289 Language Acquisition The Acquisition of Motion Verbs in Greek: Evidence from Comprehension 1 Maria Kotroni Aristotle University of Thessaloniki [email protected]Abstract This study addresses the issue of how motion verbs interact with aspect in the expression of manner of motion regarding child language acquisition. More specifically, we investigate children’s and adults’ preferences in interpreting motion events as telic, atelic locative or atelic directional when expressed by an ambiguous manner of motion verb followed by a PP (path/goal) (real or novel and in both aspectual forms). Within two offline comprehension sentence- video matching tasks, the results from the control group indicate that in Greek the interpretation of manner of motion verbs and the attribution of their aspectual values involves the integration of: morphological aspect, motion event and structural information. However, the results from Greek children point to inappropriate aspectual knowledge of aspect at discourse level and a developmental pattern in the acquisition of such integration, due to its compositional nature. Thus, this study concludes in favor of an account of Lexicon-Morphosyntax Interface. 1. Introduction The present study is an account of lexicon-morphosyxntax interaction in the expression of manner of motion. More specifically, the study addresses the issue of how motion verbs interact with aspect in the expression of manner of motion and how this interaction evolves in child language acquisition of Greek. We investigate children’s and adults’ preferences in interpreting motion events as telic, atelic locative or atelic directional when expressed by an ambiguous 1 This study has been funded by the Greek State Scholarship Foundation (IKY), Leventis Foundation, Propondis Foundation, as well as from the Greek Ministry of Education. Unauthenticated Download Date | 11/6/14 6:36 PM
Transcript
2 8 9Language Acquisition
The Acquisition of Motion Verbs in Greek: Evidence from Comprehension1
This study addresses the issue of how motion verbs interact with aspect in the expression of manner of motion regarding child language acquisition. More specifically, we investigate children’s and adults’ preferences in interpreting motion events as telic, atelic locative or atelic directional when expressed by an ambiguous manner of motion verb followed by a PP(path/goal) (real or novel and in both aspectual forms). Within two offline comprehension sentence-video matching tasks, the results from the control group indicate that in Greek the interpretation of manner of motion verbs and the attribution of their aspectual values involves the integration of: morphological aspect, motion event and structural information. However, the results from Greek children point to inappropriate aspectual knowledge of aspect at discourse level and a developmental pattern in the acquisition of such integration, due to its compositional nature. Thus, this study concludes in favor of an account of Lexicon-Morphosyntax Interface.
1. Introduction
The present study is an account of lexicon-morphosyxntax interaction in the expression of manner of motion. More specifically, the study addresses the issue of how motion verbs interact with aspect in the expression of manner of motion and how this interaction evolves in child language acquisition of Greek. We investigate children’s and adults’ preferences in interpreting motion events as telic, atelic locative or atelic directional when expressed by an ambiguous
1 This study has been funded by the Greek State Scholarship Foundation (IKY), Leventis Foundation, Propondis Foundation, as well as from the Greek Ministry of Education.
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manner of motion verb followed by a PP(path/goal), (adjunct or complement). The aspectual form of the verb (perfective or imperfective) was also a dependent variable. For example, in Greek the sentence η πεταλούδα πέταξε στην κουζίνα is ambiguous: a. the butterfly was outside the kitchen and it was flying towards the kitchen but the event stops before the butterfly reaches the kitchen (atelic directional), b. the butterfly was outside the kitchen and it was flying towards and reaches the kitchen (telic-endpoint reached) and c. the butterfly was inside the kitchen and it was flying there (atelic locative). Moreover, the sentence η πεταλούδα πετούσε στην κουζίνα is also ambiguous between a locative and a directional reading (a. the butterfly was outside the kitchen and it was flying towards the kitchen but the event stops before the butterfly reaches the kitchen b. the butterfly was inside the kitchen and it was flying there. The study comprised both real and novel verbs, in order to examine the role of aspect independently from verb meaning.
Previous studies on lexicon-morphosyntax interface follow two basic accounts. Reseachers such as Mac Whinney 1999, Bates and Goodman 1997, Tomasello 2000, Marchman and Bates 1994 claimed in favour of a Lexicon first account. On the other hand, researchers such as Gleitman 1990, Landau and Gleitman 1985, Naigles 1990, Naigles & Terrazas 1998, Fisher et al 1994 supported a Morphosyntax first account (also called syntactic bootsrapping) in the interpretation of such an interaction.
In some previous comprehension studies, researchers conclude that 3 to 5 year old Polish and Russian speaking children know the aspectual semantics of perfective and imperfective aspect (Weist et al.1991, Vinnitskaya and Wexler 2001, Stoll 1998). However in two other comprehension studies (Kazanina and Philips 2002 and van Hout 2002 for Russian, Polish and Dutch), 3 to 5 year old children have acquired the aspectual semantics of the perfective-imperfective aspect, but they do not employ it appropriately in a pragmatic sense, i.e. they have not yet acquired the interface with discourse, knowledge intergrating aspect in discourse is not yet fully developed, which in turn inhibits the proper interpretation of the aspects. The same is the case with Italian, where aspectual meanings are conflated by the various past tenses (Hollebrandse and van Hout 2001). Even the 5-year olds did not show full, discourse-appropriate understanding of aspectual meanings. Moreover, no developmental advantage of aspect as a dedicated grammatical category is found.
The present study comprises two offline comprehension sentence-video matching tasks which aim at investigating the degree native speakers of Greek use the perfective-imperfective distinction to differentiate between locative and directional atelic readings and telic-endpoint reached and atelic-locative interpretations. The dependent variable is motion and the independent variables are aspect, verb type (real vs novel) and age group.
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Based on Horrocks and Stavrou 2003, 2007, Papadopoulou 1996, Papafragou and Selimis 2010, we predicted (see Table 1) that imperfective aspect mostly denotes atelic locative events with the PP being an adjunct. In a more restricted use, imperfective aspect can also denote atelic directional events, but in that case the verb requires a complement PP usually introduced by the preposition pros. On the other hand, Greek perfective aspect is ambiguous between a telic and an atelic reading. In the telic reading, the PP is a complement. This use is more strongly preferred with perfective aspect. In the atelic reading of the perfective aspect, which is more restricted in use, the PP can be either a complement or an adjunct. Consequently, imperfective aspect and atelic readings are predicted to prevail over perfective aspect and telic readings respectively. Therefore, the aspectual value of verb stems involves the combination of the aspectual character with the choice of grammatical aspect.
The pilot study, conducted on 122 adults native speakers of Greek, was an acceptability judgment task (in a 5-likert scale questionnaire) which aimed at identifying the hierarchy of acceptability regarding locative and directional readings and the role of aspect and preposition in the interpretation of the sentence. This study resulted in the recruitment of the critical items used in the main study. In Table 2, we identify the conditions tested.
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Based on Tsimpli and Papadopoulou 2009, we assume that both perfective and imperfective can be interpreted as directional (PP-complement) or locative (PP-adjunct). However, the imperfective cannot have a telic interpretation. Two word orders were tested:
a. S V[+perf/imperf] PPpath PPtemp(se mia ora/ja mia ora) The temporal PP does not intervene between the V and PP(path), therefore there is no bias in favour of or a restriction for an adjunct/complement interpretation of the PPpath.
b. S V[+perf/imperf] PPtemp (se mia ora/ja mia ora) PPpath The temporal PP intervenes between the V and PP(path), which could in a sense favour the adjunct interpretation. However, Greek has free word order which restricts such a bias.
Regarding the first word order, the conditions that are predicted to be rated higher are the ones with ja mia ora (durative-atelic) with either perfective or imperfective aspectual form and the adjunct interpretation (atelic locative) is favoured over the complement one. On the other hand, se mia ora (punctual-telic) cannot combine with imperfective aspect. In Table 3, there is an overview of the means in all four conditions.
Table 3.
Preference (mean):V-PPpath-PPtemp
Conditions Mean Std.Deviation
Perfective-se 2.01 1.3
Perfective-ja 3.14 1.593
Imperfective-se 1.65 1.101
Imperfective-ja 3.61 1.567
Total se 1.83 1.217
Total ja 3.38 1.596
In both participant and item analysis, the main effect of aspect (F1,58= ,621, p=,434 and F1,23= ,191, p=,666 respectively) was not significant. However, the main effect of preposition was significant (F1,58= 228,439, p=,000 and F1,23=49,802, p=,000) as well as the interaction between aspect and preposition (F1,58= 43,527, p=,000 and F1,82= 18,260, p=,000). Moreover, the difference in the aspect using the same preposition is significant (se: t=5,601, df=58, p=,000 and ja: t=-4,232, df=58 and p=,000 for participant analysis and se: t=3,987, df=23, p=0,001 and ja: t=2,783, df=23 and p=0,011 for item analysis), which is also the case with the difference in the preposition keeping the aspectual type
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constant (participant analysis: t=10,516, df=58, p=,000 for perfective aspect and t=14,831, df=58 and p=,000 for imperfective aspect and item analysis: t=4,694, df=23, p=,000 for perfective aspect and t=8,442, df=23 and p=,000 for imperfective aspect). The difference between the punctual preposition se and the durative preposition ja is also found significant (participant=15,066, df=58 and p=,000 and item: t=6,939, df=23 and p=,000).
Therefore, in both participant and item analysis, the predictions regarding the role of aspect and preposition are verified.
Regarding the second word order, we predicted that, since the PPtemp ja mia ora favours locative atelic readings (PPpath=adjunct), it is compatible with both perfective and imperfective aspect and thus is expected to be rated higher than se mia ora, which is only compatible with perfective aspect and available only with a telic reading. Moreover, imperfective aspect is predicted to show higher ratings with ja mia ora, whereas perfective aspect is predicted to show almost similar ratings with se mia ora and ja mia ora. An overview of the means in all four conditions appears in Table 4.
Table 4.
Preference (mean): V-PPtemp-PPpath
Conditions Mean Std.Deviation
Perfective-se 2.08 1.345
Perfective-ja 3.25 1.572
Imperfective-se 1.86 1.283
Imperfective-ja 3.46 1.556
Total se 1.97 1.318
Total ja 3.35 1.567
In the inferential analysis, the main effect of aspect was not significant (participant: F1,82=,024, p=,877 and item: F1,23= ,025, p=,876). However, the main effect of preposition was significant (participant: F1,82= 148,177, p=,000 and item: F1,23= 81,978, p=,000), as well as the interaction between aspect and preposition (participant: F1,82= 8,185, p=,005 and item: F1,82= 11,430, p=,003). The difference in the aspect using the same preposition is significant (participant: t=2,629, df=8, p=0,010 when the preposition is se and t=1,927, df=82 and p=0,57 (marginal) when the preposition is ja and item analysis: preposition se t=2,457, df=23, p=0,022 and but preposition ja t=1,706, df=23 and p=0,102-one tailed). The difference in the preposition keeping the aspectual type constant is also significant (participant analysis: t=9,852, df=82,
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p=,000 for perfective aspect and t=10,569, df=82 and p=,000 for imperfective aspect and item analysis: t=7,817, df=23, p=,000 for perfective aspect and t=8,962, df=23 and p=,000 for imperfective aspect). The difference between the punctual preposition se and the durative preposition ja is also found significant (participant analysis: t=12,134, df=82 and p=,000 and item analysis: t=8,982, df=23 and p= ,000). Once more, the predictions regarding the role of preposition and aspect are verified.
In the pilot study, we also tested each item separately in all four conditions, in order to classify them in a hierarchy regarding the inherent role of aspect and recruit the most appropriate ones (See the appendix for the means of the responses and the standard deviations. No statistical analysis is included because of lack of space). The pilot study concluded that some verbs are ambiguous and the role of aspect is significant, whereas some other verbs are interpreted as atelic locative or directional regardless of aspect. There were also intermediate points between the two ends of the hierarchy.
In Table 5, the verbs tested are classified, on the basis of the means of the responses for each item separately in each of the four conditions.
Table 5.
Hierarchy of acceptance
Verbs interpreted as atelic-directional (low effect of aspect)
Ambiguous verbs-role of aspect significant
Verbs with a tension to be interpreted as atelic-locative
Verbs interpreted as atelic-locative (low effect of aspect)
- στρίβω - πηδώ - μπουσουλώ - κυλώ
- σκαρφαλώνω - κολυμπώ - σέρνομαι
- γλιστράω - οδηγώ - τρέχω
- περπατώ
- πετώ
3. The Main Study: Method
3.1. Participants
Three age groups comprised of 272 monolingual native speakers of Greek were recruited: one group of adult monolingual native speakers of Greek (control group-76 adults) and two groups of Greek monolingual children (1st group:
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mean age 5;7, 90 children, and 2nd group: mean age 9;6, 106 children). Children and adults with a suspicion of low IQ, language, hearing and visual deficits were excluded.
Table 6.
Profile of participants
Age groupLocative-directional task Telic-atelic task
N of Participants Mean N of Participants Mean
1st group 50 5;7 40 5;7
2nd group 58 9;6 48 9;6
Adults-control 36 35;3 40 20;4
total 144 128
3.2. Materials
The critical sentences denote a motion event expressed by a manner of motion verb followed by a path PP. The tasks consist of 36 experimental items (12 real verbs, 12 novel verbs and 12 fillers) and 36 couples of videos. Each couple of videos illustrated each experimental item in two different events. Regarding the first task, they illustrated either a locative event (e.g. a man was in the living room and he was running there) or a directional event (e.g. a man was in the kitchen and he was running towards the living room). Regarding the second task, each couple of videos illustrated either an atelic-locative event (e.g. a man was in the living room and he was running inside it) or a telic event with a reached endpoint (e.g. a man a man was in the kitchen and he run and reached the living room). In each motion event, the verb appeared in both aspectual forms (perfective and imperfective) in different versions. Therefore each item appeared in four conditions. The sentences and the couples of videos were divided into two versions so that each participant never saw the same set of videos more than once and never heard the same item more than once. The items and the videos were pseudorandomized.
The choice of the real items was based on the pilot study, whereas the formation of the novel items followed past-tense formation rules and patterns regarding Greek as they appear in Holton et al 1997, Triantafyllides 2000, Ralli 1988, Klairis and Babiniotis 2004. The conditions tested were the following as shown in Table 7.
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Table 7.
Conditions
Perfective+ PPpathe.g. O antras etrekse sto saloni theNOM.S.M. manNOM.S.M. ranPERF.3S. s-theACC.S.N. living roomACC.S.N. The man ran into/in the living room.
Locative (PP adjunct)vp[vp[V…]PP]]
atelic
Directional (PP complement)vp[V PP]
atelic
Endpoint reached (PP complement)vp[V PP]
telic
Imperfective+ PPpathe.g. O antras etrexe sto saloni theNOM.S.M. manNOM.S.M. ranIMPERF.3S. s-theACC.S.N. living roomACC.S.N. The man was running into/in the living room.
Locative (PP adjunct)vp[vp[V…]PP]]
atelic
Directional (PP complement)vp[V PP]
atelic
3.3. Procedure
The participant sits in front of a computer screen and listens to an audio recorded sentence which contains a manner of motion verb either in perfective or imperfective aspect. Then he/she watches two videos simultaneously and finally he/she listens to the same sentence again. The subject has to choose which video matches the sentence the best.
4. Results
4.1. Locative vs. Directional Task
The aim of this task was to investigate the role of the aspectual verb form in the comprehension of ambiguous manner-of-motion verbs. More specifically do native speakers of Greek use the perfective/ imperfective distinction to differentiate between locative and directional readings? The variables tested in this task appear in Table 8.
As is clear from Figure 1, a basic pattern is observed. All three age groups prefer the locative interpretation with imperfective aspect. The same is the case with perfective aspect regarding children. However, adults prefer the directional interpretation with perfective aspect. Such a tendency is observed even within the second group, where the gap between a locative and a directional interpretation is narrowing. Therefore, the prediction that a locative interpretation with imperfective aspect prevails over a directional one with perfective aspect is verified.
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Table 8.
Dependent and Independent variables tested
Dependent variable a. Directed motion1. directional interpretation
2. locative interpretation
Independent variables
a. Aspect 1. perfective
2. imperfective
b. Age group
1. mean age 5;7 (range 1;7)
2. mean age 9;6 (range 1;8)
3. Adults-control group
c. Verb type1. real verbs
2. novel verbs
R ea l v e rb s
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perfe
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1s t group 2nd group adultsAg e g r o u p s
Pref
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loc ativ edirec tional
Figure 1. Descriptive Statistics-Real verbs
Regarding novel verbs, Figure 2 makes clear that a locative interpretation outnumbers the directional one within imperfective aspect for all age groups and within perfective aspect in the case of children. In contrast to real verbs, adults assigned a locative interpretation with perfective aspect which is however near chance level.
More specifially, in an inferential analysis, a three way mixed anova pointed out that, in the participant analysis of real verbs, the main effect of aspect (F(1,141)= 31.250, p= 0.000) and the aspect by group interaction were significant
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(F(2, 141) =24.653, p= 0.000). The main effect of verb type (real or novel) (F(1,141)= 70.086, p= 0.000), as well as the verb type by group interaction (F(2, 141) =26.583, p= 0.000) were also significant. Additionally, the aspect-by-verb type interaction was significant (F(1,141)= 7.644, p= 0.006) and the three-way interaction between aspect, verb type and group was marginally significant (F(2, 141) =2.803, p= 0.064). Finally, the main effect of age was significant (F(1,141)
= 22.750, p = 0.000). Regarding the role of aspect in the participant analysis, within the 1st group,
within real verbs (t= 0.431, df=49, p < 0.334, one-tailed) and within novel verbs (t= 0.586, df=49, p <0.561, one-tailed), the difference between perfective and imperfective aspect is not significant. Therefore, the 1st group children’s preference for locative interepretation over a directional one is not an effect of aspect. Regarding the second group, in the group of real verbs, there was a significant difference between the conditions (z=4.255, N-Ties= 46, p=0.000). In the group of novel verbs there is a marginally significant difference between the conditions (z=1.878, N-Ties= 40, p=0.060). Therefore, the 2nd group children’s preference for locative interpretation over a directional one is an effect of aspect. Finally, within the 3rd group, within real verbs, the difference between perfective and imperfective aspect is significant (t= 10.736, df=35, p < 0.000). Therefore, the adults’ preference for locative interpretation with imperfective aspect and a directional one with perfective aspect is an effect of aspect.
Novel verbs
26 23 16 942
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1s t group 2nd group adults
age groups
pref
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loc at ivedirec t ional
Figure 2. Descriptive statistics-Novel verbs
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Within novel verbs, the difference between perfective and imperfective aspect is significant (t= 7.218, df=35, p < 0.000). Therefore, the adults’ preference for locative interpretation with both perfective and imperfective aspect is an effect of aspect.
Regarding the role of verb-type (novel-real) in the participant analysis, within the 1st group, there was not a significant difference between the conditions (real vs novel) in the group of verbs in perfective aspect (z=1.408, N-Ties= 32, p=0.159) as well as imperfective aspect (z=1.728, N-Ties= 31, p=0.084). Therefore, the 1st group’s preference for locative interepretation over a directional interpretation is not an effect of verb type in either aspect. Regarding the 2nd age group, in the group of verbs in perfective (z=4.874, N-Ties= 41, p=0.000) as well as imperfective aspect (z=2.371, N-Ties= 31, p=0.018), there is a significant difference between the conditions (real vs novel verbs). Therefore, the 2nd group’s preference for locative interpretation over a directional interpretation is an effect of verb type in the case of both perfective and imperfective aspect. Finally, regarding adults, within both perfective (z=3.682, N-Ties= 30, p=0.000) and imperfective verbs (z=3.301, N-Ties= 24, p=0.000), there is a significant difference between the conditions. Therefore, the adults’ preference for locative interpretation with imperfective aspect and a directional one with perfective aspect, as well as their preference for a locative interpretation over a directional one in both aspects is affected by verb type.
Moving to the item analysis, a three-way mixed anova revealed significance in the main effect of aspect (F(1,33)= 5.236, p= 0.029), the aspect by group interaction (F(2,33)= 3.042, p= 0.061-marginal), the main effect of verb type (F(1,33)= 77.414, p= 0.000), the verb type by group interaction (F(2,33)= 26.903, p= 0.000), the aspect by verb type interaction (F(1,33)= 3.701, p= 0.063-marginal), as well as the main effect of age group (F(2,33)= 5.812, p= 0.007). However, the three way interaction between aspect, verb type and group was not significant. (F(2,33)= 0.702, p= 0.503). More specifically, regarding the role of aspect, within the 1st group, the difference between perfective and imperfective aspect is not significant within real verbs (t=1.287, df=11, p<0.224) and within novel verbs (t=1.055, df=11, p<0.314). Therefore, the 1st group’s preference for locative interpretation over a directional interpretation in both real and novel verbs is not an effect of aspect. Within the 2nd group, the difference between perfective and imperfective aspect is significant within real verbs (t=2.598, df=11, p<0.025), as well as within the novel verbs. Therefore, the 2nd group’s preference for a locative over a directional interpretation is an effect of aspect. Within the 3rd group, within both real (t=6.515, df=11, p<0.000) and novel verbs (t=6.082, df=11, p<0.000), the difference between perfective and imperfective aspect is significant. Therefore the adults’ preference for a locative interpretation with imperfective and a directional with perfective as well as adults’ preference for a locative over a directional interpretation is an effect of
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aspect. Regarding the role of verb type, within the 1st group, the difference in verb type (real vs novel verbs) is not significant within either perfective aspect verbs (t=.681, df=11, p<0.510) and imperfective aspect verbs (t=0.718, df=11, p<0.488). Therefore, the 1st group’s preference for locative over directional interpretation is not an effect of verb type in both perfective and imperfective aspect. Within the 2nd group, within perfective aspect verbs, the difference of verb type is marginally significant (t=2.060, df=11, p<0.064), whereas, within imperfective aspect verbs, the difference of verb type is not significant (t=0.997, df=11, p<0.340). Within adults, within perfective aspect verbs, the difference of verb type is significant (t=2.876, df=11, p<0.015). However, within imperfective aspect verbs, the difference of verb type is not significant (t=1.235, df=11, p<0.243). Therefore, the older children’s and adults’ preference for locative interpretation over a directional interpretation is an effect of verb type in the case of perfective aspect, but not in the case of imperfective aspect.
Overall, adults seem to rely on aspect alone for the interpretation of imperfective motion verbs, whereas for the interpretation of perfective motion verbs, aspect, lexical (semantic values, saliency, frequency) and syntactic cues were also considered. In any case, the effect of aspect is shown to be significant. In the case of children, a developmental pattern is observed. Older children rely on aspect for the interpretation of ambiguous manner of motion verbs and syntactic and lexical cues are slightly related to their preference regarding perfective aspect. Younger children’s data, however, revealed that aspectual, syntactic and lexical cues are not related to their preferences. They prefer the locative interpretation because the PP is an adjunct and within children there is no preference for complement.
We also checked each item separately regarding the pair of perfective-imperfective aspect within real and within novel verbs and we observed a. a developmental pattern (for example, regarding real verbs like ‘στρίβω, μπουσουλώ, κυλώ, πετώ’: 1st group: Z=0.660, N-Ties=12, p=509, 2nd group: Z=1.706, N-Ties=12, p=0.88 and adults: Z=3.655, N-Ties=1, p=0.000. Similar is the case for the rest of the verbs, real and novel) and b. that some verbs seem more resisting to the effect of aspect (for example: regarding the real verbs ‘στρίβω, μπουσουλώ, κυλώ, πετώ’ Z=0.660, N-Ties=12, p=509, whereas for the rest of the real verbs: Z=0.871, N-Ties=21, p=381)) and in the hierarchy of acceptance they were classified towards the ends of the continuum.
We also checked the role of the degree of ambiguity following the hierarchy of acceptance from the pilot study (Figure 3) in both a within group and a between group analysis and we observed that the relation between motion and degree of ambiguity is significant within the 2nd group in perfective aspect (participant analysis: t=2.246, df=88, p=0.025) and within the 1st group in imperfective aspect (item analysis: t=3.500, df=5, p=0.017)). However, it was non-significant within the control group in both aspects and in all other conditions. Moreover,
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within perfective aspect, all three age groups differ from each other. Similar is the condition of highly ambiguous imperfective verbs within imperfective aspect, except for the comparison between the younger group and adults (U=7828.5, N1=150, N2=108, p=0.637). Regarding low ambiguity imperfective verbs, all three age groups do not differ significantly (1st vs 2nd group: U=12384, N1=150, N2=174, p=0.407, 1st vs adult group: U=7735.5, N1=150, N2=108, p=0.521 and 2nd vs adult group: U=8311.5, N1=174, N2=108, p=0.088).
High vs Low ambiguity
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perfective im perfective perfective im perfective perfective im perfective
1st g roup 2nd g roup adultsconditions
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d irectiona l loca tive
Figure 3. High vs. Low ambiguity
Finally, we examined the role of frequency (Figure 4) in a within and between group analysis. The analysis revealed that in the item analysis and within all three age groups, there is no effect of frequency in both aspects. A significant effect is observed in the participant analysis of imperfective aspect in all age groups (1st group: Z=2.086, N-Ties=26, p=0.037, 2nd group: Z=3.799, N-Ties=37, p=0.000 and adults: Z=2.200, N-Ties=28, p=0.028) and of perfective aspect within older children (Z=3.849, N-Ties=42, p=0.000). Regarding the between group analysis, within perfective aspect, there is no relationship between motion and frequency, except for the children groups within highly frequent perfective aspect verb forms (U=1449.5, N1=50, N2=58, p=0.997). On the other hand, in all age groups there is no effect of frequency regarding imperfective aspect except for the older children and adults within highly frequent imperfective aspect verb forms (U=792.5, N1=58, N2=36, p=0.008).
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Figure 4. High vs. Low frequency
4.2. Telic vs. Atelic Task
The aim of this task was to investigate the role of the aspectual verb form in the comprehension of ambiguous manner-of-motion verbs, i.e do native speakers of Greek use the perfective/ imperfective distinction to differentiate between telic and atelic readings? The variables tested appear in Table 9.
Table 9.
Dependent and Independent variables
Dependent variable a. Telicity1. telic (endpoint reached)
Within real verbs (Figure 5), a basic pattern is observed. All three age groups prefer the atelic locative interpretation with imperfective aspect. With perfective aspect however adults prefer the telic interpretation, although children still prefer the locative one. However, within older children, the gap between telic and atelic is narrowing.
Real verbs
25 2645
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1s t group 2nd group adults
age groups
pref
eren
ce (%
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te lic (endpoint reac hed) atelic (loc at ive)
Figure 5. Descriptive statistics- Real verbs
Regarding novel verbs (Figure 6), a locative interpretation outnumbers the telic one within imperfective aspect for all age groups and within perfective aspect within children. However, adults assign a telic interpretation to perfective motion verbs.
In the inferential participant analysis (with the use of a three-way mixed anova) significance was observed for the main effect of verb type (F(1,125)=15,319, p=0.000), the verb type by age group interaction (F(2,125)=12,007, p=0.000), the main effect of aspect (F(1,125)= 96,524, p=0.000), the aspect by age group interaction (F(2,125)= 34,080, p=0.000), the verb type by aspect interaction (F(1,125)= 12,051, p=0.001), the main effect of age (F(2,125)= 9,651, p=0.000) as well as the three-way interaction between aspect, verb type and age group (F(2,125)= 3,324, p=0.039).
Regarding the role of aspect, within the 1st group, the difference between perfective and imperfective aspect is not significant within real verbs (t=0.405,
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df=39, p<0.687) as well as within novel verbs (t=0.327, df=39, p<0.745). Therefore, the 1st age group’s preference for an atelic over a telic interpretation is not an effect of aspect. However, within the 2nd group, within the real verbs, the difference between perfective and imperfective aspect is significant within both real (t=5.661, df=47, p<0.000) and novel verbs (t=4.515, df=47, p<0.000). Similar is the case with the 3rd age group, real verbs: t=10.115, df=39, p<0.000 and novel verbs: t=6.846, df=39, p<0.000. Therefore, the 2nd and 3rd age group’s preference for an atelic over a telic interpretation is an effect of aspect.
Regarding the role of verb type, within the 1st group, the difference of verb type was not significant within perfective verbs (t=1.049, df=39, p<0.301) as well as within imperfective (t=1.389, df=39, p<0.173). Therefore, the 1st group’s preference for an atelic over a telic interpretation is not an effect of verb type. The 2nd group’s preference for an atelic over a telic interpretation is an effect of verb type in the perfective aspect (t=4.103, df=47, p<0.000) but not in the imperfective (t=1.319, df=47, p<0.096, one-tailed). Similar is the case with the 3rd group: perfective verbs (t=4.594, df=39, p<0.000) and imperfective verbs (t=1.704, df=39, p<0.096). Therefore, the 3rd group’s preference for an atelic over a telic interpretation in imperfective aspect is not an effect of verb type, but their preference for a telic over an atelic interpretation within perfective aspect is an effect of verb type.
Novel verbs
29 30 309
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1s t group 2nd group adults
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te lic (endpoint reac hed) atelic (loc at ive)
Figure 6. Descriptive statistics-Novel verbs
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In an item analysis, the three way mixed anova verified a signigicance in the main effect of verb type (F(1,33)=4.162, p=0.049), the verb type by age group interaction (F(2,33)=3.076, p=0.060-marginal), the main effect of aspect (F(1,33)=208.232, p=0.000), the aspect by age group interaction (F(2,33)=78.085, p=0.000). However, the verb type by aspect interaction (F(1,33)=2.681, p=0.111), as well as the three way interaction between verb type, aspect and age group were not significant (F(2,33)=0.916, p=0.410). Regarding the role of aspect within the 1st group, the difference between perfective and imperfective aspect was not significant within real verbs (t=0.411, df=11, p<0.689) as well as within novel verbs (t=0.114, df=11, p<0.912). Therefore, the 1st group’s preference for an atelic over a telic interpretation is not an effect of aspect.Within the 2nd group, the difference between perfective and imperfective aspect was significant within real verbs (t=11.851, df=11, p<0.000) as well as within novel verbs (t=5.803, df=11, p<0.000). Similar is the case within the 3rd group: real verbs real verbs (t=11.525, df=11, p<0.000) and novel verbs (t=5.922, df=11, p<0.000). Therefore, the 2nd and 3rd group’s preference for an atelic over a telic interpretation within novel verbs and the latter’s preference for telic interpretation within real verbs is an effect of aspect.
Regarding the role of verb type, within the 1st group, the difference between real and novel verb type was not significant within both perfective (t=1.157, df=11, p<0.272) and imperfective verbs (t=0.549, df=11, p<0.594), which is also the case with the 3rd group: perfective verbs, t=1.563, df=11, p<0.146 and imperfective verbs, t=1.593, df=11, p<0.139. For the 2nd group, within perfective aspect verbs, the difference between real and novel verb type was significant (t=2.602, df=11, p<0.025), whereas within imperfective verbs, the difference between real and novel verb type was not significant (t=1.093, df=11, p<0.298).
The results show that older children rely on aspect for the interpretation of imperfective as well of perfective motion verbs. Younger children and adults do not seem to rely on aspect or semantic cues for the interpretation of motion verbs. Children avoid the use of NPsobject, so the telic condition, where the PP is a complement, is not preferred irrespectively of aspect or verb type.
In the analysis of each item separately, a developmental pattern is also verified similar to the previous task. Regarding the role of frequency and ambiguity, within all age groups, there was no relationship between telicity and degree of frequency as well as telicity and degree of ambiguity.
4.3. Between-Task Analysis
If we attempted to compare conditions from different tasks, this might cause task effects in the analysis. Therefore, in an attempt to make a between task analysis, we compared these two conditions through comparisons with the atelic locative
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condition. Such an analysis is only available within perfective aspect, because the telic condition is incompatible with imperfective aspect.
Regarding real verbs (Table 10), within older children and adults, telic interpretations outnumber directional ones. The telic condition is more transparent than the directional one.
Table 10.
Between task analysis (real verbs)
Real verbs
Item anal Participant anal
Age groups Conditions p p
1st group Directional vs locative .000 .000 sig Locative>directional
sig Locative>telic=>non-sig Telic>directional Telic vs locative .000 .000
2nd group Directional vs locative .022 .000 Sig Locative>directional
non-sig.Locative>telic=> Sig Telic>directional Telic vs locative .171 .158
Control group Directional vs locative .178 .001 non-sig Directional>locative
Sig telic>locative=>Sig telic>directional Telic vs locative .000 .001
However, within novel verbs (Table 11), such an observation is not significant, since novel verbs are restricted from any syntactic or lexical cue.
Table 11.
Between task analysis-novel verbs
Novel verbs
Item analysis Participant analysis
Age groups Conditions p p
1st group Directional vs locative .000 .000 sig locative>directional
sig locative>telic=>n.sig telic>directional Telic vs locative .000 .000
2nd group Directional vs locative .000 .000 sig locative>directional
sig locative>telic=>n.sig telic>directional Telic vs locative .000 .000
Control group Directional vs locative .130 .085 n.sig.locative<telic
n.sig.locative>directional=>n.sig telic>directional Telic vs locative .155 .486
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3 0 7Language Acquisition
5. Discussion and Conclusions
Based on the results analysed in the previous parts, the prediction that the interpretation of imperfective as atelic is more preferred than the interpretation of perfective as telic and the prediction that the interpretation of imperfective as locative is more preferred than the interpretation of perfective as directional are verified. Moreover, a developmental pattern in the interpretation of manner of motion verbs (late acquisition) is also observed, which in turn led to the assumption that except for aspect, there are probably other factors that interact with the interpretation of real verbs: lexical cues and morphosyntactic information.
These observations lead to a more general conclusion that the interpretation of verb forms and the attribution of their aspectual values involves the integration of various features in a compositional nature. This interaction involves a. morphological aspect (i.e. perfective and imperfective), b. motion (locative-directional and telic-atelic conditions) and c. structural information (PP as a complement or as an adjunct). This observation that makes morphosyntax, semantics, pragmatics and syntax integrate with a compositional effect, gives an account of Lexicon-Morphosyntax Interface (Johson-Laird 1983). The acquisition of such an interaction (not of each part separately) seems to be a prerequisite for an adult like performance and results in late acquisition and in the developmental pattern observed. Finally, we assume that late acquisition does not reveal insufficient processing resources due to processing load, but insufficient knowledge of such an interface even at the age of 10 for Greek children, which in turn fails to establish proper discourse relations. However, further research on language interfaces is required so that we arrive at more robust conclusions and a widely accepted approach.
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3 0 9Language Acquisition
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