The Acquisition of Persian: Grammatically-based measures for assessing normal and abnormal Persian language development Ph.D. Thesis - Submitted December 1995 Habibeh Samadi Department of Speech Science University of Sheffield Supervised By: Dr. Michael R. Perkins IMAGING SERVICES NORTH Boston Spa, Wetherby West Yorkshire, LS23 7BQ www.bl.uk BEST COpy AVAILABLE. TEXT IN ORIGINAL IS BOUND INTO THE SPINE 2 Abstract This study presents a longitudinal analysis of three monolingual Iranian children's language development between ages 1;8-2;6, 2;2-3;2 and 2;4-3;4. The overall aims are to identify and establish the structural patterns in the acquisition of Persian, a pro-drop, inflectional and mostly verb final language. Structural patterns particular to Persian are identified in contrast to English and data drawn from the children's language progress are discussed in the light of recent theories of language acquisition. In addition, the study provides a comprehensive and systematic description of children's syntactic development in such a way as to be useful for clinical data analysis by Iranian speech and language therapists and includes some cross-linguistic comparisons with other research on language acquisition. The applicability of MLU (Mean Length of Utterance) measures to Persian is investigated and it is found that MLU measured in morphemes is most appropriate for evaluating the Iranian children's early language development up to value 4. In order to give a more detailed analysis of the children's language acquisition, the LARSP (Language Assessment Remediation and Screening Procedure) framework (Crystal, Fletcher and Garman, 1989) is adapted to Persian. Analysing Persian data with LARSP categories shows that there are many features common to both languages. Particular categories are identified. A PLARSP (Persian LARSP) profile is established based on the hypothesis that structures can be assigned to stages according to their number of elements at clause and phrase levels. The profile provides a framework for the analysis of language development in Persian and is employed in chapters 6 and 7 to set out the developmental picture of the children's language at approximately equal MLU values in the early stages, and age in the later stages. Close examination of the data points to the use of formulas by the children at early stages. Apart from the formulas, although the children show different strategies of language acquisition, the resulting distribution of categories is found to fit the data well, presenting an orderly progress down the chart according to MLU and age. 3 To Reza, Bahareh and Sharareh 4 Contents Preface ... 11 Acknowledgements ... 13 Chapter 1 - Theories of child language acquisition 1.1 Introduction ... 14 1.1 Earlier theories until the mid-1960s ... 15 1.2 Theories between the mid-1960s and the mid-1970s ... 17 1.3 Theories between the mid-1970s and the mid-1980s ... 19 1.4 Current theories of child language research ... 22 Chapter 2 - Information on Persian 2.1 Background information on Persian ... 29 2.2 Some salient features of Persian grammar ... 31 2.2.1 Word order ... 31 2.2.2 Nouns and Noun Phrases ... 32 2.2.3 Definite and Indefinite Nouns ... 35 2.2.4 eza/e ... 35 2.2.5 ma:l ... 36 2.2.6 Pronouns ... 36 2.2.7 Verbs ... 37 2.2.8 Negation and questions ... 39 2.2.9 Object marker olro ... 39 2.2.10 Past participle -e ... 39 2.2.11 Auxiliaries and Modal auxiliaries ... 40 2.2.12 Some features of Persian grammar in contrast to English.. ,41 Chapter 3 - Subjects and Methods 3.1 Introduction ... 44 3.2 The children 3.2.1 Faeze ... 49 3.2.2 Mahdi ... 49 5 3.2.3 S hahrzad ... 50 3.3 Transcription ... 51 3.4 Methods ... 57 3.4.1 Video-recording ... 57 3.4.2 Method of analysis .•. 58 3.4.2.1 Introduction ••• 58 3.4.2.2 Morphological and syntactic coding and analysis ••• 59 Chapter 4 The applicability of MLU measures to the acquisition of Persian and a proposal for a preliminary developmental measure for Persian 4.1 Introduction ... 64 4.2 Method ... 69 4.3 MLU measures ... 69 4.4 Rules for counting words in Persian ... 70 4.5 Rules for counting syllables in Persian ... 71 4.6 Rules for counting morphemes in Persian ... 72 4.7 A preliminary developmental measure for Persian ... 75 4.8 ML U and age ... 76 4.9 Conclusion ... 77 Chapter 5 - PLARSP: The design of a grammatical profile for Persian 5.1 Introduction ... 78 5.2 Adaptation of LARSP to Persian ... 79 5.2.1 Method of analysis ••• 79 5.2.2 LARSP ••. 81 5.3 Persian ... 89 5.4 PLARSP ... 90 5.4.1 Stage I: Minor ... 91 5.4.2 Stage I •.. 91 5.4.3 Stage II ... 94 5.4.4 Transitional Stage II - Stage III: Expansions .. 101 5.4.5 Stage III •. 102 5.4.6 Expansions •• 107 6 5.4.7 Stage IV •• 110 5.4.8 Stage V •. 114 5.4.9 Stage VI .• 118 5.4.10 Stage VII .• 120 5.4.11 Word level •• 121 5.5 Conclusion •• 125 Chapter 6 - Language development in the children according to MLU 6.1 Introduction .. 129 6.2 The criteria selected for the assignment of stage placement for the children .. 131 6.3 Shahrzad's profile and language development at MLUl.24 (age: 1;8) •• 132 6.3.1 Shahrzad's profile at MLU1.24 •• 132 6.3.2 Shahrzad's language development at MLU 1.24 •• 132 6.4 Shahrzad's profile and language development at MLU 1.98 (age: 1;11) 6.4.1 Shahrzad's profile at MLU 1.98 .• 135 6.4.2 Shahrzad's language development at MLU 1.98 6.4.2.1 Shahrzad's Command-type utterances •• 138 6.4.2.2 Shahrzad's Statement - type utterances •• 139 6.4.2.3 Word level .. 142 6.4.2.4 A note on Shahrzad's verbs •. 142 6.5 Mahdi's profile and language development at MLU 2.18 (age: 2;2) 6.5.1 Mahdi's profile at MLU 2.18 6.5.2 Mahdi's language development at MLU 2.18 •. 143 6.4.2.1 Stage I •• 144 6.4.2.2 Stage II •. 144 6.4.2.3 Stage III •• 147 6.4.2.4 Word level •. 150 6.6 The Composite chart for the children at MLU 2 .. 150 6.7 Discussion and Conclusion .. 150 6.8 Mahdi's profile and language devlopment at MLU 3.3 (age 2;5) 6.8.1 Mahdi's profile at MLU 3.3 •• 155 7 6.8.2 Mahdi's language development at MLU 3.3 •• 155 6.S.2.1 Mahdi's verbs at MLU 3.3 •• 159 6.9 Faeze's profile and language development at MLU 3.33 <age: 2;4) 6.9.1 Faeze's profile at MLU 3.33 •. 163 6.9.2 Faeze's language development at MLU 3.33 •. 163 6.9.2.1 Faeze's Transitional Stage II-III at MLU 3.33 •• 165 6.9.2.2 Faeze's Transitional stage III-IV at MLU 3.33 •• 166 6.9.3 Faeze's Stage IV utterances at MLU 3.33 •. 168 6.10 Composite chart for Faeze and Mahdi at MLU 3.3 .. 169 6.11 Comparison of the children's profiles at MLU 3.3 .. 169 6.12 Summary and Conclusion .. 171 Chapter 7 - The children's language development according to age (later stages> 7.1 Introduction .. 172 7.2 Mahdi's profile and language development at age 2;8 7.2.1 Mahdi's profile at age 2;8 •• 172 7.2.2 Mahdi's language development at age 2;8 7.2.2.1 Stage IV •• 174 7.2.2.2 Stage V •• 179 7.2.3 Mahdi's subject realization and use of dexis •. 180 7.2.4 A note on Mahdi's comprehension and production at age 2;8 •• 182 7.3 Faeze's profile and language development at age 2;8 7.3.1 Faeze's profile at age 2;8 •• 185 7.3.2 Faeze's language development at age 2;8 7.3.2.1 Stage IV •• 185 7.3.2.2 Faeze's Stage V utterances •• 189 7.3.2.3 Faeze's use of modal auxiliaries and auxiliaries •. 190 7.4 Comparison of the children at age 2;8 .. 191 7.S Composite chart for Mahdi and Faeze at age 2;8 .. 191 7.6 Mahdi's profile and language development at age 3 7.6.1 Mahdi's profile at age 3 .• 193 7.6.2 Mahdi's language development at age 3 •• 193 7.7.2.1 Subject realization and personal pronouns .• 196 8 7.7 Faeze's profile and language development at age 3 7.7.1 Faeze's profile at age 3 •• 197 7.7.2 Faeze's language development at age 3 •• 197 7.8 Composite chart for Mahdi and Faeze at age 3 .. 202 7.9 Comparison of children at age 3 .. 202 7.10 Summary and discussion .. 202 Chapter 8 - Testing some hypotheses against Persian data 8.1 The grammatical basis of early utterances 8.1.1 Introduction •. 205 8.1.2 Persian phrase structure components •. 206 8.1.3 Null-subject hypothesis •• 208 8.2 The role of input in Mahdi's and Faeze's learning of auxiliaries and modal auxiliaries .. 212 Chapter 9 - Summary and conclusion .. 215 References .. 222 Key to grammatical category abbreviations .. 235 Key to conventions and abbreviations .. 236 Persian terms for some PLARSP headings .