1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910789638403321

Autore

Brinkmann Ursula

Titolo

The locative alternation in German : its structure and acquisition / / Ursula Brinkmann

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Amsterdam ; ; Philadelphia : , : J. Benjamins Pub., , 1997

ISBN

1-283-28017-5

9786613280176

90-272-8171-8

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (299 pages)

Collana

Language acquisition & language disorders, , 0925-0123 ; ; v. 15

Disciplina

435

Soggetti

German language - Locative constructions

German language - Prepositions

German language - Verb

German language - Case

German language - Morphology

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Based on the author's thesis (Ph.D.).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Nota di contenuto

CONTENTS; Chapter 1: Argument Structure Alternations and the No Negative Evidence Problem; Chapter 2: Theories of the Acquisition of Argument Structure Alterations; Chapter 3: The Structure of the Locative Alternation; Chapter 4: The Nonindividuation Hypothesis; Chapter 5: The Production Experiment: Testing the Nonindividuation Hypothesis; Chapter 6: Restrictions on be-Prefixation; Chapter 7: The Comprehension Experiment: Testing Children's Inter-pretation of be-Verbs; Chapter 8: Summary and Conclusions; Appendices; References; Author Index; Subject Index

Sommario/riassunto

This monograph deals with the locative alternation in German, a change in the argument structure of verbs like spray and load. Like most argument structure changes, the alternation is both productive and constrained: new forms may be derived, but not from all candidate verbs. This raises a learnability problem: how can children determine, in the absence of negative evidence, which verbs participate in the alternation? The Locative Alternation in German tries to answer this question by providing an in-depth analysis of the conditions that verbs



must meet.