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The communicative contexts of grammatical aspect use in English.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Ibbotson, P; Lieven, E; Tomasello, M
Published in: Journal of child language
May 2014

In many of the world's languages grammatical aspect is used to indicate how events unfold over time. In English, activities that are ongoing can be distinguished from those that are completed using the morphological marker -ing. Using naturalistic observations of two children in their third year of life, we quantify the availability and reliability of the imperfective form in the communicative context of the child performing actions. On average, 30% of verbal descriptions refer to child actions that are grounded in the here-and-now. Of these utterances, there are two features of the communicative context that reliably map onto the functions of the imperfective, namely, that events are construed as ongoing and from within. The findings are discussed with reference to how the context in which a child hears aspectual language may limit the degrees of freedom on what these constructions mean.

Duke Scholars

Published In

Journal of child language

DOI

EISSN

1469-7602

ISSN

0305-0009

Publication Date

May 2014

Volume

41

Issue

3

Start / End Page

705 / 723

Related Subject Headings

  • Video Recording
  • Verbal Behavior
  • Speech-Language Pathology & Audiology
  • Speech Production Measurement
  • Sound Spectrography
  • Semantics
  • Psycholinguistics
  • Mother-Child Relations
  • Male
  • Language Development
 

Citation

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Ibbotson, P., Lieven, E., & Tomasello, M. (2014). The communicative contexts of grammatical aspect use in English. Journal of Child Language, 41(3), 705–723. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0305000913000135
Ibbotson, Paul, Elena Lieven, and Michael Tomasello. “The communicative contexts of grammatical aspect use in English.Journal of Child Language 41, no. 3 (May 2014): 705–23. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0305000913000135.
Ibbotson P, Lieven E, Tomasello M. The communicative contexts of grammatical aspect use in English. Journal of child language. 2014 May;41(3):705–23.
Ibbotson, Paul, et al. “The communicative contexts of grammatical aspect use in English.Journal of Child Language, vol. 41, no. 3, May 2014, pp. 705–23. Epmc, doi:10.1017/s0305000913000135.
Ibbotson P, Lieven E, Tomasello M. The communicative contexts of grammatical aspect use in English. Journal of child language. 2014 May;41(3):705–723.
Journal cover image

Published In

Journal of child language

DOI

EISSN

1469-7602

ISSN

0305-0009

Publication Date

May 2014

Volume

41

Issue

3

Start / End Page

705 / 723

Related Subject Headings

  • Video Recording
  • Verbal Behavior
  • Speech-Language Pathology & Audiology
  • Speech Production Measurement
  • Sound Spectrography
  • Semantics
  • Psycholinguistics
  • Mother-Child Relations
  • Male
  • Language Development