The Acquisition of Subject-Verb Agreement in Typically Developing Children: A Corpus-Driven Analysis
Purpose. This study investigates the acquisition of subject-verb agreement in Jordanian Arabic (JA) in children aged 2.6 to 12 years, aiming to identify the developmental stages and factors influencing this aspect of language acquisition. Methods. The research utilized a corpus of approximately 5...
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| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Pereiaslav-Khmelnytsky Hryhorii Skovoroda State Pedagogical University
2025-04-01
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| Series: | Психолінгвістика |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://psycholing-journal.com/index.php/journal/article/view/1552 |
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| Summary: | Purpose. This study investigates the acquisition of subject-verb agreement in Jordanian Arabic (JA) in children aged 2.6 to 12 years, aiming to identify the developmental stages and factors influencing this aspect of language acquisition.
Methods. The research utilized a corpus of approximately 500,000 words, primarily compiled from the speech data of 500 children. The study analysed the subject-verb agreement patterns across different age groups and identified key stages in the acquisition process.
Results. The study identifies four stages in the acquisition of subject-verb agreement: (1) overgeneralization of third-person singular masculine forms (2.9 years), (2) mastery of gender agreement with ongoing difficulties in number agreement (4.3 years), (3) full agreement with overgeneralization to all subjects, regardless of semantics (5.1 years), and (4) full mastery of both syntactic and semantic agreement (5.9 years). The results indicate that syntactic agreement is acquired earlier, while the integration of semantic features like animacy and humanness emerges later.
Conclusions. The findings support the syntactic-first hypothesis of language acquisition, suggesting that children first master morphosyntactic rules before incorporating more complex semantic distinctions. Additionally, the study highlights the role of cognitive development in processing more complex linguistic forms over time. This research contributes to the understanding of subject-verb agreement acquisition in morphologically rich languages like JA and provides insights into the interaction between syntax, semantics, and cognitive maturation. |
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| ISSN: | 2309-1797 2415-3397 |