The acquisition of the get-passive. (2nd January 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Gotowski, Megan
• Is Part Of: Language acquisition. Volume 26:Number 1(2019)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 20
• Publication Date: 2019-01-02
• Subjects: Language acquisition -- Periodicals; 401.9305
• DOI: 10.1080/10489223.2017.1391268
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1048-9223

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This article examines children's comprehension of the get -passive relative to the be -passive in an attempt to systematically compare the acquisition of both types of passives. It discusses the findings of two experiments (a picture-matching task and an act-out task) with children ages 36. Results from the picture-matching task indicate that 3-year-olds are above chance only with get -passives with animate subjects, which suggests that early get -"passives" may actually be (active) control structures requiring a thematic agent. Children 4–6 years old perform equally well with get and be . Results from the act-out task further reveal that children ages 4;02 and older interpret the by -phrase in nontruncated actional passives (with get and with be ) and analyze it as agentive. This is consistent with a raising analysis for both passive types after the age of 4. There is no advantage to either type of passive at this point, contra previous claims in the literature.