Acquisition of Yoruba Bare Nouns
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Date
2016
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Faculty of Languages & Linguistics, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur
Abstract
This study is concerned with the acquisition of bare nouns by children acquiring
Yoruba as their first language. The Minimalist Programme serves as the
framework for our syntactic analysis of development of bare nouns by the
Yoruba child. The database consists of longitudinal studies of a Yoruba child,
Damilare, between the ages of fifteen (15) and thirty six (36) months. He was
audio recorded daily by his mother within the period. Some of the data were also
written directly. The results show that from a very early stage, the Yoruba child
begins to acquire bare nouns as compared to other types of nouns and these nouns
occur in different positions. It can be concluded that they use bare nouns where
other types of nouns should be used but, with time, other nominal expressions
are developed and are used appropriately.
Description
Keywords
Language acquisition, Yoruba, bare nouns, minimalist program
Citation
Journal of Modern Languages, 6: 24-40