A CONSTRAINT-BASED APPROACH TO CHILD LANGUAGE ACQUISITION OF SHONA MORPHOSYNTAX BY CATHRINE RUVIMBO SIBANDA UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA 2014 A CONSTRAINT-BASED APPROACH TO CHILD LANGUAGE ACQUISITION OF SHONA MORPHOSYNTAX BY CATHRINE RUVIMBO SIBANDA Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF LITERATURE AND PHILOSOPHY in the subject of AFRICAN LANGUAGES at the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA PROMOTER: PROFESSOR I.M. KOSCH CO-PROMOTER: PROFESSOR D.E. MUTASA 30 NOVEMBER, 2014 Page | ii DECLARATION Student Number: 4812-089-8 I, Cathrine Ruvimbo Sibanda, declare that A Constraint-Based Approach to Child Language Acquisition of Shona Morphosyntax is my own work and that all the sources I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged by means of complete references. 30 November, 2014 Signature Date Page | iii ABSTRACT This study falls under the broad area of child language acquisition with specific focus on Shona morphosyntax. The understanding that knowledge of the nature of child language contributes to the sustainability of language acquisition matters forms the basis of the investigation. A qualitative approach is followed in the study, specifically focusing on the constraints on the development of inflectional morphemes (IMs) in the acquisition of nouns and verbs in child Shona. The study investigates the development of child Shona inflectional morphology and how morphology interacts with syntax. The constraints that operate in the acquisition of Shona are identified. The study refers to linguistic theories for an account of the development of child Shona morphosyntax. The study is based on the understanding that knowledge of the nature of child language contributes to the sustainability of language acquisition matters. The data used in this study is collected from four Shona speaking children. The ages of the children range from two years (2; 0) to three years and two months (3; 2). Two female and two male children participated in this study. The primary method of data collection used in this study is the naturalistic method, while elicitation is used to elicit plural formation. The results indicate that child Shona morphosyntax is characterized by omission of the various inflectional morphemes on nouns and verbs, while the lexical morphemes are retained. The child Shona IM is phonologically different from the adult Shona IM. This is because the children are constrained and hence use simplification strategies in order to try to be faithful to the input grammar. The noun and verb IMs are produced in the form of a reduced syllable, because the children dropped the consonant in the IM syllable and retained the vowel. The study reveals that the development of child Shona morphosyntax is based on pivotal constituencies of the sentence. These pivots are the nouns and verbs that are used by the children. The study identifies constraints that operate on Page | iv the process of child Shona development as phonological, morphological, semantic, visibility and frequency constraints. The finding that is arrived at through this study is that syntax is in place before morphology. Page | v Key Terms child Shona, adult Shona, child language acquisition, morphosyntax, constraints, inflectional morphemes, inflectional morphology. Page | vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to express my special appreciation and thanks to my promoter, Professor IM Kosch as well as my co-promoter Professor DE Mutasa. Their scholarly advice and suggestions helped me in writing this thesis. My gratitude also goes to the higher degrees committee in the Department of African Languages in the College of Human Sciences at the University of South Africa. I also benefited from the assistance I got from the personal librarian Mrs Hleziphi Napaai. I thank her for taking time to show me how I could achieve optimum use of both online and oncampus library resources. The study could not have been successful without the financial assistance offered by the UNISA student funding, Financial Aid Bureau. I greatly appreciate this great gesture which is a clear and visible demonstration of utmost support for postgraduate studies. I thank all the staff members in the Department of Linguistics and Faculty of Arts at the University of Zimbabwe for having contributed to this study in various important ways. Special mention goes to Professor P Mashiri, Dr PR Mabugu, Dr I Mhute, Dr M Kadyamusuma and Dr B Chinouriri. Page | vii I extend special appreciation to the four participants in this study as well as their parents. Without them this study would not have happened. I thank Mildred Mahyambe for assisting in collecting the data used in this study. I thank my husband, BRK Sibanda and my lovely daughters, Annalois and Tamiranashe for their unerring support and love. I would also like to thank my parents, guardians, siblings, the whole family and all our friends for being there in very special ways. I value the love and support they give me. In a very real sense I was able to hold on to life through the spiritual energy that was breathed into my life by pastors Tom and Bonnie Deuschle of CMI. May God bless them richly! Last but not least to God be all the glory. Page | viii ABBREVIATIONS # number 1 first person 2 second person Agr agreement APPL applicative ASP aspect ATOM agreement tense omission model aux auxiliary C consonant CHILDES child language data exchange system CL class CLA child language acquisition CV consonant vowel Dimin diminutive E-language externalized language EXT extension Ft Foot FIM future tense inflectional morpheme FV final vowel HM hortative morpheme I-language internalized language IM(s) inflectional morpheme(s) INF infinitive INFL inflection IP inflectional phrase L1 first language LAD language acquisition device LGB lectures on government and binding loc locative m mora MI mutually intelligible MLU mean length of utterance MMA morpheme to morpheme analysis NIM negative inflectional morpheme NPr noun prefix NP noun phrase NS noun stem Ø omitted morpheme OIM object inflectional morpheme OM object marker OOM output omission model OT Optimality Theory PL plural PPT principles and parameters theory Page | ix PrIM present tense inflectional morpheme PIM past tense inflectional morpheme PW phonological word RIM reduced inflectional morpheme S strong SA subject agreement SCH Strong Continuity Hypothesis SG singular SIM subject inflectional morpheme SLI specific language impairments SM subject marker SOV subject object verb SVO subject verb object T tense TIM tense inflectional morphemes TMA tense mood aspect UG universal grammar V vowel Vol volume VP verb phrase VR verb root w weak yr year σ syllable Page | x LIST OF TABLES Table 1: History of CLA studies ……………………………………………………………..5 Table2: Shona noun classes …………………………………………….................................48 Table 3: Name, age range, total recordings …………………………………………………78 Table 4: Morpheme codes……………………………………………………………...……...80 Table 5a: Elicitation task data (ARI)……………………………………………………..….112 Table 5b: Elicitation task data (TAD)……………………………………………………….112 Table 5c: Elicitation task data (JOH)……………………………………………………......113 Table 6: Child Shona pivot schemas………………………………………………………..121 Table 7: Child (2; 2 - 2; 6) vs. adult noun structures………………………………….……129 Table 8: Child vs. adult verb structures……………………………………………....……..131 Page | xi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Typical Shona syllable…………………………………………………………….92 Figure 2: Child Shona syllable……………………………………………………………….92 Figure 3: V-shape syllable……………………………………………………………………92 Figure 4: Adult word vs. child word………………………………………………………..130 Page | xii Contents DECLARATION ...................................................................................................................... iii ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................. iv Key Terms ................................................................................................................................ vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ........................................................................................................ vii ABBREVIATIONS .................................................................................................................. ix LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................................... xi LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................. xii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................1 1.0 PREAMBLE .....................................................................................................................1 1.1 AREA OF INVESTIGATION ...........................................................................................4 1.2 RESEARCH PROBLEM ................................................................................................. 14 1.3 AIM OF THE STUDY .................................................................................................... 15 1.3.1 Objectives ................................................................................................................. 16 1.3.2 Research questions.................................................................................................... 16 1.4 JUSTIFICATION ...........................................................................................................