Variety Of Verbs Research Articles

LINGVO-DIDACTIC FEACHES OF STUDYING VERBS OF MOTION IN FOREIGN MEDICAL STUDENTS’ CLASS

One of the important part of the process of studying the Ukrainian language by non-native speakers is the learning the lexical-semantic group of verbs of motion. The article deals with the main methodical principles and techniques that ensure the assimilation of information about verbs of motion in the course of the discipline «Ukrainian as a foreign language» at the theoretical and practical levels, contribute to mastering the skills to use the verbs of motion by English speaking students in their oral and written communication on their own. The article is devoted to presentation of the methodology for learning verbs of movement the the foreign medical students. The methodology was developed and tested by the teachers of the Department of Ukrainian Studies of Vinnytsya National Pirogov Memorial Medical University and presented in the national textbook «Ukrainian language as a foreign language for English-speaking medical students. Book 1. Sociocultural communication». The aim of the article is to analyze the proposed didactic solutions, presented semantic information, grammatical constructions, educational tables, types of tasks and their content in accordance with the communicative needs of English-speaking students who are starting to learn Ukrainian as a foreign language. In addition to the theoretical substantiation of the research topic, the article presents practical recommendations, a system of exercises for learning verbs of motion in a foreign-language audience at different levels of Ukrainian language proficiency. The method proposed in scientific research is the result of long-term practical work on teaching the Ukrainian language as a foreign language, it is based on a functional-communicative approach that promotes conscious mastery of the language. It is aimed at helping non-native speakers to overcome the difficulties of understanding the lexical-semantic diversity of verbs of motion in the Ukrainian language, their grammatical categories, to gain clear and structured knowledge of a complex and multifaceted topic. The key to a successful result is gradual teaching based on previously studied material, using educational schemes, grammatical constructions, tables, etc. Key words: verbs of motion, Ukrainian language as a foreign language, linguistic didactics, methodology of teaching Ukrainian language as a foreign language.

The Achievement Act in Al-Zabidiyah Maqamah of Al-Hariri deliberative study

This research seeks to study the act of achievement in Al-Zabidiyah Maqama of al-Hariri. Because it represents a linguistic characteristic worthy of study in the maqamat, as it is possible to separate the text of the maqamah, and to stand on the pragmatic purposes with different contextual dimensions that enhance the relationship between the speaker and the addressee.
 Proceeding from that, this study, titled “The Performing Verb in Al-Zabidiyah Maqama of al-Hariri: A Pragmatic Study,” examined its linguistic structures that work to accomplish verbs when they are pronounced, and demonstrates their active impact in enriching the maqamah text in the light of a pragmatic analysis that takes into account the social and cultural influences surrounding the text. And other than what is required by the deliberative lesson approach adopted by this study.
 The importance of this study lies in the fact that it seeks to identify the performing acts in Al-Zabidiyah maqamah, and then to highlight the manner in which these actions were accomplished. The nature of the research necessitated that the researcher raise the following problem;
 - What are the performing verbs generated in the text of Al-Zabidiyah Maqama? How did you accomplish these actions?
 In this study, the researcher will follow Searle's five-fold classification. In order to reach a pragmatic approach based on the exploration of the structure of the Maqama text in the light of the communicative process and the performance norms that govern it; In order to decipher its verbal codes, and to apprehend its accomplishments that it achieved in the text of Al-Zabidiyah Maqamah.
 In conclusion, this research reached a number of results, the most important of which are: the diversity of news verbs in the text of the maqamah; It came either proven, or negative, or confirmed. The command, interrogative, and appeal methods were not limited to performing directive verbs only, but rather expanded their scope, and expressive verbs were accomplished according to the context and the appropriate situation.

Considerații asupra infinitivului în documentele românești originale din secolele al XVII-lea și al XVIII-lea

This article focuses on the features of the infinitive in old Romanian original documents from Moldova and Wallachia. The corpus shows that the long infinitive is more frequent in the southern area and it is preserved until the end of the 18th century. Very rarely, in some notes and documents from the northern area, the infinitive can select a preverbal subject and can appear in hanging topic constructions. Regarding the possibility of the infinitive to occur in complex predicates, the corpus shows a high degree of grammaticalization of the construction with the modal putea followed by a bare short infinitive. Also, the documents record a diversity of verbs which combine with an A-infinitive.

Children steer the inflectional diversity of their parents: The role of word births and growing vocabulary

The inflectional diversity of parents’ speech directed to children acquiring Dutch was investigated. Inflectional diversity is defined as the number of inflected forms of a particular lemma (e.g. singular, plural of a noun) and measured by means of Mean Size of Paradigm (MSP). Changes in the inflectional diversity of infant directed speech (IDS) were analyzed as a function of children’s developing linguistic abilities. Two types of changes in the inflectional diversity of nouns and verbs were analyzed: (1) coarse tuning: changes relative to children’s growing vocabulary and (2) fine lexical tuning: changes relative to children’s use of specific lexical items. In addition, it was investigated if those changes were similar depending on particular characteristics of the children, namely, differences in their hearing abilities. Longitudinal recordings of spontaneous speech of 30 children (0;6-2;0) with normal hearing (NH) and 10 hearing-impaired children with a cochlear implant (CI) (0;6-2;6), and their parents were analyzed. As to coarse tuning, it was found that the inflectional diversity of IDS decreased at the beginning of the child’s lexical development but increased again parallel to infants’ growing cumulative vocabulary. As to fine lexical tuning, IDS showed less inflectional diversity before each child’s first use of a word and gradually more inflectional diversity afterward. In addition, parents of children with CI used less inflectionally diverse speech than parents of children with NH, which suggests an adaptation to specific characteristics of the children. In conclusion, inflectional morphology in IDS appears to be tuned to children’s hearing status and linguistic knowledge.

Formula Diversity of Verbs according to Ibrahim al-Samarrai a Study of the verb types between Criticism and Guidance

Formula Diversity of Verbs according to Ibrahim al-Samarrai a Study of the verb types between Criticism and Guidance

VARIASI DAN POLA KOLOKASI VERBA DALAM MAKNA ‘MEMBERIKAN INFORMASI’ PADA KORPUS BERITA

There are many variations of verb in the meaning of 'providing information’ in the news text. This diversity of verbs in the same field of meaning often creates similar meanings from one to another. In sentences, these variation of verbs not only functioned to enrich the vocabulary and the beauty of dictions but also can show its function in sentences. It’s relevant with Chaer's statement (2012) which said that utterances or words of synonymous are never have the same meaning. It means, each word has its role and function in giving meaning to a sentence. This research was conducted to look further at the relationship of meaning between verbs which are in the same meaning field. The meaning relations which observed are the similarities and differences between these verbs by looking at the collocate that comes after those verbs. The collocate that accompanies the verb can give an idea of ​​the verb pattern in a sentence. This research using a corpus-based application with the theme 'Reconstruction of the Murder of Brigadier J by Ferdy Sambo'. The final results show that out of thirty published reports, fourteen variations of the verb which means 'providing information' with different collocate patterns are found. This research reinforces Chaer's (2012) statement that some verbs which have a close meaning also have their pattern even though they are in the same meaning field. Keywords: news corpus, verb variations, collocations.

An Analysis of Negative Verbs’ Equivalents in a Vietnamese Translation of ‘The Call of the Wild’

Negative verbs in English are regularly translated into Vietnamese as không (Doan, 2010). However, in different types of texts and specific contexts, especially in literary ones, the equivalents of negative verbs are quite diverse and distinctive. This study aims to analyze the Vietnamese equivalent diversity of negative verbs detached from the classic literary work – 'The Call of the Wild' by Jack London (1903) (ST) and the translation ‘Tiếng gọi của Hoang dã’ by Lam Hoai and Vo Quang (2019) (TT). Based on qualitative and text analysis method, after conducting a process of splitting, filtering, and inspecting source and target texts, 164 negative verbs were detached from the ST and their matching equivalents in the TT; không and its variants were identified as the dominant equivalent pattern (72.6%). Particularly, some specific equivalents, which were the results of passive-active restructuring (1.8%), negative-positive replacement (6.7%), and other structural, lexical transformations (12.8%), have been investigated for conceivably affecting features of equivalent selections by translators. The obtained results would be a modest part contributing to the vast work of building an English-Vietnamese corpus. The matter plausibly concerns translation issues, yet the outcomes of this study could be applied to translation training and teaching reading comprehension.

Cross-linguistic transfer in Turkish–English bilinguals’ descriptions of motion events

Languages differ in how they express motion: Languages like English prefer to conflate manner and path into the same clause and express both elements frequently while languages like Turkish prefer to express these elements separately, with a greater preference for the expression of path of motion. While typological patterns are well-established for monolingual speakers of a variety of languages, relatively less is known about motion expression in bilingual speakers. The current study examined the packaging (expressing each element in separate clauses or within the same clause) and lexical choices (amount and diversity of manner and path verbs) for motion expression in monolingual speakers of Turkish or English and advanced Turkish (L1)–English (L2) bilinguals in a narrative elicitation task. Bilinguals were successful in attaining many English-like patterns of expression in their L2 English but also showed some packaging and lexical choices that were intermediate between English and Turkish monolinguals—thus providing evidence of an L1-to-L2 cross-linguistic effect. Subtle effects of L2 on L1 were also found in bilinguals’ lexical choices for the expression of motion in their L1 Turkish. Altogether, our results demonstrate bi-directional transfer effects of learning a typologically distinct language in advanced Turkish–English bilinguals.

Identifying Childhood Expressive Language Features That Best Predict Adult Language and Communication Outcome in Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Purpose Several studies have reported that "useful speech" at 5 years of age predicts outcomes in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but this skill has been vaguely defined. This study investigates which specific aspects of expressive language in children with ASD best predict adult language and communication outcomes. Method Language samples from 29 children (ages 47-72 months) enrolled in a longitudinal project (e.g., Lord et al., 2006) were transcribed and coded for spoken language features. Hierarchical linear regression was used to compare the following childhood variables as predictors of adult language and communication outcomes: noun diversity, verb diversity, mean length of utterance, and proportion of utterances that were socially motivated. Results Childhood verb diversity was a value-added predictor of all four adult outcome measures (i.e., verbal IQ, Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule Communication + Social Interaction Algorithm totals, Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test scores, and Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales Communication Domain scores), while noun diversity and proportion of utterances that were socially motivated were not value-added predictors of any adult outcome measures. In a second set of regression analyses, mean length of utterance was substituted for verb diversity and was a value-added predictor of two out of four adult outcome measures (i.e., verbal IQ and Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales Communication Domain scores). The pattern of findings for the other predictors remained the same as in the previous analyses. Conclusion These results have implications for our understanding of early language in ASD and for clinical decision making in early childhood.

A corpus-based research: The vocabulary content and parts of speech of A1 level textbooks used in teaching Turkish as a foreign language

In foreign language education, the importance of corpus-based studies has been increasing. The priorities of the words taught in language education are determined within the framework of international criteria set through corpus-based studies. Corpus and sub-corpus consisting of many layers, written and oral, increase the efficiency of the process for both teachers and learners. In teaching Turkish as a foreign language, the focus is usually on the vocabulary content of course materials. Texts in textbooks are the roof for the curriculum and practitioners. In this study, the vocabulary content of A1-level textbooks used in teaching Turkish as a foreign language was examined based on corpus; the most frequently used 1000 words were identified. These frequency lists were compared to 50 million-words produced by Aksan (2017) based on the corpus and the level of similarity was determined. The vocabulary content of textbooks was examined based on the corpus and then sorted by word forms, the rate of the number of total words and different words (type/token) was determined, and each publication examined in the data set was examined comparatively. In terms of the most frequently used words, the similarity level of the findings of Aksan (2017) conducted based on the corpus, the level of similarity of the vocabulary content of the examined book sets was found not to be an ideal level. Although the vocabulary content in textbooks was not sufficient in terms of the words in noun form, it was found that the diversity of adjectives and verbs (lemma) should be improved.

ظاهرة تعدد المعنى للفظ الواحد (البولیزمی) فی القرآن الکریم دراسة فی ضوء نظریة التحلیل التکوینی

الملخص يتناول هذا البحث بالدرس والتحليل ظاهرة تعدد المعنى للفظ الواحد (البوليزمي Polysemy) في القرآن الکريم دراسة في ضوء نظرية التحليل التکويني؛ حيث يبرز کم غزارة نماذج هذه الظاهرة في کتاب الله (عز وجل) ودورها في الإثراء الدلالي المعبر عن غايات کتاب الله (عز وجل) لنا بألفاظ واحدة ومعان متعددة ومتنوعة بتنوع کثير من المجالات الدلالية، بل ومعان متضادة أحيانا للفظ الواحد؛ فمنها ما يعبر عن دلالات سامية ونقيضها، وذلک عن طريق تنوع المحددات النحوية والصرفية والمحددات الدلالية والمميزات الدلالية التي تمثل أسس نظرية التحليل التکويني البارعة في التمييز بين المعاني المتعددة للفظ الواحد، وما کان للمعنى أن يتعدد للفظ الواحد إلا نتاج تنوع تعدد هذه المحددات، فقد تمثل تنوع المحددات النحوية والصرفية في (الاسمية والفعلية، والنفي والإثبات، والإفراد والجمع، والتأنيث والتذکير، والإفراد والترکيب بتنوعه من وصفي وإضافي وعطفي...، والجمود والاشتقاق، والتنکير والتعريف، والبناء للمعلوم والمجهول، واختلاف أبواب المضارع، والتجرد والزيادة، والتعدي واللزوم، ونوع المتعلق وتعدد حروفه، واختلاف الفاعل ونائب الفاعل والمفاعيل وتعددها، واختلاف الأوزان...) کما تمثل تنوع المحددات الدلالية في (اختلاف الأفعال والأسماء على اختلاف تنوعاتها الصرفية والموقعية والتراتبية ما بين معنوية وحسية، وبتنوع المجالات الدلالية المنتمية إليها من لفظ الجلالة والأنبياء وحقل الإنسان والحيوان والجماد والنبات والحقول المعنوية بمختلف فروعها...)، فشتان مثلا ما بين مفعول أو نائب فاعل أو فاعل هو لفظ الجلالة أو نبي أو إنسان مذکر أو مؤنث، مؤمن أو کافر أو عاص أو حيوان أو جماد أو نبات أو معنوي...ناهيک عن تنوع الأفعال واختلاف الأساليب الواردة بها، کما جاءت المميزات الدلالية حاسمة في التمييز بين المعاني المتعددة للفظ الواحد التي کانت الألفاظ المتساوقة کقيد وقرينة کثيرا ما تکون عامل الحسم والملمح الفارق؛ ولهذا کان تعريف أولمان لتعدد المعنى Polysemy بأنه تعدد معنى الکلمة الواحدة في السياقات أو المواقف اللغوية من التوفيق والأهمية والفائدة بمکان. وقد استخدم البحث إلى جانب نظرية التحليل التکويني في الدرس والتحليل المنهج الوصفي والتحليلي ونظرية السياق، وکذلک تم الاستفادة من نظرية الحقول الدلالية. Abstract This research studies and analyzes polysemy in the Holy Quran in the light of Formative Analysis Theory. It highlights the abundance of models of this phenomenon as it exists in the Holy Quran. It shows how these models contribute to the semantic enrichment expressing the purposes of the Holy Quran through words that have multiple and varied meanings. It also shows how the same word may sometimes have opposite meanings; some of the words can express noble connotations as well as their opposites. All this is done through the diversity of grammatical, syntactic, semantic determinants and semantic features which represent the bases of the good Formative Analysis Theory in distinguishing between multiple meanings of one word. In fact, the multiplicity of meanings for one word is the result of the diversity of such determinants. These grammatical and syntactic determinants can be presented in the following: nouns and verbs, negative and affirmative, singular and plural forms, masculine and feminine, simple and complex (with description, addition, and coordination functions…), root and derivation, definite and indefinite, abstract and concrete, transitive and intransitive, the diversity of subjects, pronouns and objects, and the diversity of rhymes…etc. Also, the semantic determinants can be presented in the following: the diversity of verbs and nouns with their grammatical, syntactic, hierarchical, abstract and concrete variety as well as the diversity of semantic fields that they belong to like the sacred term of Majesty, prophets, human beings, animals, objects, plants as well as all the abstract fields and their respective sub-fields…etc. In fact, there is a big difference between objects, subjects and pronouns in words like the sacred term of Majesty, prophet, human being whether it is masculine or feminine, believer, disbeliever, disobedient, animal, object, plant or abstract…etc. This is added to the diversity of verbs and the various styles in which they occur. Semantic features are also crucial in distinguishing multiple meanings of one word like constraints and attachments, and they usually become crucial and determining factors. For this reason, Olmen defined Plolysemy as “the multiplicity of the meaning of a single word in linguistic contexts or situations, of great success, importance and usefulness.” This research used not only the Formative Analysis Theory to study and analyze Polysemy, but also the Descriptive Approach, the Context Theory as well as the Semantic Fields Theory.

Exploring Sentence Diversity at the Boundary of Typical and Impaired Language Abilities.

PurposeThis review article summarizes programmatic research on sentence diversity in toddlers developing language typically and explores developmental patterns of sentence diversity in toddlers at risk for specific language impairment.MethodThe first half of this review article presents a sentence-focused approach to language assessment and intervention and reviews findings from empirical studies of sentence diversity. In the second half, subject and verb diversity in three simple sentence types are explored in an archival database of toddlers with varying levels of grammatical outcomes at 36 months of age: low average, mild/moderate delay, and severe delay.ResultsDescriptive findings from the archival database replicated previous developmental patterns. All toddlers with low-average language abilities produced diverse simple sentences by 30 months of age and exhibited greater sentence diversity with first-person I-subjects before third-person subjects. Third-person subject diversity emerged in a developmental sequence, increasing in one-argument copula contexts and one-argument subject–verb sentences before two-argument subject–verb–object sentences. This developmental pattern held across all three outcome groups. Third-person subjects were least diverse for children with severe grammatical delays and were absent in all sentence contexts for two children with severe delays at 36 months.ConclusionsSentence diversity increases gradually and expands in predictable patterns. Understanding these developmental patterns may help identify and treat children who display unexpected difficulty combining different subjects and verbs in flexible ways.Supplemental Material and Presentation Video https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.12915320

Семантика проспективности в русском и других славянских языках (на материале глаголов с приставкой пред-)

This study continues the derivatological and aspectological traditions of studying verbal prefixes as semantic distributors of the verb, expanding its capabilities in the expression of an action. The article discusses the results of a study of prospective semantics based on the verbs with the prefix pred-. This prefix has an old Slavonic origin and is realized in several meanings, the most striking of which is an indication of a previously performed action (prospectivity). This meaning is not primary, as it derives from the spatial one (being ahead), which reflects the general picture of time representation through space, on the one hand, and the models of development of spatial meanings in other semantic spheres that have developed in the language, on the other. Prospective semantics proved to be in demand not only in old Slavonic, but also in other Slavic languages (despite the quantitative differences in the use of units in these languages). The analysis of verbs and units derived from verbs with prefix pred- and its analogues shows a significantly greater number of units with this prefix in Russian and other Slavic languages (Bulgarian, Rusin, Czech, Polish, etc.) in comparison with the old Slavonic language, as well as their constant growth and semantic diversity. The research reveals the semantic features of the prefix pred- in Russian with the background of other Slavic languages (less semantic diversity of prefix meanings and verbs with it in comparison with the Bulgarian and Czech languages; predominance of prospective prefix semantics in the verbal sphere and weakening of the spatial one; absence of the meaning of the preliminary action in relation to the main one), and examines the interaction of the spatial meaning of the prefix with the meanings of prospectivity and superiority.

Motion verb constructions, frames, and profiling

Abstract This paper offers a frame-semantic account of some of the manifold phenomena that can be observed in motion expressions in typologically diverse languages. The core of the proposed approach is a basic locomotion frame complemented with a mechanism of profiling that operates on this frame. The locomotion frame provides a rich structure which features the pivotal elements beneficial for the semantic representation of different types of motion descriptions. The profiling mechanism allows one to select, deselect and augment elements of this frame structure, as well as to specify significant relations between distinct parts of the frame. With these means, the profiling mechanism facilitates fine-grained differentiations among motion verbs that considerably exceed the classic dichotomy of path and manner-of-motion verbs. The proposed theory is applied to different kinds of path and manner-of-motion verbs, including those typically found in path-dominant and manner-dominant languages, as well as in languages which exhibit a pronounced diversity of motion verbs lined up in serial verb constructions. The suggested frame-semantic analyses thus reveal intricate differentiations in a multifaceted linguistic domain.

Written verb use and diversity in children with Developmental Language Disorder: stepping stones to academic writing

Verb use and the production of verb argument structure in the written texts of children in elementary school is a key stepping stone towards academic writing success that has remained relatively unexplored and is a notable gap in our understanding of writing development. To evaluate the role of verbs in the written narrative texts of children, we compared verb use in 10 year old children that had specific weaknesses in oral language, those with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), and samples of children of the same age (CA) and the same raw scores on an oral language task (language ability or LAb). Standardised measures of oral language, reading fluency, and spelling were completed. Participants then completed a standardised writing task and the texts were examined for verb argument structure, verb production and verb diversity. No between-group differences were found in the written narrative texts in relation to the production of verb argument structures. By contrast, the number of verbs produced, and the number of different verbs used differed significantly. The total number of verbs and number of different verbs produced by the children with DLD was commensurate with their LAb peers but not their CA matched peers. All children relied on a small group of high frequency verbs in their writing, although there was evidence of greater verb diversity in the older typically developing children. Verbs produced and their diversity in narrative writing was predicted by both an oral language formulated sentences task and reading fluency, thus demonstrating the close links between expressive oral language, reading, and writing production in all children.

Degree Resultatives as Second-Order Constructions

Resultatives in English and Dutch have developed special degree readings. These readings stem from a reinterpretation of the resultative predicate as indicating a high degree rather than an actual result. For example, when a parent saysI love youtodeath, one need not call the cops, since the sentence is not about love turning lethal, but merely indicative of a high degree of affection. Such cases have often been noted in the literature as idiomatic, but this view ignores the fact that these are not isolated cases but productive constructions that can be used with a variety of verbs. We explore various resultative constructions in English and Dutch, and give a classification of the subtypes involved as well as their diachronic development from ordinary to degree interpretation. We link these subtypes to lexical semantic classes of verbs. Both English and Dutch show a steady growth in the lexical and structural diversity of degree resultatives throughout the early modern and contemporary periods (1600-2000). We focus in our paper on the period 1800-2000, for which we did an extensive corpus study using the Corpus of Historical American English (COHA) and Delpher (a collection of digitized Dutch newspapers, journals, magazines, and other resources). One of our findings is that, similar to other types of expressive language, such as degree modification and emphatic negation, taboo expressions play a role in degree resultatives; in fact, their role is excessive. We outline a number of the commonalities among the semantic domains of expressive language used in resultatives.

Verb production by individuals with Down syndrome during narration

BackgroundDespite research identifying verb knowledge as a strong predictor of later syntactic skills in typical development, virtually no research has examined verb development in Down syndrome. AimsThe purpose of this study was to examine verb production (density, diversity, and type-token ratios) by individuals with Down syndrome in the context of story generation relative to two comparison groups – nonverbal cognitive ability level matches with typical development and chronological age matches with mixed-etiology intellectual disability. Methods and ProceduresThirty-five participants with Down syndrome (11–21 years), 27 participants with intellectual disability (13–20 years), and 29 participants with typical development (4–6 years) completed a narrative story generation task. Transcripts were coded and analyzed for verb production. Outcomes and ResultsExamining overall verb production, participants with Down syndrome produced narratives with less verb density than participants with typical development and had smaller verb type-token ratios than participants with intellectual disability. Upon examining lexical verb production, participants with Down syndrome produced narratives with less lexical verb density than participants with typical development. Conclusions and ImplicationsThe results indicate that individuals with Down syndrome have a developmentally appropriate diversity of verbs in their lexicon but are not using verbs as frequently as comparison groups.

A characterization of verb use in Turkish agrammatic narrative speech

ABSTRACTThis study investigates the characteristics of narrative-speech production and the use of verbs in Turkish agrammatic speakers (n = 10) compared to non-brain-damaged controls (n = 10). To elicit narrative-speech samples, personal interviews and storytelling tasks were conducted. Turkish has a large and regular verb inflection paradigm where verbs are inflected for evidentiality (i.e. direct versus indirect evidence available to the speaker). Particularly, we explored the general characteristics of the speech samples (e.g. utterance length) and the uses of lexical, finite and non-finite verbs and direct and indirect evidentials. The results show that speech rate is slow, verbs per utterance are lower than normal and the verb diversity is reduced in the agrammatic speakers. Verb inflection is relatively intact; however, a trade-off pattern between inflection for direct evidentials and verb diversity is found. The implications of the data are discussed in connection with narrative-speech production studies on other languages.

Toddlers' Verb Lexicon Diversity and Grammatical Outcomes.

The goals of this study were to quantify longitudinal expectations for verb lexicon growth and to determine whether verb lexicon measures were better predictors of later grammatical outcomes than noun lexicon measures. Longitudinal parent-report measures from the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (Fenson et al., 2007) from ages 21 to 30 months from an archival database were used to model growth in common noun and verb lexicon size for 45 typically developing toddlers. Communicative Development Inventory growth coefficients and 24-month measures of lexical diversity from spontaneous language samples were used to predict 30-month grammatical outcomes on the Index of Productive Syntax (Scarborough, 1990). Average verb growth was characterized by 50.57 verbs at 24 months, with linear growth of 8.29 verbs per month and deceleration overall. Children with small verb lexicons or slow linear growth at 24 months accelerated during this developmental period. Verb lexicon measures were better predictors of grammatical outcomes than noun lexicon measures, accounting for 47.8% of the variance in Index of Productive Syntax scores. Lexical verb diversity in spontaneous speech emerged as the single best predictor. Measures of verb lexicon size and diversity should be included as part of early language assessment to guide clinical decision making with young children at risk for language impairment.

Diversity matters: parent input predicts toddler verb production.

The contribution of parent input to children's subsequent expressive verb diversity was explored in twenty typically developing toddlers with small verb lexicons. Child developmental factors and parent input measures (i.e. verb quantity, verb diversity, and verb-related structural cues) at age 1;9 were examined as potential predictors of children's verb production in spontaneous language samples at age 2;3. Parent verb input diversity, rather than input quantity, was the primary input factor contributing to children's subsequent verb diversity. Regression analysis showed that verb diversity in parent input at age 1;9 accounted for 30% of the variance in children's verb production six months later, with children's total vocabulary size at age 1;9 accounting for an additional 16% of the variance. These findings demonstrate the relative contributions of developmental and input factors to individual differences in toddlers' language development and establish the importance of input diversity to verb acquisition.