The acquisition of verbs and argument structure constructions

The acquisition of vocabulary and grammar are closely correlated—the single best indicator of a child's grammatical ability at 28 months of age is his or her vocabulary size at 20 months (Bates et al. 1988; Bates and Goodman 1997). This dissertation examines the relationship between vocabulary and grammar more closely. Vocabulary and grammar themselves provide clues for language-learning children—knowledge of verbs can help in learning new constructions (syntactic frames and their associated meanings) and knowledge of constructions can help in learning new verbs. Data from an experiment (Sethuraman et al. 1997), two corpus studies (Bates Corpus; Goodman Corpus), and the theoretical framework of Construction Grammar (Goldberg 1995) are used to show how children can use lexical cues to learn syntax, and syntactic cues to learn new verbs.; This dissertation discusses several findings about verbs and argument structure constructions. Information from linguistic cues (constructions) can help children learn aspects of the meaning of new verbs (Zoom Lens Hypothesis, Gleitman 1994; Chapter 2). Constructions are learned in a developmental progression, and knowledge of basic syntactic patterns can help with learning more complex structures (Chapter 3). In order to learn constructions, children need to have learned a certain amount of vocabulary, especially verbs (Bates et al. 1988; Chapter 3). Children start by using verbs conservatively in constructions in which they have heard the verbs used, and then start extending those usages to other constructions based on how other, similar verbs are used (Verb Island Hypothesis, Tomasello 1992; Chapter 4). At the same time, children can use their knowledge of light verbs, whose meanings are similar to adult constructional meanings, to further develop their knowledge of constructions (Goldberg et al. 2002, Chapter 4). These verbs are the first verbs used in the [Subject Verb Object] pattern (Ninio 1999) and appear to be “path breaking” in allowing the child to use other verbs in the same pattern. Some evidence suggesting that light verbs may also be path breaking in using a verb in multiple syntactic patterns is discussed. The role of input in learning light verbs and constructions is also examined (Chapter 5).