2 years, 3 months) were asked to select the action which was the referent of the verb. In Experiment 1, Causative actions (in which 1 character forces another to move in some way) were paired with Synchronous actions (in which both characters move simultaneously). In Experiment 2, the same Synchronous actions were now paired with Contact actions (in which 1 character merely touches the other). In Experiment 3, the Contact actions were paired with Causative ones. 2 results emerged: (1) Children have identifiable action biases in the absence of syntactic information and (2) these biases can be shifted by the addition of a transitive syntactic frame. We conclude that the meaning derived from the transitive frame is not specifically Causative or Contact but, more generally, a sense that 1 character is affecting another.