The Acquisition of K'iche' Mayan

摘要调查员收集了1976至1979年间和1987年夏天在危地马拉实地考察期间获得玛雅语言K‘iche’的数据。这些数据很重要，因为它们与英语和其他语言的习得数据形成了鲜明的对比。原始数据集提供了三名2至4岁的K‘iche’儿童九个月的语言发展纵向样本，这些样本已输入计算机以帮助分析。在目前的赠款期间，研究人员将返回危地马拉收集更多的相关数据，回来后将继续分析这些数据，并编写一本专著，总结K‘iche语言的语音、词法和句法习得，并讨论儿童在学习这种语言时面临的一些可学习问题。这本专著将为其他研究人员提供一份关于习得一种有趣的类型语言的研究结果的易于获取的摘要。儿童习得语言的研究现在已经到了从其他语言获取数据的关键阶段，这些语言在结构上与英语和最常用的其他语言有很大的不同。复杂的理论模型已经被开发出来，这些模型提出了具体的经验性主张，必须根据广泛的数据进行检验，并在必要时进行修改，以便使我们更接近于对语言习得过程的真正理解。本项目是对这一需求的重大贡献，重点是一种语言K‘iche’的习得，这种语言与英语在结构上有根本的不同，预计将在重要方面挑战当前的理论。

ABSTRACT The investigator collected data on the acquisition of the Mayan language K'iche' during fieldwork in Guatemala from 1976 to 1979, and during the summer of 1987. The data are significant for the number of contrasts they provide to data on the acquisition of English and other languages. The primary data set provides a nine-month longitudinal sample of the language development of three K'iche' children between 2 and 4 years of age, which has been entered onto a computer to aid in analysis. During the period of the present grant, the investigator will return to Guatemala to collect additional pertinent data, and on return will proceed with the analysis of the data and the preparation of a monograph summarizing the acquisition of phonology, morphology, and syntax in K'iche' and discussing some of the learnability problems children face in acquiring this language. The monograph will provide other researchers with a readily accessible summary of findings on the acquisition of a typologically interesting language. %%% The study of the acquisition of language by children has now reached the stage where it is crucial to obtain data from other languages which are structurally very different from English and the other languages which have been most commonly studied. Complex theoretical models have been developed which make specific empirical claims which must be tested against a broad range of data, and modified where necessary, in order to bring us closer to a true understanding of the language acquisition process. The present project is a significant contribution to this need, focusing on the acquisition of a language, K'iche', which has fundamental structural differences from English which can be expected to challenge current theory in important respects.