Learning The Meaning Of Change Of State Verbs

Causative change-of-state verbs like 'to open', 'to fill', and 'to wake' are central to both recent theories of grammatical development and theories of lexical structure. This book focuses on how German-speaking children learn the meaning of change-of-state verbs. It offers a thorough characterization of the acquisition of German, embedded in a crosslinguistic perspective. The author provides a comprehensive review of the acquisition literature on that topic and introduces a new account as to how the meaning of these verbs can be learned. The empirical backbone of the investigation are a set of carefully designed experimental studies.

This book offers a unique interdisciplinary perspective on argument structure and its role in language acquisition. The volume is the outcome of an integrated research project and comprises chapters by both specialists in first language acquisition and field linguists working on a variety of lesser-known languages. Drawing on a broad range of crosslinguistic data, Crosslinguistic Perspectives on Argument Structure integrates important contemporary issues in linguistics and language acquisition.

Part of the authoritative four-volume reference that spans the entire field of child development and has set the standard against which all other scholarly references are compared. Updated and revised to reflect the new developments in the field, the Handbook of Child Psychology, Sixth Edition contains new chapters on such topics as spirituality, social understanding, and non-verbal communication. Volume 2: Cognition, Perception, and Language, edited by Deanna Kuhn, Columbia University, and Robert S. Siegler, Carnegie Mellon University, covers mechanisms of cognitive and perceptual development in language acquisition. It includes new chapters devoted to neural bases of cognition, motor development, grammar and langauge rules, information processing, and problem solving skills.

Aspect in Mandarin Chinese plays an important role in interpreting the temporal information of a sentence. It is an important verbal category, which is concerned with the speaker’s viewpoint or perspective on a situation: whether the situation is presented as complete (perfective aspect) or as ongoing (imperfective aspect), etc. Learning to understand the aspect particles or markers, and use them correctly, has always been one of the most difficult tasks for learners of Chinese. Learn to Use Chinese Aspect Particles is a pedagogical guide designed to equip teachers with necessary aspectual theoretical knowledge, and is aimed at in-service or trainee teachers, and intermediate or advanced students to reinforce teaching and learning. Challenging exercises are designed and explanations for the correct use of an aspect particle are given, thus making the book more useable and convenient to teachers and enhancing the practical reference value of the book.

During the second year of his daughter's life, Michael Tomasello kept a detailed diary of her language, creating a rich database. He made a careful study of how she acquired her first verbs and analysed the role that verbs played in her early grammatical development.

Traditional philosophy of language was originated based on a disembodied view. In contrast, recent research with behavioral and neuroimaging methodologies emphasizes language embodiment, which claims for the central role of the body and brain in shaping language acquisition, learning, comprehension, and production. The embodiment view of language is supported by a body of empirical research covering the principles and mechanism of body-mind integration from interdisciplinary perspectives, including cognitive linguistics, educational psychology, artificial intelligence, and physiological neuroscience.

Cognitive linguistics is a relatively new discipline which is rapidly becoming mainstream and influential, particularly in the area of second language teaching. This book looks at how cognitive linguistics can inform our teaching, and lead to intriguing suggestions for alternative ways of presenting grammar and vocabulary in the language classroom.