Smita Srivastava

Toddlers'' Use of Verb Constructions in Hindi: an Examination of Experimental and Everyday Contexts Smita Srivastava

Toddlers'' Use of Verb Constructions in Hindi takes acomprehensive look at the processes by which childrenextract structure and meaning from the particularlanguage they are learning to build up a more complexgrammar. Adopting a Usage-Based approach, this work, examines children?s productivity, that is theirability to use a new verb in a construction in whichthey have neverbefore heard it. It does so in a highly interactiveexperimental design using both novel and familiar verbs. Children?s productivity in the experimental study isthen compared with their own verb use in everydayplay contexts with their caregivers as well as themothers? verb use to discern patterns of individualdifferences in language development. The findings ofthe studies reported here seem to suggest thatlanguages with explicit markings for agent- patientrelations facilitate an earlier onset of productivitythan word-order languages like English. Productivityis also greater when children hear verbs used indiverse constructions by their caregivers.