Elicitation Experiments: Unaccusatives

1
Elicitation ExperimentsUnaccusatives

• Angeliek van Hout
• University of Groningen

2
Unaccusatives - Intro

• 2 Classes of intransitive verbs Subject Verb
• - Unergatives
• sleep, talk, scream, ring, walk
• - Unaccusatives
• fall, die, melt, grow, walk to the store
• van Hout, 1998, Event Semantics of Verb Frame
  Alternations A case study of Dutch and its
  acquisition. Garland Publishing, New York. Ch 6.

3
Unaccusatives - Intro

• Unergative Unaccusative
• D-Syntax VP VP
• Subj V V
• V V Obj
• Lexicon V (Ext arg) V (Int arg)

4
Unaccusatives - Intro

• Unergative Unaccusative
• D-Syntax S S
• Subj V Subj V
• NP
• V V Obj
• NP
• Lexicon V (Ext-arg) V (Int-arg)

5
Unaccusatives - Intro

• Unergative Unaccusative
• S-Syntax S S
• Subj V Subj V
• NP NP
• V V Obj
• t

6
Unaccusatives - Acquisition

• Acquisition problem 1
• How does the learner find out that there are 2
  kinds of intransitives, given that they look just
  alike at the surface?
• S-Syntax S
• Subj V

7
Unaccusatives - Acquisition

• Acquisition problem 2
• How does the learner decide which class a new
  intransitive verb belongs to, given that the
  s-syntax is not informative (Subject-Verb)?

8
Unaccusatives - 2 Theories

• Theory 1
• Thematic roles determine unaccusativity
• Agent -gt external argument -gt unergative
• Theme -gt internal argument -gt unaccusative

9
Unaccusatives - 2 Theories

• Theory 2
• Aspect determines unaccusativity
• Atelic -gt external argument -gt unergative
• Telic -gt internal argument -gt unaccusative

10
Unaccusatives - 2 Theories

• Spontaneous data do not speak to this issue
• gt Need for a controlled experiment in which
  thematic roles and aspect are systematically
  varied

11
Unaccusatives - Rationale

• Need a syntactic diagnostic of unaccusativity in
  Dutch
• gt Auxiliary selection hebben have / zijn be
• Unergative De baby heeft geslapen
• the baby has slept
• Unaccusative De baby is gegroeid
• the baby is grown

12
Unaccusatives - Rationale

• Need to work with novel verbs
• For existing verbs the learner may already know
  which auxiliary it combines with
• SHOW DEMO (4 mins) RUN EXPERIMENT

13
Unaccusatives - Sample item

• domen non-agentive, atelic
• E Hier is een groene gieter en een elastiekje.
  En nu komt domen.
• Heres a green pitcher and a rubber band. En now
  well see doming.
• Dit is domen. De gieter doomt aan het elastiekje.
• This is doming. The pitcher domes on the
  rubberband.
• P Ik zag dat de gieter aan het elastiekje ge-d
• I saw that the pitcher on the rubberband GE-d

14
Unaccusatives - Methodology

• Need to find out how the learner classifies novel
  verbs
• Method Production or comprehension?
• gt Sentence selection confusing
• gt Grammaticality judgment too subtle
• gt Elicited production most direct

15
Unaccusatives - Set-up

• - Materials Video clips that vary agentivity of
  subject (agentive/non-agentive) and telicity of
  situation (telic/atelic)
• - Procedure Experimenter teaches new verbs
  showing video clips puppet tells what he saw,
  but needs help with new verbs
• - Elicitation task Subject finishes puppets
  sentence, providing participle plus auxiliary
• (Note Dutch SOV)

16
Unaccusatives - Training and Pretest

• to get subjects acquainted with video-clips and
  task (i.e. finishing puppets sentence)
• normal transitive verb -gt HAVE
• to get subjects acquainted with novel verbs
• to see if subjects have auxiliary selection
• normal intransitive verbs opstaan -gt HAVE/BE

17
Unaccusatives - Subjects

• We wanted subjects in the wordlearning stage with
  some basic syntax.
• However
• - too hard for 3-year-olds
• - OK with 45-year-olds
• - also tested 78-year-olds and adults
• Drawback Subjects are rather old

18
Unaccusatives - Practicalities

• Equipment VCR and TV
• (nowadays use digital video clips on laptop)
• Experimenter 1 person can do it
• (2 experimenters would have been easier)
• runs VCR
• reads experimenter lines
• handles puppet and read his lines
• scores subjects answers on answer sheets