Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: This paper focuses on antonym pairs in child Dutch. Children sometimes erroneously use the opposite word from what they intend to mean with <±polar> pairs. Psycholinguistic studies in the 1970ties suggest that the <−polar> member of dimensional adjectives, motion verbs and temporal adverbs is acquired before the <+polar> one. Another error occurs with the expression of absence. Dutch and German children sometimes say met zonder/mit ohne (‘with without’) as the antonym expression of met / mit . Sauerland, Meyer & Yatsushiro (2024) argue that the <−polar> negative member ohne can be conceptually decomposed in the positive member plus negation ( mit - neg ), which children fail to see. They ‘undercompress’ negation. The decomposition also holds for the <±polar> member of dimensional adjectives ( neg -Adj). I will argue against both claims, the acquisition order and the undercompression idea. First, I discuss the met zonder/mit ohne errors and offer a new alternative analysis. Subsequently, other spontaneous speech errors with <±polar> pairs are considered.
Source: Nota Bene
DOI: 10.1075/nb.00008.van
Author: Jacqueline van Kampen
Institution: Utrecht University
Language: English
Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4406806207