The acquisition of Japanese motion verbs: Lexicalization types and the interaction between verbs and particles

Japanese motion verbs display semantically-conditioned structural patterns, which are observed in various verb-particle compatibility constraints. Such structural requirements are attributed to three lexicalization types of motion verbs: Path, Manner with implicit Path, and Manner without implicit Path. Furthermore, these lexicalization types interact with the semantic properties of individual particles and tense/aspect differences, and additional constraints on argument structures are created. Therefore, our knowledge of motion verbs plays a crucial role in forming a correct sentence.;Two experiments were performed on how four- to six-year old Japanese-speaking children acquire Japanese motion verbs and particles. Experiment 1 examined the children's knowledge of motion verb-particle combinations and the degree to which their knowledge is similar to the adult compatibility judgments of the combinations. Experiment 2 examined the children's bounded/unbounded interpretations of motion verb-particle combinations and tested their knowledge of semantic features that underlie the adult distinction between Path and Manner of motion verbs.;The results show that the children appeared to have acquired the distinction between Path and Manner, and further Manner with and without implicit Path by the age of four. The older children distinguished further narrower subclasses of Japanese motion verbs, which shows a developmental stage. The results also show that the children made overgeneralization errors of a bounded perspective and that they had difficulty in acquiring verb-particle combinations even though they had knowledge of the lexicalization types. Furthermore, the examination of the children's knowledge of semantic features shows that there is an interaction among verbs, particles, and tense/aspect forms in the acquisition and that the children are more sensitive to the semantic features of motion verbs. In addition, the children's responses clearly reflected the adults' responses even though they were still progressing toward the adult state.;Thus, the present study shows that children are sensitive to verb meanings and that semantic categorization facilitates the acquisition of syntactic structures. Children initially overgeneralize a bounded perspective to Manner verbs, and they gradually learn verb-particle compatibility constraints based on semantic differences among the lexicalization types.