LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 15:2 February 2015
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Acquisition of Negation in Manipuri-Speaking Children

Dr. L. Iboyaima Singh, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.

Abstract

The study was carried out to study the acquisition of negation in twenty monolingual Manipuri-speaking children within the age of 2 to 4 years in a natural setting. This study has focused on the form and function of negation in Manipuri to figure out the developmental patterns. The functions of negation are rejection, non-existence, prohibition, and denial. The study was carried out to check whether the developmental pattern follows or violates this sequence of functions. Thus one of the main aims of this work is to identify the sequence of functions of negation during the course of acquisition. This study has also checked which of the functions is more frequently used by the children (for instance, hypothetically rejection may be used more frequently as compared to say denial). The study focuses on the initial stages of language development in the early children’s speech. It is possible that only few of the negation functions are found in these subjects.

Key words: Negation, acquisition, rejection, denial, prohibition, disappearance.

Introduction

Generally speaking, scholars who have worked on acquisition of negation have examined the form/function interface across development, along with explanation of syntactic contexts of negation in children’s language. The studies of the acquisition of negation by children have mainly focused on the developmental aspects of negative form (Klima & Bellugi, 1966; Bellugi, 1967) and semantic categories of negatives (Bloom, 1970; Mc. Neill & Mc. Neill, 1973; de Villiers & de Villiers, 1979). These studies examined negation in children’s spontaneous conversation with adults and have been carried out mostly on Indo-European languages. Very less systematic account has been attempted in the case of modern Indian languages so far.

Theoretical Background

Earlier studies in negation were based on grammar. Klima and Bellugi (1966), and Bellugi (1967) have mainly focused on the syntax of children’s negation. They have identified four distinct stages reflecting the linguistic derivation of negative sentences in a standard transformational grammar. Subsequent work on negation has focused on Bellugi’s first stage, the initial ‘No + negative’. This ‘negative + sentence’ has been considered as a universal first stage in the acquisition of negation (Mc. Neill, 1970). This universality has, however, been questioned by others (Bloom, 1970; Bowerman, 1973).

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Dr. L. Iboyaima Singh

Dr. L. Iboyaima Singh
House no.16, Block-B
Preet Vihar
New Delhi-110092
India
c/o A. Romenkumar Singh
Keisamthong Ahanthem Leikai
Imphal-795001
Manipur
India
iboyaimas@gmail.com
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