NOUN AND VERB CATEGORIES IN THE ACQUISITION OF FRENCH
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Table 1. Examples of noun and verb words with PAEs, produced before and after the differentiation
between the prenominal and the preverbal positions
|
Prenominal position |
Preverbal position | |
|
Examples from C |
Before differentiation ∕a'gry∕ /'gry/ '[a]erane` ∕a'pik∕ /'pik/ ‘[a]sting(s)’ /e'ʃo/ /'bu'ʃo/ ‘[e]cork’ ∕e'pot∕ /'port/ ‘[e]carry(ies)’ /ə'ʃjɛ/ /'ʃjɛ/ ‘[?]dog’ /ə'je/ /'ma'je/ ‘[?]to eat, eaten’ | |
|
Examples from G |
/a'buʃ/ /'buʃ/ ‘[a]mouth’ |
∕a'ryl∕ /'bryl/ ‘[a]burn(s)’ |
|
Examples from C |
After differentiation ∕a'dam∕ /'dam/ ‘[a]lady’ ∕a'don∕ /'don/ ‘[a]give(s)’ ∕e'za'zo∕ /'wa'zo/ ‘[e]bird(s)’ ∕i'gat∕ /'re'gard/ ‘[i]look(s)’ ∕o'nu∕ /'je'nu/ ‘[o]knee’ ∕o'tir∕ /'tir/ ‘[o]pull(s)’ | |
|
Examples from G |
∕yn'dam∕ /'dam/ ‘[yn]lady’ ∕eme'zo∕ /'me'zo/ ‘[e]house’ |
∕i'ta'se∕ /'ka'se/ ‘[i]to break, broken’ |
girl, and at 2;3 for the boy, noun-words are preceded more often than verb-words by a
PAE: 95,8% of noun-words vs. 65,1% of verb-words for C; 77% vs. 53% for G9.
Concerning the kinds of PAEs that are produced in the two positions, the first
signs of differentiation are observed at 1;10.12 for C, and at 2;3 for G, when the distri-
butions of PAEs produced in prenominal and in preverbal positions show significant
differences for the first time10.
Table 1 presents examples of noun and verb words with PAEs, produced before and
after the differentiation between prenominal and preverbal PAEs, for C and G separately.
Before the differentiation, PAEs produced in the two positions are predominantly
/a/, /e/ et /ə/. When a differentiation starts to appear, these sounds continue to appear
in the prenominal position, but one finds also elements like /o/, /n/ and /yn/. In the
preverbal position, /o/ occurs significantly more than in the prenominal position, while
/i/ and /o/ are found only in preverbal position.
These data clearly show that when children start to produce PAEs, and for a cer-
tain period afterwards, they do not treat noun and verb words differently, even if they
had at their disposal the means for doing it.
9 c2(2x2) = 21.23,p< 0.001, df=1,forC; c2(2x2) = 6.06; p<0.01,df=l,forG.
10 The difference between the two distributions - given by the proportion of each type of PAE occurring in
the two positions - is significant for the first time at 1;10;12 for C: c2(4x2) = 11.04, p < 0.02, df= 3; and
at 2;3 for G: c2(5x2) = 14.44, p<0.01,df=4.