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Semantic bias in the acquisition of relative clauses in Japanese*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 June 2009

HIROMI OZEKI  and
YASUHIRO SHIRAI
HIROMI OZEKI*
Affiliation:
Reitaku University
YASUHIRO SHIRAI
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
*
Address for correspondence: Hiromi Ozeki, College of Foreign Languages, Reitaku University, 2-1-1, Hikarigaoka, Kashiwa-shi, Chiba-ken, 277-8686, Japan. e-mail: hiromiozeki55@gmail.com
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Abstract

This study analyzes the acquisition of relative clauses in Japanese to determine the semantic and functional characteristics of children's relative clauses in spontaneous speech. Longitudinal data from five Japanese children are analyzed and compared with English data (Diessel & Tomasello, 2000). The results show that the relative clauses produced by Japanese children predominantly have stative/attributive predicates. Additionally, early relative clauses in Japanese are often used to identify a referent that is not present in the context of interaction. These findings contrast with Diessel & Tomasello's (2000) English data, and possible explanations include the input that children are exposed to, which reflects typological characteristics of noun modification in Japanese.

Type
Brief Research Report
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 37 , Issue 1 , January 2010 , pp. 197 - 215
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

[*]

We thank Kevin Gregg, Wendy Martelle and the JCL reviewers for their helpful comments on the drafts of this paper. This research is part of the first author's doctoral dissertation submitted to Ochanomizu University (Ozeki, 2005). This paper is based on a paper presented at the 29th Boston University Conference on Language Development (5–7 November, 2004), and an earlier, shorter version has appeared in the proceedings. Travel to the conference was supported by a Paula Menyuk Travel Award from Boston University to the first author, and by a Humanities Research Grant from Cornell University and a Travel Grant from Shaw College, CUHK (The Chinese University of Hong Kong) to the second author. The writing of this paper was partially supported by a Direct Grant for Research from CUHK, a Grant-Aid for Scientific Research Program (Joint Research) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (Grant No. 18330141, PI-Susanne Miyata) and a graduate assistantship from the University of Pittsburgh.

References

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