E-Book Overview
The study of language acquisition has taken on new meaning in the last decade. Now seen as part of the study of other forms of language variation across time and space, such as dialects and sociolects, and the study of pidgins and Creoles, it can help to provide a new understanding of how language evolves and what directs its development. Dorit Ravid here provides a study of contemporary speakers of Hebrew, focusing in particular on inflectional morphology. She traces language development from childhood to adulthood in Hebrew speakers, and explores strategies of language acquisition and language processing leading to variation in the spoken Hebrew of speakers of different ages and socioeconomic backgrounds.
E-Book Content
Language Change in Child and Adult Hebrew
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Language Change in Child and Adult Hebrew A Psycholinguistic Perspective
DORIT DISKIN RAVID
New York Oxford OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1995
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Oxford New York Athens Auckland Bangkok Bombay Calcutta Cape Town Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madras Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi Paris Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan
Copyright © 1995 by Dorit Diskin Ravid Published by Oxford University Press, Inc., 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ravid, Dorit Diskin. Language change in child and adult Hebrew : a psycholinguistic perspective / Dorit Diskin Ravid. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-19-508893-X (cloth).—ISBN 0-19-509036-5 (pbk.) Hebrew language—Acquisition. 2. Hebrew language—Variation. 3. Hebrew language—Inflection. I. Title. II. Series. PJ4544.85.R38 1995 492.4—dc20 93-41770 135798642 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
To Arik and Ruth— Thank you.
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Contents
Technical Notes, xi 1. Background, 3 1.1. Introduction, 3 Sources of Variation in Contemporary Hebrew, 3 Normativism and Linguistic Reality, 6 The Rise of Two Sociolects in Modern Hebrew, 8 Age Differences in the Speech Community, 11 1.2. Language Variation and Modern Hebrew, 16 Classification of Varieties of Spoken Hebrew Usage, 16 Deviant Phenomena in Spoken Hebrew Usage, 17 Transient Phenomena, 17 Nonstandard Deviations, 17 Language Change Phenomena, 18 Perspectives on Language Variation, 20 Spoken Hebrew, 20 Principles and Strategies in Language Acquisition and Language Processing, 21 Language Variation and Language Change, 22
2. The Study, 27 2.1. The Experiment, 27 Research Instruments, 27 Population, 28
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Contents The Language Domains, 31 General Morphological Development, 31 Acquisition of Hebrew Morphology, 32 Historical Neutralizations, 35 Research Categories, 37 Weak Final Syllable, 38 Stop/Spirant Alternation, 39 Stem Change, 40 Hif'il Vowel Alternation, 41 Verb Tense, 42 Lexical Exceptions, 43 Case-Marked Pronouns, 45 Verb-Governed Prepositions, 47 Subject-Verb Concord, 48 Backformation, 49 Summary, 50 Procedures, 51 Coding, 53 Test-Related Hypotheses, 53 Statistical Methods, 54 2.2. Results, 54 The Current Status of Study Domains, 55 Stable Areas, 55 Middle Categories, 60 Areas of Instability, 61 Summary of Findings, 62
3. Analysis of Results: The Effects of Literacy and Maturation, 64 3.1. Appropriate Responses: The Factor of Maturation, 65 3.2. Normative Response