In:Sources of Variation in First Language Acquisition: Languages, contexts, and learners
Edited by Maya Hickmann †, Edy Veneziano and Harriet Jisa
[Trends in Language Acquisition Research 22] 2018
► pp. 103–122
Chapter 5Language-specificity in motion expression
Early acquisition in Korean compared to French and English
Published online: 22 February 2018
https://doi.org/10.1075/tilar.22.06cho
https://doi.org/10.1075/tilar.22.06cho
Abstract
This chapter examines the development of motion expression in two Korean children (1;11 to 4;2), compared to children acquiring French and English (from Hickmann et al. 2009). Korean is a verb-framed language (like French but unlike English which is satellite-framed; cf. Talmy 1985, 2000), and offers the following devices for motion expression: Serial verb constructions (SVC) in which Manner and Path verbs can co-occur within a single clause, and Manner adverbs including mimetics. Analyses show that from two years on, Korean children use SVCs and start producing Manner adverbs (particularly mimetics). As a result, they express more motion information and their motion expression is therefore semantically denser than in French (but less dense than in English). These findings support the view that language-specific features influence children’s motion expression from an early stage.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Grammatical characteristics of motion event expression in Korean
- 2.1Serial Verb Construction (SVC)
- 2.2Manner adverbs
- 3.The present study
- 4.Data and analysis
- 5.Results
- 5.1Utterance Density
- 5.2Development of SVC in Korean
- 5.3Development of Manner adverbs
- 6.Summary and discussion
- 6.1Influence of language-specific grammar
- 6.2General cognitive development
Acknowledgements Notes References
References (19)
Aikhenvald, A. & Dixon, R. 2006. Serial Verb Constructions: A Cross-linguistic Typology. Oxford: OUP.
Allen, S., Ozyurek, A., Kita, S., Brown, A., Furman, R., Ishizuka, T. & Fujii, M. 2007. Language-specific and universal influences in children’s syntactic packaging of Manner and Path: A comparison of English, Japanese, and Turkish, Cognition 102: 16–48.
Choi, S. 1999. Early development of verb structures and caregiver input in Korean: Two case studies. International Journal of Bilingualism 3: 241–265.
2006. Influence of language-specific input on spatial cognition: Categories of containment. First Language 26(2): 207–232.
2009. Typological differences in syntactic expressions of Path and Causation. In Routes to Language: Studies in Honor of Melissa Bowerman, V. M. Gathercole (ed.), 169–194. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
2011. Language-specificity Motion event expressions in young Korean children. Language, Interaction & Acquisition 2(1): 157–184.
Choi, S., Barboo, S., Dalton, E., Downs, C., Lee, W. & Pyoun, J. 2009. Language-specific input, cross-cultural differences, and spatial cognition. Paper presented at the 25th Annual Colloquium of Linguistic Student Association, San Diego State University.
Choi, S. & Bowerman, M. 1991. Learning to express motion events in English and Korean: The influence of language-specific lexicalization patterns. Cognition 41(1–3):83–121.
Hickmann, M. & Hendriks, H. 2010. Typological constraints on the acquisition of spatial language in French and English. Cognitive Linguistics 21(2): 189–215.
Hickmann, M., Hendriks, H. & Champaud, C. 2009. Typological constraints on Motion in French and English child language. In Crosslinguistic Approaches to the Psychology of Language: Research in the Tradition of Dan I. Slobin, J. Guo, E. Lieven, N. Budwig, S. Ervin-Tripp, K. Nakamura & S. Ozgaliskan (eds), 209–224. Hillsdale NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Imai, M., Kita, S., Nagumo, M. & Okada, H. 2008. Sound symbolism facilitates verb learning. Cognition 109: 54–65.
Ji, Y., Hendriks, H. & Hickmann, M. 2011. How children express caused motion events in Chinese and English: Universal and language-specific influences. Lingua 121: 1796–1819.
Lee, S. 1992. The Syntax and Semantics of Serial Verb Constructions. PhD dissertation, University of Washington.
Pyoun, J. 2011. The Syntax and Semantics of Korean Serial Verb Constructions: A Corpus-Based Analysis. MA thesis, San Diego State University.
Slobin, D. I. 2004. The many ways to search for a frog: Linguistic typology and the expression of motion events. In Relating Events in Narrative, Vol. 2: Typological and Contextual Perspectives, S. Stromqvist & L. Verhoeven (eds), 219–257. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Suh, Y. 2000. A Study of the Auxiliary Verb Construction and Verb Serialization in Korean. PhD dissertation, University of Washington.
Cited by (1)
Cited by one other publication
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 6 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.