Reading Working Papers in Linguistics 4 (2000) - The University of ...

EMERGENCE OF TENSE AND AGREEMENT
Table 5 Present tense correct and incorrect use a
Sara
Osama
Inflection
Correct Incorrect Correct Incorrect
93
16 103
9
1S
85% 15% 92% 8%
3
3
1P
100%
100%
1
8
2F
11% 89%
3M
3F
3P
Total
s= singular; p= plural.
62
15
25
12
1
3
17
10
4
8
84%
94%
89%
199
83%
16%
6%
11%
40
17%
68%
100%
100%
137
89%
32%
17
11%
1= 1 st person; 2= 2 nd person; 3=3 rd person; ma= masculine; f= feminine;
As for the present tense paradigm, the data shows not only that the two
children realized the 1 st singular and 3 rd masculine (93 and 103
respectively) most, but also that they erred in these two (16 and 9
respectively) most as well. Children tend to substitute the 1 st singular for
other grammatical inflections such as 2 nd masculine, 3 rd masculine, 3 rd
feminine and 3 rd plural only in present tense. Moreover, the above table
shows that Sara erred in several suffixes, such as 2 nd feminine, 3 rd feminine
and 3 rd plural present tense inflections, contrary to the other children. In
samples 2, 4, 10 and 12 she used the 2 nd feminine instead of the 1 st singular
and in all situations she was influenced by the investigator’s use of the 2 nd
feminine immediately previous to her own utterance, one example is
presented in (1).(f= feminine; imp= imperative; 2= 2 nd person; pr= present)
(1) Investigator: ge!d- ai Sara ba!deen te- tii"-iin!
sit- fimp Sara then 2f.pr- fall- 2f.pr
“sit Sara otherwise you will fall down”.
Sara: *tii"- iin
fall- 2f.pr
“you will fall”.
11