A Study On Xinjiang Kazak Children's First Language Development-Sara's Case

This study explores under the guidance of UG-based acquisition theories the development of the case marking suffixed to nouns,the mood marking suffixed to verbs and the voice marking suffixed to verbs spoken by Kazak children in Xinjiang,using naturally occurring conversation data.It tries to fill the gaps on the morphophonological features in Kazak children's language development.Specifically,the thesis examines the language development of a Kazak child Sara,the author's daughter,from 1 and a half years old to 4 and a half years old from a developmental view of UG-based acquisition theories.It describes and analyzes a 34.6 GB corpus built on Sara's language production by focusing on her case,mood and voice markings.Under the guidance of the developmental view,we first predict the developmental tendency of Kazak children's case suffixes,mood suffixes and voice suffixes based on to the relevant grammatical features.We analyze the language use in Sara's production,and finally make a conclusion about her language development.The results show that the Kazak child's case acquisition order is from nominative cases ? locative cases ? accusative cases/genitive cases ? allative cases?concomitant/instrumental case ? ablative cases.The kazak child's case marking suffixed to nouns reflects her acquisition of the related phonology rules.The order of the case marking suffixed to nouns produced by Kazak children,which is similar to the development of English morphophonological rules governing noun plurality and the present tense inflection of third person singular forms of verbs,is from the case marking suffixed to nouns of voiced suffix ? the case marking suffixed to nouns of voiceless suffix?the epenthesis case marking suffixed to nouns of the person suffix with only a few exeptions.Another order of the case marking suffixed to nouns produced by Sara is from the case marking suffixed to nouns of back vowels in last syllables to the case marking suffixed to nouns of front vowels in last syllables.The usage order of the case marking suffixed to nouns is basically from concrete to abstract.Specifically,Sara's language acquisition order is from single(one case)to comprehensive(seven cases)in regard of the cases acquisition order.The accuracy of the Kazak child's acquisition of the locative case and accusative case marking suffixed to nouns showed a U-shaped development pattern.Sara's acquisition of other case markings suffixed to nouns gradually increased with a sharp boom during her 3 years and a half to her 4 years and a half old period.Sara's production order on the same person hypothetical mood marking suffixed to verbs is from singular hypothetical to plural hypothetical mood marking suffixed to verbs,and the acquisition order is also subject to personal constraints.In terms of singular hypothetical mood marking suffixed to verbs,the development order is from the third person singular form sa/se ? the first person singular form sa/se+m ? the second person simplified singular form sa/se+?? the second person honorific singular form sa/se+?(?)z.In terms of plural hypothetical mood marking suffixed to verbs,it is from the third person plural form sa/se?the second person simplified plural form sa/se+?dar?the second person honorific plural form sa/se+?sz?the first person plural form sa/se+k.The production order of the Kazak child on the same person imperative mood marking suffixed to verbs except the first person is from singular to plural imperative mood marking suffixed to verbs,and the acquisition order is also subject to personal constraints.In terms of singular imperative mood marking suffixed to verbs,it is from the second person simplified singular zero form?the first person singular form with the highest frequency use totally-ajsn/-ejin/-j(?)n/-jin?the third person singular form with the lowest frequency use totally-son/-sin.In terms of plural imperative mood marking suffixed to verbs,it is from the first person plural form with the highest frequency use totally-aj(?)q/-ejik/-j(?)q/-jik?the second person plural simplified form-?dar/-?der/-(?)?dar/-i?der?the third person plural form with the lowest frequency use totally-S(?)n/-sin.Due to the complex forms and low use,the second person honorific singular and plural form didn't occur in the Kazak child's spoken language until she was 4 and a half years old.The causative voice marking suffixed to verbs is very difficult to Kazak children to master because there are four different sets of suffix forms and many other special suffix forms.Only 2 causative voice markings suffixed to verbs occurred in Sara's Kazak language.The first and highest used one is special suffix form-set only used after kor(look).The second and commonly used one is-(?)z used after-w,-j,-r,-1,-n.-?,-z which is at the end of the verb stem with the back vowel of the last syllable.The first and commonly used passive voice marking suffixed to verbs is-1 used after a vowel ending of a verb stem,and-(?)l/-il used after a consonant ending of a verb stem based on the underlying structure-l after that.Later,the passive voice marking suffixed to verbs-n occurred after-la/-le which is at the end of the verb stem,and-(?)n/-in used after-l which is at the end of the verb stem based on the underlying structure-n after that.-(?)/-i are combining vowels in Kazak language.Sara used-(?)after the verb with a back vowel of the last syllable and-i after the verb with a front vowel of the last syllable,which are fully consistent with vowel harmony in Kazak language.The study reflects the actual usage of the case marking suffixed to nouns,the hypothetical and imperative mood marking suffixed to verbs,passive and causative voice marking suffixed to verbs in Kazak children's naturally occuring conversation.In addition,we get a more comprehensive understanding of Kazak children's language development from a developmental perspective.The morphology development of the case marking suffixed to nouns,the hypothetical and imperative mood markingsuffixed to verbs,the passive and causative voice marking suffixed to verbs and their phonology development go hand in hand,ie.interactively.Kazak children's first language development is constrained by the principles of universal grammar.