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The Beginning of Morphological Learning: Evidence from Verb Morpheme Processing in Preverbal Infants

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Cognitive Science Perspectives on Verb Representation and Processing

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Abstract

The goals of our chapter are to study infants’ acquisition of verb morphology and develop a model of early morphological learning. We approach this acquisition by studying French-learning infants’ initial segmentation of verb forms and their interpretation of verb morphological alternations. Our empirical findings demonstrate that infants begin to parse verbs into decomposed stems and suffixes by 11 months of age, and they have rudimentary knowledge of regular verb paradigms by 14 months of age. We show that this learning is based on distributional analyses of the input without the need for semantics.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Note that all infants in this chapter were exposed to French for a minimum of 70 % of their awake time.

Abbreviations

1SG:

First person singular

2PL:

Second person plural

2SG:

Second person singular

3SG:

Third person singular

AUX:

Auxiliary verb

CVC:

Consonant–vowel–consonant

CCVC:

Consonant–consonant–vowel–consonant

CCVCV:

Consonant–consonant–vowel–consonant–vowel

IMP:

Imperative

INF:

Infinitive

PP:

Past participle

s:

Seconds

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Acknowledgment

This research was supported by grants from NSERC, SSHRC, FQRSC, and CFI to the second author, and by an FQRSC scholarship to the first author. We wish to thank Andréane Melançon, Elena Kulagina, Bruno Gauthier, and Mélanie Lepage for research assistance.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. École d’orthophonie et d’audiologie, Faculté de médecine, Université de Montréal, C.P. 6128, Succursale Centre-Ville, Montréal, QC H3C 3J7, Canada

    Alexandra Marquis

  2. Département de Psychologie, Faculté des Sciences Humaines, Université du Québec à Montréal, C.P. 8888, Succursale Centre-Ville, Montréal, QC H3C 2E9, Canada

    Rushen Shi

Authors
  1. Alexandra Marquis
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  2. Rushen Shi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alexandra Marquis .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montreal, Québec, Canada

    Roberto G. de Almeida

  2. Department of Philology, University of Patras, Rio Patras, Greece

    Christina Manouilidou

Appendices

Appendix 1. Experiment 1 Stimuli

Familiarization: either /bif/ or /tar/

Test: La jolie maman /bif/ les poèmes.

  • “The pretty mommy cross out—3SG the poems.”

  • Elle /bif/ les verbes.

  • “She cross out—3SG the verbs.”

  • Évidemment on /bif/ la virgule.

  • “Obviously we cross out—3SG the comma.”

  • C’est le juron qu’il /bif/.

  • “It’s the curse that he cross out—3SG.”

  • Le petit bébé /bif/ le graffiti.

  • “The little baby cross out—3SG the graffiti.”

  • La syllabe je /bif/.

  • “The syllable I cross out—1SG.”

  • /bif/-tu le calembour?

  • “Do you cross out—2SG the pun?”

  • and

  • La nouvelle maman /tar/ le magot.

  • “The new mommy weigh—3SG the pile.”

  • Il /tar/ les grappes.

  • “He weigh—3SG the clusters.”

  • Visiblement je /tar/ la parcelle.

  • “Visibly I weigh—1SG the fragment.”

  • C’est le lot qu’elle /tar/.

  • “It’s the share that she weigh—3SG.”

  • Le gentil bébé /tar/ les gondoles.

  • “The nice baby weigh—3SG the gondolas.”

  • Les rouets je /tar/.

  • “The spinning wheels I weigh—1SG.”

  • /tar/-tu la coquille?

  • “Do you weigh—2SG the shell?”

Appendix 2. Experiment 2 Condition 1 Stimuli

Familiarization: either /glyt/ or /trid/

Test: Maman a /gly.te/ le magot.

  • “Mommy AUX /gly.te/ NONCE.PP the pile.”

  • /gly.te/ les grappes est amusant.

  • “/gly.te/NONCE.INF the grapes is amusing.”

  • T’as /gly.te/ la parcelle.

  • “You AUX /gly.te /NONCE.PP the parcel.”

  • C’est le lot qu’on a/gly.te/.

  • “It’s the lot that we AUX /gly.te/ NONCE.PP.”

  • Bébé va /gly.te/ les gondoles.

  • “Baby AUX /gly.te/ NONCE.INF the gondolas.”

  • Les roues, j’ai /gly.te/.

  • “The wheels, I AUX /gly.te/ NONCE.PP.”

  • /gly.te/ la coquille!

  • “/gly.te/ NONCE.2PL.IMP the shell!”

  • and

  • Maman a /tri.de/ les poèmes.

  • “Mommy AUX /tri.de/ NONCE.PP the poems.”

  • /tri.de/ les verbes est amusant.

  • “/tri.de/ NONCE.INF the verbs is amusing.”

  • T’as /tri.de/ la virgule.

  • “You AUX /tri.de/ NONCE.PP the comma.”

  • C’est le jeu qu’on a /tri.de/.

  • “It’s the game that we AUX /tri.de/ NONCE.PP.”

  • Bébé va /tri.de/ le graphème.

  • “Baby AUX /tri.de/ NONCE.INF the grapheme.”

  • La phrase, j’ai /tri.de/.

  • “The sentence I AUX /tri.de/ NONCE.PP.”

  • /tri.de/ le juron!

  • “/tri.de/ NONCE.2PL.IMP the curse word!”

Appendix 3. Experiment 2 Condition 2 Stimuli

Familiarization: either /glyt/ or /trid/

Test: *Maman a/gly.tu/ le magot.

  • “*Mommy AUX /gly.tu/ NONCE.CCVCV the pile.”

  • */gly.tu/ les grappes est amusant.

  • “*/gly.tu/ NONCE.CCVCV the grapes is amusing.”

  • *T’as /gly.tu/ la parcelle.

  • “*You AUX /gly.tu/ NONCE.CCVCV the parcel.”

  • *C’est le lot qu’on a /gly.tu/.

  • “*It’s the lot that we AUX /gly.tu/ NONCE.CCVCV.”

  • *Bébé va /gly.tu/ les gondoles.

  • “*Baby AUX /gly.tu/ NONCE.CCVCV the gondolas.”

  • *Les roues, j’ai /gly.tu/.

  • “*The wheels, I AUX /gly.tu/ NONCE.CCVCV.”

  • */gly.tu/ la coquille!

  • “*/gly.tu/ NONCE.CCVCV the shell!”

  • and

  • *Maman a /tri.du/ les poèmes.

  • “*Mommy AUX /tri.du/ NONCE.CCVCV the poems.”

  • */tri.du/ les verbes est amusant.

  • “*/tri.du/ NONCE.CCVCV the verbs is amusing.”

  • *T’as /tri.du/ la virgule.

  • “*You AUX /tri.du/ NONCE.CCVCV the comma.”

  • *C’est le jeu qu’on a /tri.du/.

  • “*It’s the game that we AUX /tri.du/ NONCE.CCVCV.”

  • *Bébé va /tri.du/ le graphème.

  • “*Baby AUX /tri.du/ NONCE.CCVCV the grapheme.”

  • *La phrase, j’ai /tri.du/.

  • “*The sentence, I AUX /tri.du/ NONCE.CCVCV.”

  • */tri.du/ le juron!

  • “*/tri.du/ NONCE.CCVCV the curse word!”

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Marquis, A., Shi, R. (2015). The Beginning of Morphological Learning: Evidence from Verb Morpheme Processing in Preverbal Infants. In: de Almeida, R., Manouilidou, C. (eds) Cognitive Science Perspectives on Verb Representation and Processing. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-10112-5_13

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