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Midterm Test Assignment of Children Language Acquisition

This document contains a midterm test assignment on children's language acquisition. It includes 4 questions requiring elaboration and the use of relevant theories to support arguments. The questions cover: 1) why nouns are acquired earlier than other word categories, 2) whether verbs or adjectives are acquired earlier, 3) relating a claim about early syntax to scientific facts, and 4) explaining a schema illustrating Universal Grammar in language acquisition. The student provides detailed answers to each question, citing theories and studies to support their points.

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60 views

Midterm Test Assignment of Children Language Acquisition

This document contains a midterm test assignment on children's language acquisition. It includes 4 questions requiring elaboration and the use of relevant theories to support arguments. The questions cover: 1) why nouns are acquired earlier than other word categories, 2) whether verbs or adjectives are acquired earlier, 3) relating a claim about early syntax to scientific facts, and 4) explaining a schema illustrating Universal Grammar in language acquisition. The student provides detailed answers to each question, citing theories and studies to support their points.

Uploaded by

MeicyIntanSari
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Midterm Test Assignment of Children Language

Acquisition

By:
Miranti Khusnul Pangesti
1808042035/1A

English Education Master Program


Ahmad Dahlan University
October 2019
Elaborate the answer of each question below. Use relevant theories to support
your argument.

1. In terms of sounds, vowel /a/ and bilabial consonants (e.g., /b/) tend to be
acquired and produced earlier. In relation to word acquisition, nouns are
acquired and produced earlier compared to other lexical categories (i.e.,
verbs, adjectives). Why are nouns acquired and produced the earliest? (25
points)
2. Between verbs and adjectives, which one is acquired earlier and later?
Why? (25 points)
3. Progovac (2015) claims that the earliest and most primitive syntactic
construction consists of only two slots (or two words): one word for the
actor (subject) and one word for the action (verb). What do you think
about this claim? Can we relate it to the scientific fact(s) about children
language? (25 points)
4. According to Generativist (or Innateness hypothesis believers), there is
Universal Grammar (UG) governing language acquisition as illustrated
by this schema (taken from Haegeman, 1994: 16). (25 points)

How do you explain this schema?

Books cited:
1. Haegeman, L. 1994. An introduction to government and binding. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
2. Progovac, L. 2015. Evolutionary syntax. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
ANSWER:

1. Menurut (Gentner, 1978; Macnamara, 1972; Nelson, 1973) bahwa kata-kata


pertama anak-anak adalah kata benda (noun). Ini telah ditafsirkan sebagai bukti
bahwa konsep yang dirujuk oleh kata benda terutama dapat diakses oleh bayi:
Mereka berbeda dari, dan secara konseptual lebih mendasar daripada konsep
yang dirujuk oleh kata kerja atau preposisi. Seperti contoh berdasarkan penelitian
dari beberapa ahli, children akan lebih dulu memproduksi kata yang sering mereka
dengar dari mother tongue atau yang diajarkan kepada mereka dikehidupan sehari-
hari, such as animal, food, or people. Seperti yang kita ketahui, mother tongue itu
sangat berpengaruh dalam pengajaran bahasa anak-anak.
The position that nouns and verbs have different conceptual bases is an
attractive one . However, it is quite possible that this seeming conceptual
difference is really an illusion foisted on us by our language . Simply because
language makes a communicative distinction, albeit an important one, is no
guarantee that correlates exist in the perceptual world .
Seperti yang dikatakan Sapir (1944), "Tidak ada bahasa yang sepenuhnya
gagal untuk membedakan kata benda dan kata kerja, meskipun dalam kasus-
kasus tertentu sifat perbedaannya mungkin sulit dipahami. Ini berbeda dengan
bagian-bagian lain dari pembicaraan. Tidak satu pun dari mereka yang diperlukan
secara imperatif untuk kehidupan bahasa.
2. Adjective is earlier than verbs. According to Dixon, in languages that have
only a handful of adjectives, those adjectives are generally restricted to meanings
belonging to the semantic types he calls AGE, DIMENSION, VALUE, and COLOR.
Thus, the languages Igbo, Hausa, and Venda each have a minor adjective class,
and each has an adjective for ‘small’, ‘old’, and for ‘white’, but not ‘rough’,
‘difficult’, or ‘fast’. Languages with restricted adjective classes (or with no
adjectives at all) use nouns and verbs to express semantic types that surface as
adjectives in adjective-rich languages like English. For example, in languages with
a restricted adjective category such seemingly prototypical (in English) adjectival
meanings as ‘rough’ and ‘smooth’ (what Dixon calls PHYSICAL PROPERTY terms)
are generally expressed as verbs. These cross-linguistic comparisons show one
(of many) ways in which the mapping from conceptual to lexical structure varies
exceedingly. Some properties expressed as adjectives in English (and in other
adjective-rich languages) are assigned to the noun and verb classes in other
languages. Thus, one potential explanation for why acquiring adjectives is hard
has to do with the possibility that they fall into a variety of conceptual classes
whose conflation under a lexical categorization, as in English, is more arbitrary
than natural.
3. Saya Setuju. iya bisa. Karena menurut pinker di buku understanding
language by rowland children akan memiliki ilmu bawaan untuk
mempelajari Syntactic categories (noun, verb), syntactic phrases (noun
phrase, verb phrase) and syntactic roles (subject, object). Actor / subject
menurut progovac adalah noun menurut pinker.
For example
I(subject) eat (verb)
KALAU MAU DITAMBAH BISA DARI BUKU NYA PROGOVAC HAL 6. (JADI GITU
GEESSS)
4.
 Universal Grammar is a set of universal principles of language
 When children acquire the language, the acquisition process is ‘triggered’
by the exposure. In exposure, children can learn about the vocabulary of
the language.
 The exposure will activate the innate principles of universal grammar.
Intinya: children itu mempunyai kemampuan bawaan untuk memperoleh
bahasa, nah ketika mereka akan belajar memperoleh bahasa, proses dalam
memperoleh bahasa tersebut ‘triggered’ / ‘dipicu’ oleh exposure atau the
child’s linguistic experience. Lalu, the exposure to some/a language tsb akan
activate the innate principles of universal grammar. Setelah itu anak akan
develop a grammar of one or more specific language atau bisa juga core
grammar language itu berasal dari komponen2 bahasa yang saling
berinteraksi . gitu ceunah.

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