Two Senses of Cultural Relativity

Maratsos, Michael P

doi:10.1002/9781119301981.ch8

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

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“…These results indicate that children acquiring NE Cree hear passives at a much higher rate than children acquiring languages such as English and even Inuktitut. Allen and Crago (1996, p. 150), for example, compare sources reporting passives per hour in CDS for English – between 1.1 per hour (Gordon & Chafetz, 1990) and 2.7 per hour (Maratsos, 1985) – for Inuktitut (7.8 per hour). The data here indicate that NE Cree exposes children to passives at a rate almost triple that of Inuktitut.…”

Section: Study 1: the Passive Voice In Cdsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As early as the 1960s (e.g. Fraser et al, 1963; Turner & Rommetveit, 1967), researchers noted the difficulty that children demonstrate in acquiring the passive voice in languages such as English, showing that children can struggle with the comprehension and production of the passive as late as age 9 years (Maratsos, 1985). This view became entrenched over the next three decades or so, through research primarily on Western European languages.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The acquisition of the passive voice in Northern East Cree

Henke,

Brittain,

Deen

et al. 2023

First Language

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This article analyzes the acquisition of the passive voice in Northern East (NE) Cree and pays particular attention to the interaction of frequency effects and language-specific cues in the way children form and employ expectations, the process of anticipating oncoming structure in the ambient language. The passive has long been of interest in first-language acquisition, and expectations may play a role in the reported challenges acquiring the passive in languages such as English. We present two studies analyzing approximately 24 hours of naturalistic video recordings involving one adult and two children: Daisy (age 3;08–5;11) and Billy (4;06–5;10). Study 1 examines the passive voice in child-directed speech (CDS). CDS employs passive verbs frequently, at rates much higher than what has been reported for other languages. Passives also typically occur without overt arguments and most often are derived from verbs with two animate participants. Study 2 traces the acquisition of the passive by Daisy and Billy. Daisy demonstrates productivity with all three passive suffixes by age 3;11. Billy’s recordings begin at a later age, and he shows productivity with suffixes -naaniu at 4;06, -ikiwi at 4;10, and -ikiniw at 5;05. Both children produce passives at rates much higher than what has been reported in child speech for other languages. They also most frequently produce passives without overt arguments, and they show no difficulties passivizing verbs with two animate arguments. These results expand the typological purview of passives research and shed additional light on the role of expectations in acquiring the passive voice. The combination of high frequency and particular structural characteristics for the passive voice in Cree CDS allows children to build expectations differing greatly from those of children acquiring languages such as English. In turn, children acquiring NE Cree do not show the same difficulties in acquiring the passive voice.

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Section: Study 1: the Passive Voice In Cdsmentioning

confidence: 99%