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Acquisition of the Malagasy voicing system: implications for the adult grammar

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Abstract

In this paper we discuss the acquisition of the voicing system of Malagasy, an Austronesian language. Our study is based on the longitudinal data of three children ages 19–32 months, and is to our knowledge the first systematic investigation of the acquisition of Malagasy. The Malagasy voicing system has a distinctive morphology and involves the promotion of an argument (actor, theme, instrument, etc.) to a referentially and syntactically prominent position, typically clause-final. We look at two competing accounts of the Malagasy voicing system, one in which the promoted argument is analyzed as a subject and the promotion operation an instance of A-movement [Guilfoyle, E., Hung, H., & Travis, L. (1992) Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 10, 375–414] and a more recent account in which Malagasy is analyzed as a V2-like language in which the promoted argument is a topic and the promotion an instance of A′-movement (Pearson, M. (2001) Pearson, M. (2005)). Both analyses have clear implications for acquisition, which we examine in this paper. Our acquisition results favor the analysis of the promoted argument as an A′-element. We also show that there is a developmental stage in Malagasy that parallels the root infinitive (RI) stage widely observed in various European languages. Apparent differences between the Germanic RIs and the analogous phenomenon in Malagasy are derived from differences in the functional structure associated with a voicing system as opposed to an agreement system.

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  1. Department of Linguistics, UCLA, 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angles, CA, 90095, USA

    Nina Hyams & Dimitris Ntelitheos

  2. Université Nord, B.P. 0, UNM 201, Antsiranana, Madagascar

    Cecile Manorohanta

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  1. Nina Hyams
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Correspondence to Nina Hyams.

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We would like to express our deepest appreciation to the children and families who participated in our study. Our gratitude also to Ed Keenan, who spent countless hours going through the acquisition data with us and who never tired of explaining the fine points of Malagasy or sharing with us his adventures in Madagascar. Thanks also to Matt Pearson and Lisa Travis for their very detailed comments on an earlier draft of this paper, to Murat Kural, Nathan Klinedinst, and three NLLT reviewers whose careful reading has greatly improved this paper. Our appreciation also to Marcel den Dikken for his help throughout the review process. Parts of this paper have been presented at AFLA XIII and at GALA 2005. We are grateful to the audiences at these conferences for their helpful comments. Finally, our thanks also to Zahra Khalili and Nathan Klinedinst for editorial assistance. This project was partially supported by a UCLA Faculty Senate Grant to Hyams. All errors are of course our own.

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Hyams, N., Ntelitheos, D. & Manorohanta, C. Acquisition of the Malagasy voicing system: implications for the adult grammar. Nat Language Linguistic Theory 24, 1049–1092 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11049-006-9009-2

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