Transcript WORD ASSOCIATIONS AS A WINDOW ON THE MENTAL …

ACQUIRING AND EXPRESSING
TEMPORALITY IN HEBREW:
THE CASE OF A T/(M/A) LANGUAGE
Ruth A. Berman – Tel Aviv University
Journée d’études -- Temporalité: Typologie et Acquisition
CNRS, Centre Pouchet, Paris - mars 2010
OUTLINE OF TALK
• Typological Features of Hebrew:
Tense without Aspect
• Early Child Grammar:
Developmental strategies
• Narratives -- Oral and Written:
Anchor tense, Tense-shifting [Frogs]
Setting the narrative scene [Fable]
• Later Language Development:
From Dichotomy to Diversity
HEBREW TYPOLOGY
5 Tense-Modal Forms, Full/Defective Consonantal Roots,
in 3 (out of 7) binyan Verb Patterns
Pattern Root
Gloss
Infinitive Imperat
Present
Past
Future
P1
pa'al
r-q-d
g-d-l
y-c-’
b-w-’
dance (Intr)
grow (Intr)
go out
come
li-rkod
li-gdol
la-cet
la-vo
rekod
gdal
ce
bo
roked
@godel
yoce
ba
rakad
gadal
yaca
ba
yi-rkod
yi-gdal
ye-ce
ya-vo
P3
pi'el
r-q-d
g-d-l
y-c-’
b-w-’
skip
raise
export
import
le-raked
le-gadel
le-yace
le-yave
raked
gadel
yace
yave
me-raked
me-gadel
me-yace
me-yave
riked
gidel
yice
@yive
ye-raked
ye-gadel
ye-yace
ye-yave
P5
hif'il
r-q-d
g-d-l
y-c-’
b-w-’
make-dance
enlarge
take out
bring
le-harkid
le-hagdil
le-hoci
le-havi
harked
hagdel
hoce
have
ma-rkid
ma-gdil
mo-ci
me-vi
hi-rkid
hi-gdil
ho-ci
he-vi
ya-rkid
ya-gdil
yo-ci
ya-vi
INTERACTION WITH INFLECTIONAL AND
DERIVATIONAL MORPHOLOGY
Inflections:
Rich system of SV Agreement marking for:
• Gender (Masculine > Feminine)
• Person (1st > 2nd > 3rd)
• Number (Singular > Plural)
Derivational Morphology:
Verb-Pattern alternations expressing
valence-changing relations
(causative, reflexive, reciprocal, middle voice,
passive voice, etc.), e.g.,
šavar ~ nišbar ‘break’ Trans ~ Intrans
šaxav ~ hiškiv ‘lie ~ lay down’
raxac ~ hitraxec ‘wash’ Trans ~ Reflexive
MULTIFUNCTIONALITY
[Berman, 2000, 2004; Berman & Neeman, 1994; Berman & Nir-Sagiv, 2004]
Examples with d-b-r ‘talk, speak’
(lo) ledaber!
‘(not) to-speak = don’t talk!’
yaxol ledaber, asur ledaber,
Extended Predicates
‘can to-speak, mustn’t to-speak’
(with Modal and
hitxil ledaber, himšix ledaber
Aspectual verbs)
‘began to-speak. continued to-speak’
Non-finite Complements hu bikeš ledaber,
‘He asked to-speak’
(Complex Syntax)
hu halax habayta ledaber ito
‘He went home to-talk to-him’
ani medaber(et)
Benoni: Present-Tense
(Immediate + Extended) ‘I am-talking ~ I speak (English)’
InterParticiples
hu yašav levad, medaber im acmo
mediate’ (Subordinate)
‘He sat alone, talking to himself’’
ha-nose medubar
Resultatives (passive)
‘The topic is-talked (about) = hot’
hu lo haya medaber itanu
Habitual Aspect (+aux)
‘He not was speaking = wouldn’t
speak to us’
Category
Functions
Infinitive Orders, Prohibitions
(juvenile)
MULTIFUNCTIONALITY [continued]
[Berman, 2000, 2004; Berman & Neeman, 1994; Berman & Nir-Sagiv, 2004]
Category Functions
Past
Examples d-b-r ‘talk, speak’
Past-Tense:
diber =
Perfective,
Progressive,
Perfect
‘talked,
was talking, has/had been talking,
has/ had talked’
Future Future Tense:
(Irrealis)
ata tedaber ba-šavua ha-ba
‘You 2nd-will-talk next week’
Imperatives
nu, (te)daber kvar!
‘Well, talk already = say something’
Conditional, Subjunctive
im tedaber, node lexa me’od
‘If 2nd-will-talk, (we) 1st-Plur thank
you very much’
EARLY ACQUISITIONAL STRATEGIES:
Form / Function Inflectional Variation
I. Ambiguous “bare” stems (ber,pes,sim,xabek,šon)
Multifunctional l- marked Infinitives (ledaber,lišon)
Non-alternation of forms
II. a. Infinitives: requests, orders
b. Benoni ‘intermediate’ present tense:
Reportative function, simple clauses
III. Past: Immediate change-of-state verbs
Later, in narrative contexts
IV. Future: as Tense, not only Imperative
V. Infinitives: Complements in Extended Preds:
carix ledaber, roce le-exol, holex li-šon
‘must to-talk, want to-eat, go(es) to-sleep’
LATER ACQUISITIONS
Derivational Morphology
Valence-changing Verb Patterns:
•
•
•
•
•
Initial non-alternation
Favoring of “basic” P1 pattern
Some use of active transitive P3, P5 patterns
Added reliance on intransitive P2, P4 patterns
Occasional use of passive patterns
Complex Syntax:
halax habayta ledaber ita
‘(He) went home to-talk to her’
tipes al ha-ec lexapes ta cfardéa
‘(He) climbed (on) the-tree to-look-for the frog’
ORAL (“Frog Story”) NARRATIVES
Ages 3, 4, 5, 9, adults
• “Anchor tense” – evidence of narrative mode
• Tense-shifting – from local to global
• Background / Foreground distinctions:
Past Tense ~ Benoni [Berman & Neeman, 1994]
(no Imperfective ~ Perfective)
• “Tense/Aspect shifting becomes discursively
functional only once a dominant narrative tense
is established in late preschool age, around 5 to
6 years” [Berman & Slobin, 1994: 601]
NARRATIVE SETTINGS (Written Fables)
Sandbank, A. (2004) “Writing a narrative text:
A developmental and cross-linguistic study”
Hebrew original:
štey pradot halxu ba-dérex
‘two mules went=walked on-the-way’
nos’ot masa al gaban
‘bear(ing):Fm,Pl (a) load on their backs’
Spanish original:
Caminaban dos mulas
‘walked:Impfv, Pl two mules’
llevando su carga
‘carrying their load’
HEBREW STRATEGIES IN
RECONSTRUCTED SETTINGS
More stative than active verbs across
age-groups relative to Spanish, e.g.,
• pa’am axat hayu štey pradot, hen halxu baya’ar [Itay, 7;3]
‘once (there) were two mules, they walked inthe forest’
• sipurenu hu al štey pradot masa co’adot
be-mas’an [Ido, adult]
‘our tale it [-is] about two pack mules marching
with their load’
ALTERNATION OF VERB h-l-x ‘go, walk’
Benoni:
1. štey pradot holxot ba-švil
‘Two mules go/are walking on the way’
Adverbs:
2. yom exad halxu štey pradot le-tiyul
‘One day went two mules for (a) walk’
Repetition:
3. hem halxu ve halxu
‘They walked and walked’
VERB h-l-x ‘go, walk’ + REFLEXIVE DATIVE
[thanks to Prof. Hava Shyldkrot]
Reflexive Dative:
4. štey pradot halxu lahen
‘Two mules walked to-them(selves)’ = s'en allaient
Reflexive Dative + Adverb:
5. halxu lahen štey pradot le’itan
‘’Walked to-them(selves) two mules at-leisure’
= s'en allaient lentement
Verb-Pattern Alternation:
6. štey pradot hithalxu lahen ba-derex
‘Two mules walked-to-fro to-them(selves) on-road’
= se promenaient
7. pa’am hilxu lahen štey pradot be-derex ha-melex
‘Once walked-about to-them(selves) two mules on
the royal road’
= s'en sont allées
RHETORICAL OPTIONS
•
•
•
•
•
•
Alternative means of expression
Non-grammaticized
Hence non-obligatory
Individual stylistic choice
Maturely literate use of language
Yields rich temporal texture
LATER LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT:
PERSONAL-EXPERIENCE NARRATIVES
Ages 9, 13, 17, adults [Berman & Nir-Sagiv, 2004]
“From Dichotomy to Divergence”
Other:
Past
Present
70.7
19.7
9.5
79.4
14.6
6.0
54.2
35.2
10.6
20s – 30s 53.1
28.0
18.9
Grade
4th
9-10 yrs
7th
12-13 yrs
11th
16-17 yrs
Adults
Irrealis,Nonfin
LATER LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
Verb-Pattern Alternations
• Age-related increase in variety of 7 patterns:
Children’s texts confined mainly to 2 or 3,
adolescents -- wider variety, adults – most
• Decrease with age in basic P1 pattern (activity
verbs, transitive and intransitive), markedly in
narratives and among adults
• Concomitant increase in use of two typically
intransitive (change-of-state, middle voice)
patterns: children – under 10%, adolescents -20%–25%, adults -- 1/3 of all verbs
• Reflects shift to more patient-oriented construal
of events
• Effect of genre: intransitive patterns more in
expository than narrative texts
LATER LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
EXTENDED TEXTS: SUMMARY
[Berman 2008; Berman & Nir-Sagiv 2007; Reilly et al 2002]
Early Inter-Genre Distinctiveness
• Narratives (Personal-experience):
Past tense, Perfective aspect
• Expository discussions:
Extended Present + Irrealis (modals, future)
Subsequent Shifts
From temporal dichotomy to divergence
From agent to patient orientation
From deontic to epistemic modality
NARRATIVE TEMPORALITY
• As in all domains, age-related variety of
means
• Clearer distinction between “story-time” /
“story-telling time”
• Setting and Coda as privileged discourse
sites for background, generalizations
• Effect of genre – narrative / expository
• Effect of typology – Hebrew reliance on
verb-pattern morphology
WRAP-UP
• Discourse context
• Typological imperatives
• Developmental route
DISCOURSE CONTEXT
• Discourse-embedded use of language:
beyond the isolated sentence
• Parallel data-bases for cross-linguistic
comparisons:
Hickmann, 2003; frog-story research, “Spencer”
project, Sandbank’s fables
• Different (sub)genres ~ rhetorical modes
Evaluation – personal-experience accounts
Setting and coda – in fiction, fables
Narration / description – encyclopedic texts
Expository discussion – propositional attitudes
IMPACT TARGET-LANGUAGE TYPOLOGY
[Berman, 1993; Berman & Neeman, 1994; Berman &
Slobin,1994; Kupersmitt, 2006; Sandbank, 2004]
• Language-Specific Forms:
Grammaticized T/M/A (English, Spanish)
• Narrative Discourse Functions:
Foreground/ Background: Local / Global
Agent-Patient Orientation
Introducing and Concluding Narratives
• Hebrew-Specific Strategies:
Tense alternations -- Present vs Past
Valency alternations --Verb-Pattern Morphology
Verb Semantics (Aktionsarten) halxu ~ pas’u
Copulas, existentials, stative predicates
TYPOLOGY
• Children – like adults – make do with and
increasingly exploit the repertoire of
expressive devices available in their
language
• Where distinctions not grammatically
marked, hence less accessible, alternative
options may be sought elsewhere, as in
verb semantics (stative ~ dynamic) or voice
and valency alternations
• In latter case, not grammatical imperative
but rhetorical options, reflecting
expressive richness in temporality as in
other domains (e.g., clause-combining)
DEVELOPMENT
• From “child speaker” to “native speaker”
to “proficient speaker-writer” [Slobin, 1990, 2004]
• Early emergence of different forms for
marking grammatical T/M/A
• Increased bi-directional expansion of
form/function relations
• Increasing variety and flexibility in using
linguistic forms for “textual temporality”
• Later, school-age language: long
developmental route “from emergence to
mastery” [Berman, 2004]