THE CHILD'S LEARNING OF ENGLISH MORPHOLOGY

THE CHILD'S LEARNING OF ENGLISH MORPHOLOGY

In this study we set out to discover what is learned by children exposed to English morphology. To test for knowledge of morphological rules, we use nonsense materials. We know that if the subject can supply the correct plural ending, for instance, to a noun we have made up, he has internalized a working system of the plural allomorphs in English, and is able to generalize to new cases and select the right form. If a child knows that the plural of witch is witches, he may simply have memorized the plural form. If, however, he tells us that the plural of gutch is gutches, we have evidence that he actually knows, albeit unconsciously, one of those rules which the descriptive linguist, too, would set forth in his grammar. And if children do have knowledge of morphological rules, how does this knowledge evolve? Is there a progression from simple, regular rules to the more irregular and qualified rules that are adequate fully to describe English? In very general terms, we undertake to discover the psychological status of a certain kind of linguistic description. It is evident that the acquisition of language is more than the storing up of rehearsed utterances, since we are all able to say what we have not practiced and what we have never before heard. In bringing descriptive linguistics to the study of language acquisition, we hope to gain knowledge of the systems and patterns used by the speaker.

In order to test for children's knowledge of this sort, it was necessary to begin with an examination of their actual vocabulary. Accordingly, the one thousand most frequent words in the first-grader's vocabulary were selected from Rinsland's listing. This listing contains the most common words in the elementary school child's vocabulary, as taken from actual conversations, compositions, letters, and similar documents. This list was then examined to see what features of English morphology seem to be most commonly represented in the vocabulary of the first-grade child. From this we could decide what kind of extensions we might expect the child to be able to make. All of the English inflectional morphemes were present.

The areas that seemed to be most promising from this examination were the plural and the two possessives of the noun, the third person singular of the verb, the progressive and the past tense, and the comparative and superlative of the adjective. The pronouns were avoided both because of the difficulty involved in making up a nonsense pronoun, and because the pronouns are so few in number and so irregular that we would hardly expect even adults to have any generalized rules for the handling of new pronouns. Moreover, we do not encounter new pronouns, whereas new verbs, adjectives, and nouns constantly appear in our vocabularies, so that the essential problem is not the same. The past participle of regular or weak verbs in English is identical with the past tense, and since the regular forms were our primary interest, no attempt was made to test for the past participle. A number of forms that might suggest irregular plurals and past tenses were included among the nouns and verbs.

The productive allomorphs of the plural, the possessive, and the third person singular of the verb are phonologically conditioned and identical with one another. These forms are /-s -z -oz/, with the following distribution:

/-oz/ after stems that end in /s z š č []/, e.g. glasses, watches;

/-s/ after stems that end in /p t k f O/, e.g. hops, hits;

/-z/ after all other stems, viz. those ending in /b d g v Ỡ m n nr 1 /, vowels, and semivowels, e.g. bids, goes.

The productive allomorphs of the past are /t ~ d ~ od/, and they are also phonologically conditioned, with the following distribution:

/-od/ after stems that end in /t d/, e.g. melted;

/-t/ after stems that end in /p k č f O š/, e.g. stopped;

/-d/ after stems ending in voiced sounds except /-d/. e.g. climbed, played.

The progressive -ing and the adjective -er and -est do not have variants. It might also be noted that the possessive has an additional allomorph /-Ø/; this occurs after an inflectional /-s/ or /-z/, so that if the form boy is made plural, boys, the possessive of that plural form is made by adding nothing, and indicated in writing only by the addition of an apostrophe: boys'.

The children's vocabulary at the first-grade level also contains a number of words that are made of a free morpheme and a derivational suffix, e.g. teacher, or of two free morphemes, e.g. birthday. The faculties encountered in this area are many. First, it might be noted that there are not many contrasts, i.e., not many cases of the same derivational suffix being added to different bases to produce forms of like function. Although beautiful and thankful both appear on the list, it does not seem that these examples are numerous enough for us to expect a young child to be able to append -ful to a new noun in order to produce an adjective. Word derivation and compounding are furthermore often accompanied by changes in stress and pronunciation, so that the picture is additionally complicated. There seemed to be enough examples of the stress pattern ' as in blackboard as against black board, and of the diminutive-affectionate -y, the adjectival -y, and the agentive -er to warrant testing for these forms.

So far as the general picture is concerned, all speakers of the language are constrained to use the inflectional endings and apply them appropriately to new forms when they are encountered. We are not so often called upon to derive or compound new words, although by the time we are adults we can all to some extent do this. From the children's actual vocabulary we were able to make an estimate of the kind of morphological rules they might be expected to possess, and from these items a test could be constructed. It was noted, moreover, that in the child's vocabulary there are a number of compound words, like blackboard and birthday. It is entirely possible to use a compound word correctly and never notice that it is made of two separate and meaningful elements. It is also possible to use it correctly and at the same time have a completely private meaning for one or both of its constituent elements. In order to see what kind of ideas children have about the compound words in their vocabularies, it was decided to ask them directly about a selected number of these words.

Within the framework of the child's vocabulary, a test was devised to explore the child's ability to apply morphological rules to new words. He was called upon to inflect, to derive, to compound, and, lastly, to analyse compound words.

In order to test for the child's use of morphological rules of different types and under varying phonological conditions, a number of nonsense words were made up, following the rules for possible sound combinations in English. Pictures to represent the nonsense words were then drawn on cards. There were twenty-seven picture cards, and the pictures, which were brightly colored, depicted objects, cartoon-like animals, and men performing various actions. For reasons that will be discussed later, several actual words were also included. A text, omitting the desired form, was typed on each card. An example of the card to test for the regular plural allomorph in /-z/ can be seen in Figure one.

The subjects included twelve adults (seven women and five men), all of whom were college graduates. Many of these adults had also had some graduate training. All were native speakers of English.

The child subjects were obtained at the Harvard Preschool in Cambridge and the Michael Driscoll School, in Brookline, Massachusetts. At the Preschool, each child was brought to the experimenter, introduced, and told that now he was going to look at some pictures. The experimenter would point to the picture and read the text. The child would supply the missing word, and the item he employed was noted phonemically. After all of the pictures had been shown, the child was asked why he thought the things denoted by the compound words were so named. The general form of these questions was "Why do you think a blackboard is called a blackboard?" If the child responded with "Because it's a blackboard", he was asked, "But why you think it's called that?" The children at the preschool ranged between four and five years in age. Twelve girls and seven boys were asked all items of the completed test, and two groups, one of three boys and three girls and one of five boys and three girls, were each asked half of the inflectional items in preliminary testing.

At the Driscoll School, the experimenter was introduced to the class and it was explained that each child was going to have a turn at looking at some pictures. The procedure from this point on was the same as for the Preschool. All children in the first grade were interviewed. There were twenty-six boys and thirty-five girls in this group. Ages ranged from five and one half to seven years.

The following is the order in which the cards were presented. Included is a statement of what was being tested, a description of the card, and the text that was read. Pronunciation is indicated by regular English orthography; a phonemic transcription is included for first occurrences of nonsense words.

One. Plural. One bird-like animal, then two. "This is a wug. Now there is another one. There are two of them. There are two "

Two. Plural. One bird, then two. "This is a gutch. Now there is another one. There are two of them. There are two ”

Three. Past tense. Man with a steaming pitcher on his head. "This is a man who knows how to spow. He is spowing. He did the same thing yesterday. What did he do yesterday? Yesterday he

Four. Plural. One animal, then two. "This is a kazh. Now there is another one. There are two of them. There are two "

Five. Past tense. Man swinging an object. "This is a man who knows how to rick. He is ricking. He did the same thing yesterday. What did he do yesterday? Yesterday he

Six. Diminutive and compounded or derived word. One animal, then a miniscule animal. "This is a wug. This is a very tiny wug. What would you call a very tiny wug? This wug lives in a house. What would you call a house that a wug lives in?" Seven. Plural. One animal, then two. "This is a tor. Now there is another one. There are two of them. There are two

Eight. Derived adjective. Dog covered with irregular green spots. "This is a dog with quirks on him. He is all covered with quirks. What kind of dog is he? He is a dog."

Nine. Plural. One flower, then two. "This is a lun. Now there is another one. There are two of them. There are two .

Ten. Plural. One animal, then two. "This is a niz. Now there is another one. There are two of them. There are two

Eleven. Past tense. Man doing calisthenics. "This is a man who knows how to mot. He is motting. He did the same thing yesterday. What did he do yesterday? Yesterday he " .

knows how to mot /mat/. He is motting. He did the same thing yesterday. What did he do yesterday? Yesterday he " .

Twelve. Plural. One bird, then two. "This is a kra. Now there is another one. There are two of them. There are two

Thirteen. Plural. One animal, then two. "This is a tass. Now there is another one. There are two of them. There are

Fourteen. Past tense. Man dangling an object on a string. "This is a man who knows how to bod. He is bodding. He did the same thing yesterday. What did he do yesterday? Yesterday he

Fifteen. Third person singular. Man shaking an object. "This is a man who knows how to naz. He is nazzing. He does it every day. Every day he

Sixteen. Plural. One insect, then two. "This is a heaf.

Now there is another one. There are two of them. There are two "

Seventeen. Plural. One glass, then two. "This is a glass. Now there is another one.

There are two of them. There are

Eighteen. Past tense. Man exercising. "This is a man who knows how to gling. He is glinging. He did the same thingyesterday. What did he do yesterday? Yesterday he

Nineteen. Third person singular. Man holding an object. "This is a man who knows how to loodge. He is loodging. He does it every day. Every day he "

Twenty. Past tense. Man standing on the ceiling. "This is a man who knows how to bing. He is binging. He did the same thing yesterday. yesterday. " What did he do yesterday? Yesterday he

Twenty-one. Singular and plural possessive. One animal wearing a hat, then two wearing hats. "This is a niz who owns a hat. Whose hat is it? It is the hat. Now there are two nizzes. They both own hats. Whose hats are they? They are the hats."

Twenty-two. Past tense. A bell. "This is a bell that can ring. It is ringing. It did the same thing yesterday. What did it do yesterday? Yesterday it .

THE CHILD'S LEARNING OF ENGLISH MORPHOLOGY

Twenty-three. Singular and plural possessive. One animal wearing a hat, then two. "This is a wug who owns a hat. Whose hat is it? It is the hat. Now there are two wugs. They both own hats. Whose hats are they? They are the hats."

Twenty-four. Comparative and superlative of the adjective. A dog with a few spots, one with several, and one with a great number. "This dog has quirks on him. This dog has more quirks on him. And this dog has even more quirks on him. This dog is quirky. This dog is And this dog is the

Twenty-five. Progressive and derived agentive or compound. Man balancing a ball on his nose. "This is a man who knows how to zib. What is he doing? He is What would you call a man whose job is to zib?"

Twenty-six. Past tense. An ice cube, then a puddle of water. "This is an ice cube. Ice melts. It is melting.

Now it is all gone.

What happened to it?

Twenty-seven. Singular and plural possessive. One animal wearing a hat, then two. "This is a bik who owns a hat. Whose hat is it? It is the hat. Now there are two biks. They both.

own hats. Whose hats are they? They are the hats."

Twenty-eight. Compound words. The child was asked why he thought the following were so named. (No pictures were used for these items.)

a. afternoon h. handkerchief i. holiday b. airplane c. birthday j. merry-go-round d. breakfast k. newspaper e. blackboard sunshine f. fireplace m. Thanksgiving n. Friday g. football

It took between ten and fifteen minutes to ask a child all of these questions. Even the youngest children have had experience with picture books, if not actual training in naming things through pictures, and no child failed to understand the nature of the task before him. It was, moreover, evident that a great number of these children thought they were being taught new English words. It was not uncommon for a child to repeat the nonsense word immediately upon hearing it and before being asked any questions. Often, for example, when the experimenter said "This is a gutch", the child repeated, "Gutch". Answers were willingly, and often insistently, given. These responses will be discussed in the following section.

Adult answers to the inflectional items were considered correct answers, and it was therefore possible to rate the children's answers. In general, adult opinion was unanimous-everyone said the plural of "wug" was "wugs", the plural of "gulch" was "gulches"; where the adults differed among themselves, except in the possessives, it was along the line of a common but irregular formation, for example "heaf" became "heaves" in the plural for many speakers, and in these cases both responses were considered correct. If a child said that the plural of "heaf" was "heafs" or "heaves", he was considered correct. If he said "heaf" (no ending), or "heafes", he was considered incorrect, and a record was kept of each type of response.