The acquisition of basque ergative casean experimental study
ISSN: 0582-6152
Year of publication: 2007
Volume: 41
Issue: 2
Pages: 131-144
Type: Article
More publications in: Anuario del Seminario de Filología Vasca Julio de Urquijo: International journal of basque linguistics and philology
Abstract
Basque children omit ergative case markers for about five months before the production of this case mark becomes adult-like. This has been considered a problem in the acquisition of Basque and has been related to the ergative character of the language. The aim of this work is to present the results of a picture selection task done by 24 Basque bilingual children which show that the comprehension of Basque case marking and, more precisely, of the ergative case precedes the production of it.