Analogy is indispensable but rule is a must: Insights from Turkish

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NAKİPOĞLU DEMİRALP H. M., Uzundaǧ B. A., Ketrez F. N.

Journal of Child Language, cilt.50, sa.2, ss.437-463, 2023 (SSCI, Scopus)

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 50 Sayı: 2
  • Basım Tarihi: 2023
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1017/s0305000921000921
  • Dergi Adı: Journal of Child Language
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, IBZ Online, PASCAL, Periodicals Index Online, Child Development & Adolescent Studies, CINAHL, Communication & Mass Media Index, Communication Abstracts, EBSCO Education Source, Education Abstracts, Educational research abstracts (ERA), ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Linguistic Bibliography, Linguistics & Language Behavior Abstracts, MLA - Modern Language Association Database, Psycinfo
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.437-463
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: analogy, overregularization/ irregularization errors, rule, similarity comparison1, type/token frequency
  • Açık Arşiv Koleksiyonu: AVESİS Açık Erişim Koleksiyonu
  • Boğaziçi Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

Inflectional morphology provides a unique platform for a discussion of whether morphological productivity is rule-based or analogy-based. The present study testing 140 children (range = 29 to 97 months; M(SD) = 64.1(18.8)) on an elicited production task investigated the acquisition of the irregular distribution in the Turkish aorist. Results suggested that to discover the allomorphs of the Turkish aorist, children initially carried out similarity comparisons between analogous exemplars, which helped them tap into phonological features to induce generalizations for regulars and irregulars. Thereafter to tackle the irregularity, children entertained competing hypotheses yielding overregularizations and irregularizations. While the trajectory of overregularizations implicated the gradual formulation of an abstraction based on type-frequency, irregularizations suggested both intrusion of analogous exemplars and children's attempts to default to an erroneous micro-generalization. Our findings supported a model of morphological learning that is driven by analogy at the outset and that invokes rule-induction in later stages.