The acquisition of demonstratives in a complex noun class system

TY - JOUR

T1 - The acquisition of demonstratives in a complex noun class system

AU - Sagna, Serge

AU - Vihman, Virve-Anneli

AU - Vihman, Marilyn

AU - Brown, Dunstan

N1 - © Serge Sagna, Virve‑Anneli Vihman, Marilyn Vihman and Dunstan Brown

PY - 2022/11

Y1 - 2022/11

N2 - We present an exploratory study of 2 to 3-year-old children’s acquisition of the demonstrative system of Eegimaa (ISO 369-3 bqj), an endangered language belonging to the Jóola cluster of the Atlantic family of the Niger-Congo phylum, spoken by about 13,000 speakers in southwestern Senegal. Eegimaa demonstratives express distance from speaker (proximal, medial and distal) and the agreement categories of number and gender, as well as having four morphological types that create an additional dimension of complexity for children to learn. These demonstrative types are each associated with a range of syntactic functions with partial overlaps.

AB - We present an exploratory study of 2 to 3-year-old children’s acquisition of the demonstrative system of Eegimaa (ISO 369-3 bqj), an endangered language belonging to the Jóola cluster of the Atlantic family of the Niger-Congo phylum, spoken by about 13,000 speakers in southwestern Senegal. Eegimaa demonstratives express distance from speaker (proximal, medial and distal) and the agreement categories of number and gender, as well as having four morphological types that create an additional dimension of complexity for children to learn. These demonstrative types are each associated with a range of syntactic functions with partial overlaps.

U2 - 10.3366/word.2022.0209

DO - 10.3366/word.2022.0209

M3 - Article

SN - 1750-1245

VL - 15

SP - 226

EP - 251

JO - Word Structure

JF - Word Structure

IS - 3

ER -