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Children's judgements of transitivity errors*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Judith G. Hochberg
Judith G. Hochberg
Affiliation:
Stanford University
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Abstract

Diary studies of English, Hebrew and Portuguese have led to debate on whether there is directionality in children's transitivity errors – that is, whether children are as likely to coin intransitives from transitives (*Bert knocked down) as they are transitives from intransitives (*I falled my cup). The judgements made by 3- and 4-year-olds showed a strong bias in favour of innovative transitives in English. It is argued that this bias results from children's preference for prototypical, highly transitive descriptions of events.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , June 1986 , pp. 317 - 334
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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References

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