Learning the passive in natural(istic) settings

Katie Alcock, Ken Rimba, Manizha Tellaie, and Charles Newton

Thanks to Kamil ud Deen

Learning language: passives

• Jack ate the ice-cream

• The ice-cream was eaten by Jack

• Learned very late in English & other languages e.g. Hebrew

Different explanations - passive

• Maturation: – Borer & Wexler (1987), Hebrew & English

passives– At a certain point in childhood, particular parts

of grammar come “online”– Passive at age 6 years– Differential maturation for adjectival and verbal

passive • it is broken vs. John was kissed

Clues from other languages

• Early passive acquisition– Bantu languages e.g. Sesotho – Demuth (1989)– Inuktitut - Crago & Allen (1996)

• Frequency?– many more passives in these languages

• Function of passive – e.g. for wh- questions – Sesotho – can’t say “who cooked the

food?”, must say “the food was cooked by who?”

• Easier construction– in Inuktitut passive agrees only with grammatical subject while

actives agree with both subject and object

Study 1 – Bantu languages

• Two Eastern Bantu languages– Kiswahili (2 dialects)– Kigiriama

• Complex morphophonemics:– Affixes to indicate passive among other thingsni- li- pig- wa1S past hit passive“I was hit”

• Passive not used for wh- questions obligatorily– Some use but optional

• Passives, like in Inuktitut, agree with grammatical subject– Actives also with grammatical object, especially if it is a person

• Passive very frequent in input

Study 1 - Data collection and sources

• Recording of spontaneous speech samples• Children in own homes• Caregivers recorded• Three language groups

– coastal Kiswahili, Nairobi Kiswahili (distinct dialect), Kigiriama (coastal)

• 13 children in total• Nairobi children 1-11 data points per child• Coastal children 1 data point per child• Ages 1:9 to 3:3

Data analysis

• Transcription of all child and adult speech• Coastal data - 10% checked by 2nd transcriber• Analysis of use of verbs and passives

– On all verbs – not just where obligatory– Adults as well as children

• Deen data – – All examples of passive in children

• including which dated sample they appear in

– Proportions for adults• do not have dated sample

– Some examples of active verbs (in thesis text)

Analysis

• Children’s linguistic maturity– Age– MLU morphemes? Words?– Verbal ratio– Longest utterance

• Productive use– Bates et al. (1988) definition

Results

• Proportion of verbs in passive = 0 to 19% by child• No sig. difference between languages• Youngest productive use 1;10

ye lipigwa / -taipiga(he was beaten / [he] will beat)

• Correlation with age n.s.• Ditto with all measures of linguistic maturity• Significant correlation with input proportion of

passives

Language differences

Passives by language

Kiswahili (Coast) Kigiriama Kiswahili (Nairobi)0.00

0.02

0.04

0.06

0.08

0.10

Language group

Child differences

Passives in input and output

0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.200.00

0.05

0.10

0.15

0.20

Passives output

Summary so far

• Passive use early in 2 languages (3 dialects)

• Structure similar to southern Bantu languages

• Frequency also similar

• Some differences in usage

• Frequency of input crucial

Naturalistic exposure in English

– English-speaking children learn passives in experimental situation (Brooks & Tomasello, 1999)

– Our study • exposure to passives in home setting• not just input by linguists or experimenters

Hypotheses

• Naturalistic exposure to passive will lead to production of passive – Even in very young children

– Will be some transfer to material never heard in passive

– Will be no overall effect on productive language

• Focus of question will also affect production of passives

Methods – Exposure

• Two books of similar length• Suitable stories written

– Passivised – as many verbs as possible– Story A “Jack” (zoo story) – 19 pictures, 17 with reversible

verbs– Story B “Puss” (animal story) – 18 pictures, all with

reversible verbs

• Parents asked to read book once a day for a week• Four conditions

– Active-Active, Active-Passive, Passive-Active, Passive-Passive

Methods – Testing

• Both books tested in lab• Children asked questions

– Agent-focussed: what’s Jack doing?– Patient-focussed: what’s happening to the box?– or Neutral: what’s happening here?

• 1/3 each, allocated to each book• Books reviewed in same order

– though do not know order of reading at home

• Children then asked to tell story in own words– Very little speech produced so not analysed

Participants

• 40 children aged 29-38 mo

• 21 boys, 19 girls

• All from N. and E. London, recruited through local nurseries

• All solely English-speaking families

Results

• Age – no correlation with verbs/passives• Verbal ratio correlates with passives• No effect on number of utterances or on verbal

ratio, however• More passives following exposure to passive

Group and book differences

Group and book effects

0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8Book A

Book B

Group

Effect of book (A vs B)

• Book B always tested second – so had heard patient-focussed questions even if no passive

story.

• Interaction between condition and book– Active A-Passive B children produce more passives on their

trained book than Passive A-Active B– Have heard more patient-focussed questions by the time they

get to testing on book B– But Passive A-Active B children produce more passives on

non-trained book– Have produced more passives themselves when reach book B

Types of questions and passives

• Patient-focused questions = more passives produced– But no effect on number of utterances or verbs– Interaction with condition– But only because floor effect in A-A group– Some children who never heard passives before produce a few in

response to patient-focussed questions

• Types of passives: full vs. truncated vs. attempts– No interaction either between condition and proportion of types of

passives when include A-A– Interaction for other 3 conditions

• P-P produce more full passives and fewer truncated

Conclusions

• Hearing passives at home makes children produce them in the lab

• Does not only apply to sentences they originally heard in passive

• Although effect is stronger for these verbs

• And effect increases through testing session

Discussion

• Input is important

• Structure in Bantu languages helps?– Very difficult to quantify how relatively

“difficult” particular constructions are for children hearing different languages