BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Getting Passive by Extending Classes: A Novel Verb-Learning Study 
 with Adults and Children - Dr Emma Nguyen (Newcastle University)
DTSTART:20230126T153000Z
DTEND:20230126T170000Z
UID:TALK183851@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Mireia
DESCRIPTION:Several studies have noted that young children’s accuracy on
  English verbal passives varies by verb depending on its lexical semantic 
 class\, rather than its input frequency (Nguyen & Pearl\, 2017). Previous 
 studies have mostly relied on children's comprehension of passives of fami
 liar verbs\; the current study\, a combination of a novel-verb learning ta
 sk and a picture-selection task\, breaks new ground by testing participant
 s' ability to generalize the passive to novel verbs based on tightly-contr
 olled input. After learning the meaning of each novel verb via audio and v
 isual input\, participants were asked to apply that knowledge in a picture
 -selection task where they had to choose the picture that matched the test
  utterance. The findings extend verb class differences with the passive 
 — observed for familiar verbs — to novel verbs (Messenger et al. 2012\
 , Nguyen 2019). Surprisingly\, I found that adult participants performed s
 imilarly to younger children in that they resist the passivization of cert
 ain novel verbs. I will argue that\, at least at the ages tested\, childre
 n’s difficulties with the passive voice lie in knowing which verbs can b
 e passivized (depending on lexical semantics) rather than the grammatical 
 structure of the passive itself. I will conclude the talk by discussing im
 plications and future directions.
LOCATION:Lecture Room 3 - Faculty of Divinity
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR