Particle placement in early child language. A case study

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Particle placement in early child language. A
case study

• Holger Diessel
• University of Jena
• holger.diessel_at_uni-jena.de
• http//www.holger-diessel.de/

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Verb-particle construction

• He looked up the number.
• (2) He looked the number up.

(3) He walked up the hill. (4) He walked the
hill up.
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Verb-particle construction

• Bolinger 1971 Fraser 1974, 1976 Bock 1977
  Dixon 1982 Chen 1986 Hawkins 1994 Peters 1999
  Wasow 2002 Dehé et al. 2002 Gries 1999, 2003

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NP-type

• (1) He put it down.
• (2) He put the ball down.

(3) He put down it. (4) He put down the ball.
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Length

• (1) He looked the number up.
• (2) He looked the number of his neighbour in the
  yellow pages up.

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Complexity
(1) He put the ball with the blue stripes
down. (2) He put the ball that Sue had given him
down.
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Meaning
(1) He pushed the chair away. (2) He ate up his
lunch. (3) He turned on the TV.
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Information structure

• (1) What did she do with the ball?
• -gt She picked the ball up.
• What did she pick up?
• -gt She picked up the ball.

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Definiteness
(1) I turn the light on. (2) I turn on a light.
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Stress
(1) Pick up him. (2) Pick up HIM (not her).
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Directional PP
(1) Peter put the cup back. (2) Peter put back
the cup.
(3) Peter put the cup back on the
table. (4) Peter put back the cup on the table.
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Research question

• Does the positioning of the particle in child
  language vary with the same factors as in adult
  language?
• Do children use the two particle positions
  productively?

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Data collection
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Data collection

• Attested
• on, off, back, away, in, out, down, over, around,
  up

Not attested against, upon,
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Data collection

• turn up hill / up hill .
• then wake up
• up the wall .
• up .
• Eve stand up Mommy stool .
• I pick up .
• up wall .
• bobbing up an(d) down .
• I covered it up .
• well this is up in the house .

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Data collection

• turn up hill / up hill .
• then wake up
• up the wall.
• up .
• Eve stand up Mommy stool .
• I pick up .
• up wall .
• bobbing up an(d) down .
• I covered it up .
• well this is up in the house .

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Types of constructions

• (17) He picked me up. Transitive VPC
• (18) He walked away. Intransitive VPC
• (19) I am back. Predicative VPC
• (20a) Shoes on. Fragmented VPC
• (20b) Down! Fragmented VPC
• (21) Put it on the table. PP

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Types of constructions
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Types of constructions
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Types of constructions
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Types of constructions
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Hypothetical example
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Hypothetical example
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Hypothetical example
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Development of construction types
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Construction fragments
(1) Down. (2) Shoes on. (3) Me up. (4) Hat off.
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Construction fragments

• The particles basically function as
  predicates.
• Children acquire the meaning of the transitive
  VPC
• before they master its form.

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Particles
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Verbs
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(No Transcript)
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Omitted object NPs
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Predictor variables

• Length of object
• Complexity of object
• NP Type
• Meaning of particle
• Definiteness
• Directional PP

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Dependent variables
Two levels

• Construction 1 V_P_NP
• Construction 2 V_NP_P

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Coding
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Coding
(1) You put on lipstick on. Eve 21 (2) I do
it turn on the light on. Peter 21 (3) Taking
off one my roller skates off Peter
23 (4) Turn on a light off. Peter 20
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Raw frequency
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Meaning

• He pushed the chair away. Spatial
• He turned on the TV. Non-spatial

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Meaning
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Statistical hypothesis testing

• Null hypothesis There is no significant
  difference
• between the two groups.
• Alternative hypothesis There is a significant
• difference between the two groups.

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??-square
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Length

• Pick him up. 1 word
• Pull this thing up. 2 words
• He wiping up that I spilled. 3 words

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Length
(?2 (2)57.56 plt.001)

• Pick him up. 1 word
• Pull this thing up. 2 words
• He wiping up that I spilled. 3 words

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Complexity
(?2 (2)29.16 plt.004)

• He put the ball down. Simple
• Pulls Eve sleeve up Intermediate
• He wiping up that I spilled. Complex

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Complexity
(?2(1) 3.25 p gt .102 )
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NP type
(?2(2)30.51 plt.001)

• He picked it up. Third person pronoun
• Put that down. Other pronouns
• Put my glasses on. Lexical NPs

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Definiteness
(?2(2) 28.85 p lt .001 )

• Put the top on. Definite determiner
• Picked up a ball. Indefinite determiner
• Taking these off. No determiner

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Definiteness
(?2(1) 3.076 p gt .094 )

• Put the top on. Definite determiner
• Picked up a ball. Indefinite determiner
• Taking these off. No determiner

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Directional PP
(?2(1).849 plt.622)

• Put the hat away. No PP
• Put the hat down on the table. PP

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Interim summary

• Four of the six factors that correlate with
  particle placement in adult language are also
  significant in early child language

• Length of object
• Complexity of object
• NP type of object
• Meaning of particle

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Multifactorial analysis
complexity
length
V_NP_P
meaning
NP type
V_P_NP
PP
definiteness
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Multifactorial analysis
Effect size Overall model Nagelkerkes R2
.315 Without meaning of particle Nagelkerkes R2
.223 Without NP-type Nagelkerkes R2 .045
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Discussion

• Hypothesis
• The multifactorial analysis suggests that the NP
  type of the direct object and the meaning of the
  particle influence the childrens decision to
  place the particle in a particular position.

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Alternative explanation

• Alternative hypothesis
• Children use the verb-particle constructions they
  encounter in the ambient language without
  processing the factors that influence particle
  placement in adult language.

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Imitation

• There is no evidence that children just imitate
  the verb-particle constructions they encounter in
  the ambient language.

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Route-learning

• (1) a. Pick them up. Peter 20
• b. Pick up my cup. Peter 21
• (2) a. Turn the light on. Peter 21
• b. Turn on a light. Peter 20
• (3) a. Dont take a wheels off. Peter 20
• b. Take off wheels. Peter 20
• (4) a. I can blow it up. Eve 21
• b. I want blow up this. Eve 21
• (5) a. You wipe it up. Eve 22
• b. He wiping up that I spill. Eve 22
• (6) a. Gloria picking her up. Eve 23
• b. Picking up leaves. Eve 110
• (7) a. Put their hats on. Eve 22
• b. She putting on her coat. Eve 22

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Route-learning

• (1) I put them back. Peter 111
• (2) Put it back. Peter 20
• Put a back. Peter 20
• I have to put the pen back into my
  pocket. Peter 20
• Put more back. Peter 20
• Put more back. Peter 20
• Put it back right there. Peter 20
• Put it back tape right there. Peter 21
• Put a back other wheel. Peter 21
• I put a back. Peter 22
• Let me put it back Peter 22
• Lets put a back. Peter 111

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Route-learning
(1) You put on lipstick on. Eve 21 (2) I do
it turn on the light on. Peter 21 (3) Taking
off one my roller skates off. Peter
23 (4) Turn on a light off. Peter 20
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Conclusion

• Children as young as 20 years of age process at
  least some of the factors that motivate particle
  placement in adult language.

Children play an active role in the acquisition
process and begin very early to use grammatical
patterns creatively.