The Acquisition of Numeral Classifiers: The Case of Japanese Children (Studies on Language Acquisition) (Studies on Language Acquisition)

The book is about the numeral classifier system and the acquisition of Japanese classifiers by Japanese children. It consists of two parts. First, it provides a general typological characterization of numeral classifier phrases and discusses problems in determining what constitutes the nature of classifiers. It also discusses the semantic properties of numeral classifiers based on an analysis of four languages from four different language families. Second, it examines the acquisitions of Japanese numeral classifiers by Japanese preschool children, ages 3 to 6, with a primary emphasis on the development of comprehension. The importance of the study is that it reveals that young children have a much greater sensitivity to the conceptual underpinnings of the numeral classifier system than was previously considered to be the case. The research results also provide a converging source of evidence that young children often come to initially grasp the structure of the world in ways that are better understood in cognitive than perceptual terms. The implications will contribute to not only the area of language acquisition but also categorization and conceptual development. Chapter 1. Introduction 1. What are numeral classifiers? 2. Structure of the numeral classifier system 3. Comparative lexical-semantic analysis 4. Semantic universality and idiosyncrasy of classifier systems Chapter 2. Previous acquisition research on numeral classifiers 1. Thai acquisition research 2. Mandarin acquisition research 3. Cantonese acquisition research 4. Hokkien acquisition research 5. Kilivila acquisition research 6. Korean acquisition research 7. Garo acquisition research 8. Japanese acquisition research 9. Universality in the acquisition of numeral classifiers Chapter 3. Present study 1. Findings from research in cognitive development 2. Findings from research in language acquisition 3. Alternative hypothesis 4. The present study 5. Experiment 1: Production test 6. Experiment 2: Strong contrast comprehension test 7. Experiment 3: Weak contrast comprehension test Chapter 4. General discussion and conclusion 1. Acquisition process of Japanese numeral classifiers 2. Language production vs. comprehension 3. What affects the acquisition process of Japanese numeral classifiers? 4. Closing remarks Notes References Index This book is about the numeral classifier system and the acquisition of Japanese classifiers by Japanese children. It consists of three parts. First, it provides a general typological characterization of numeral classifier phrases and discusses the semantic properties of numeral classifiers based on an analysis of four languages from four different language families. Second, it extensively reviews classifier acquisition research from eight different languages. Third, it examines the acquisition of numeral classifiers by Japanese preschool children. The importance of the study is that it reveals that young children have a much greater sensitivity to the conceptual underpinnings of the numeral classifier system than was previously considered to be the case. Review text: "In conclusion, the background information on classifiers in Asian languages and Yamamoto's findings on the development of comprehension in children are excellent."Robert Albon in: Linguist List 18.989/2007