Derivative suffixes are used to form new words or change the syntactic category of a word. .... 32.23 Telugu, English, Hindi 1st Child Beerumguda. Sri Vaishnavi ...
The Early Acquisition of Telugu Verb Morphology Maganti Madhavilatha Sigal Uziel-Karl
Collaborators and Credit Dr. Madhavilatha Maganti-Kari
Ms. Aayushi Deshpande
Psychology Dept. School of Natural Sciences Ashoka University
Undergraduate student Psychology major Ashoka University
Dr. Madhavilatha is a developmental psychologist interested in studying typical and atypical development in infants and children. Specifically, her research interests are focused on understanding the developmental course of inter-sensory perception in preterm infants, and verb-acquisition in children. Further, she is interested in examining how early intervention can ameliorate perceptual delays associated with prematurity and other concomitant risk factors. This research is funded by grants from the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, (SR/WOS/-A/ET-143/2011), and by an internal research grant (Research grant-Ashoka-MM-2016-17) from Ashoka University.
Dravidian languages • Dravidian languages are a family of languages spoken in South Asia. • Dravidian comprises a little more than 20 languages. • Only four of these languages developed their own scripts and literature (Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam).
Dravidian languages The largest concentration of Dravidian speakers is found in the four states of southern India: • Tamil Nadu • Andhra Pradesh • Karnataka • Kerala
Dravidian languages • Telugu is the state language of Andhra Pradesh. • It ranks third by its number of native speakers in India (86 million speakers). • Telugu has literary and colloquial varieties. • Literary Telugu includes an older, heavy Sanskritized, form and a more modern one that is becoming the standard. • Colloquial Telugu has four regional dialects spoken in north, south, east and central Andhra Pradesh.
Telugu Verbal Morphology • Telugu is an agglutinative language. • In Telugu, the verb stem is followed by suffixes. • An inflected verb is composed of: VERB STEM + TENSE/MOOD SUFFIX + PERSONAL SUFFIX*
tiṇ
ṭunnā
du
eat
is/was (durative)
he
‘he is/was eating’
*gender-number-person in finite verbs, in agreement with the subject noun
Telugu Verbal Morphology • Telugu is an agglutinative language. • In Telugu, the verb stem is followed by suffixes. • A verb stem can be: simple (formed by one verb root) e.g., vastha ‘to come’ derived (from a verbal or nominal root plus a derivative suffix) e.g., vastha-nuu (nuu = I will) ‘I will come’ compounded (main verb + auxiliary verb) e.g., ramm-anna-nuu (ramm - come; anna - tell; nuu - I) ‘I told him to come’
Telugu Verb Conjugations Classes • Telugu verbs fall into three conjugations based on their morphology. • The first and second conjugations mostly contain words of Telugu origin. • The third conjugation contains borrowed words and words from other languages.
Suffixes for the three conjugations
Telugu Verb Morphology • Inflectional suffixes may indicate: • gender – masculine, non-masculine • Number – singular, plural • Person – 1st; 2nd; 3rd • Tense-mood - past, non-past, negative tense, durative, imperative, negative imperative, hortative • Voice – affirmative, negative; passive; middle; causative
• Derivative suffixes are used to form new words or change the syntactic category of a word.
Gender Marking • Telugu nouns have no gender marking. • Gender is indicated on the 3rd person of the verb and on demonstrative pronouns. • There are two genders which are not equivalent in the singular and in the plural:
In the singular, the genders are human male and other than human male (the latter includes women and all non-humans). In the plural the gender distinction is between human (male and female) versus non-human (male and female).
Tense-Mood Marking • Literary Telugu makes the following tense-mood distinctions: past, non-past, negative tense, durative, imperative, negative imperative, hortative • The colloquial language has only past and non-past tenses.
• The marker of the past tense is -æ:- (represented as ā) • the marker of the non-past is -t(ā),
expressing an habitual or future meaning. • The negative marker is -a-. • The negative conjugation has no tense marker and, thus, serves for both past and non-past. • The personal endings are the same for every tense.
Tense-Mood Marking • The durative is formed with the suffix -ṭunnā plus personal endings 3s.mh tiṇṭunnādu (‘he is/was eating’) • The imperative is formed by the stem plus personal endings for 2nd person singular (u) or plural (aṇḍi) 2sg tinu, 2pl tinanḍi • The negative imperative is formed with the suffix -ak plus personal endings 2sg tinaku, 2pl: tinakaṇḍi • The hortative is formed with the suffix -dā plus personal endings 1pl tindām (‘let us eat!’)
Non-finite Verb Forms • formed by adding a suffix to the stem • lack person and number marking • The past and non-past participles serve to make relative clauses • Non-finite forms include:
infinitive, gerund, past participle, non-past participle, negative participle
• • • • •
cadawa cadawaḍam cadiwina cadiwē cadawani
Infinitive: Gerund: Past participle: Non-past participle: Negative participle:
(‘to read’) (‘reading’) (‘one who read/one which was read’) (‘one who reads/one which is/will be read’) (‘one who does/did not read; one which is/was not read’)
Goals of the Study To date Telugu acquisition has not been thoroughly studied. • The current study examines the early development of Telugu verb morphology. • The study compares CS with CDS in order to detect possible effects of parental input on the early use of Telugu verb morphology.
Methodology • Eighteen 24-36 month-old children (CS) and their mothers (CDS) • One-time naturalistic speech samples of spontaneous interactions during free-play • Each dyad was audio-recorded, and some video-recorded for a duration of 45-100 minutes (M = 70 minutes). • The recordings were transcribed by a native speaker of Telugu, and all verbs in CS (N = 2,515) and CDS (N = 3,269) were isolated and analysed. • We used frequency counts and Pearson correlation to determine the fit between CS and CDS.
Participants 24-36 Months Old (N = 18) Baby’s name Tarun Srinija Praneetha Sai Satwik Shruthi Yashwanth Sai Teja Yoshita Brunda siddharth Dedibya Sri Vaishnavi Deekshit Dhruvan Hasini Sneha Harshit Manasvi
Subject number Child-2 Child-4 Child-6 Child-8 Child-10 Child-12 Child-17 Child-24 Child-25 Child-26 Child-27 Child-29 Child-31 Child-3 Child-5 Child-9 Child-22 Child-14
Gender Male Female Female Male Female Male Male Female Female Male Female Female Male Male Female Female Male Female
Recorded Duration 80 min 80 min 75 min 80 min 75 min 46 min, 37 sec 45 min 65 min 80 min 73 min 66 min 90 min 100 min 90 min 70 min 75 min 75 min 45 min
Age 34.06 27.04 34.13 29.2 27.27 30.21 29.23 33.26 33.19 34.15 32.23 28.15 33.29 25.24 26.29 26.24 26.2 26.11
Language Telugu Telugu, English, Hindi Telugu, English, Hindi Telugu Telugu Telugu Telugu Telugu, English, Hindi Telugu Telugu Telugu, English, Hindi Telugu Telugu Telugu, English, Hindi Telugu Telugu Telugu, English, Hindi Telugu
Birth Order
2nd Child 2nd Child 1st Child 3rd Child 2nd Child 2nd Child 1st Child 1st 1st chid
1st child 1st Child
Recruitment Location Darga HCU HCU HCU Darga Mehdipatnam Rameshwaram MIG HCU HCU Beerumguda R.C.Pur R.C.PUR HCU Darga Darga MIG Beerumguda
Participants 24-36 Months Old (N = 18) No. Name 2 3 4 5 6 8 9 10 12 14 17 22 24 25 26 27 29 31
Tarun Dhruvan Srinija Hasini Praneetha Sai Satwik Sneha Shruthi Yashwanth Manasvi Sai Teja Harshit Yoshita Brunda Siddharth Dedibya Sri Vaishnavi Deekshith
Age 34.06 25.24 27.04 26.24 34.13 29.2 26.24 27.27 30.21 26.11 29.23 26.2 33.26 33.19 34.15 32.23 28.15 33.29
Recording Children - Total in Minutes Utterances 80 230 90 216 80 179 70 96 75 401 80 205 75 232 75 141 47 237 75 83 45 33 75 193 65 121 80 148 73 171 66 203 90 184 100 180
Mothers –Total Utterances 284 203 260 179 566 287 326 244 440 147 120 449 294 357 317 434 388 364
Children’s MLU
Mothers’ MLU
1 1 1.005 1 1.002 1.04 1 1.02 1.05 0.98 1 1.005 1.03 1.3 1.005 1 1.01 1.01
1 1 1.06 1 1012 1.04 0.97 1.003 1.02 1 1.08 1.14 1.25 1.04 1.06 1.11 1.08 1.16
Participants 24-36 Months Old (N = 18) No.
Name
2 3 4 5 6 8 9 10 12 14 17 22 24 25 26 27 29 31
Tarun Dhruvan Srinija Hasini Praneetha Sai Satwik Sneha Shruthi Yashwanth Manasvi Sai Teja Harshit Yoshita Brunda Siddharth Dedibya Sri Vaishnavi Deekshith
Children’s Verb types
Mothers’ Verb Types
28 17 22 3 57 41 33 18 41 15 7 26 28 31 26 18 27 38
38 38 37 21 66 48 42 33 53 27 24 47 50 53 51 57 59 56
Children’s Verb tokens 115 69 78 3 169 96 79 42 121 39 9 77 74 127 61 44 96 98
Mothers’ Verb Tokens 170 120 202 138 343 177 231 147 323 140 98 413 329 284 256 395 343 327
Findings Both the children and their mothers used extensively only a small number of verbs (over 100 tokens per verb), while using all other verbs very sparsely. Mothers – Verb Frequency (Tokens) 500 450
Children - Verb frequency (Tokens)
400 350
350
300
300
250
250
200
200
150
150
100
100
50
50 0
tell bring say play cook pray sleep remove hide tie become lock lost watch mix pinch add glup talk bleed drive has rub stand
wait
rub
stand
hit
record
bright
disappear
walk
poure
add
listen
hear
pluck
mix
swing
hurt
become
bite
write
stay
throw
sleep
shout
cut
buy
sing
show
call
take
be
do
tell
0
Frequently used verbs The mothers and children shared the same 10 most frequently used verbs: tell Go Come Eat Do Give Bring Ask Be keep
The Verb ‘come’ in Telugu • The verb vaccu ‘to come’ has two variants in Telugu: vaccu and raa
• The verb raa ‘to come’ functions as a main verb: • in the imperative, a negative modal verb, as in raadu ‘shouldn’t’ • in negative sentences
• vaccu ‘to come’ occurs both as a main verb and as a light verb.
Data Sample Utterance
Gloss
Stem
affixes
bava vachinda school ki monkeylu vachinaya? raledu inka? eppudu vastayi anta? vachinappudu vastava shopping ki vastava? rava enduku ravu vachnaya me intiki kuka vastada appatki vasta rep vasta
did brother in law come to school? monkeys came? still they didn't come? when will they come? when they may come will you come? will you come? don't you come? why you don't come? they have come he will come I will come I will come
vachin vachin raa vasta vachin vastha vastha raa raa vachin vastha vastha vastha
da a-ya le-du yi nappu-du va va va vu a-ya da
Person Number Gender Tense 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 3 3 1 1
sg pl pl pl pl sg sg sg sg pl sg sg sg
ms us us us us us us us us us us us us
past past future future future future future future future past future future future
Affix Use Both the children and their mothers use more non-affixed than affixed verb-forms. Children 20
Mothers 30 25 20
15
15
10
10
5
5
0
0 2
4
6
8
10 11 12 14 22 24 25 26 27 29 31 tokens
affixe-tokens tokens
affix-tokens
Person Both the children and their mothers use the 2nd and 3rd person most frequently The children use 1st person more than their mothers 20
30 25
20
15
15
10
10
5
5
0 2
4
6
8 10 11 12 14 22 24 25 26 27 29 31
1
2
3
0
us 1
2
3
Number Both the children and their mothers use the singular form significantly more than the plural form. 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0
30 25 20 15 10 5
2
4
6
8 10 11 12 14 22 24 25 26 27 29 31 pl
sg
0
us pl
sg
us
Gender Both the children and their mothers use most verbs with no gender specification. The feminine form is the next highly used gender both in CS and CDS. 20
30 25 20
15
15
10
10
5
5
0
0 2
4
6
8 10 11 12 14 22 24 25 26 27 29 31 fem
ms
us fem
ms
us
Tense Both the children and their mothers use the future tense (non-past) most frequently.
30 25
18 16
20
14
12
15
10 8
10
6 4
5
2 0
0 2
4
6
8
10 11 12 14 22 24 25 26 27 29 31
future
infinitive
past
present future
past
Inflectional Paradigms 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4
2 0 2
4
6
8
10
11
12
14
22
24
25
26
27
29
1-sg-us-future
1-sg-us-past
2-sg-fem-future
2-sg-ms-future
2-sg-us-future
2-sg-us-past
3-pl-us-future
3-pl-us-past
3-sg-fem-future
3-sg-fem-past
3-sg-fem-present
3-sg-ms-future
3-sg-ms-past
3-sg-us-future
3-sg-us-past
us-us-us-infinitive
31
Summary • Both the children and their mothers used extensively only a small number of verbs. • The mothers and children shared the same 10 most frequently used verbs: tell, go, come, eat, do, give, bring, ask, be, and keep. • Both the children and their mothers use more non-affixed than affixed verb-forms. • Verb forms were mostly in the 2nd and 3rd person, singular, with no gender. • Most verb-forms were in the future or in the past tense. • Children demonstrate the use of mini-paradigms.
• The use of verb morphologyin CS closely matches CDS, which might suggest that parental input has an effect on the acquisition of verb morphology in Telugu.
Bibliography Duggirala, V. & Naidu, Y. V. 2012. Cutting and Breaking Events in Telugu. In Proceedings of World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology (No. 72, p. 499). World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology (WASET). Krishnamurti, Bh. & J. P. L. Gwynn. 1985. A Grammar of Modern Telugu. Oxford University Press. Krishnamurti, Bh. 1998. Telugu. In S. B. Steever (ed.), The Dravidian Languages, 202– 240. Routledge. Subrahmanyam, P. 1974. An Introduction to Modern Telugu. Annamalai University.
Nadimpalli, S. K. 2014. The Light Verbs Go/Come in Telugu and Kannada. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Invention 3(2): 28-31.
Thank you! Maganti Madhavilatha Sigal Uziel-Karl
Sentence Structure • Telugu word order is: Subject-Object-Verb, indirect object preceding direct object.
• Syntactic functions are conveyed by case suffixes and postpositions that follow the oblique stem. • Telugu is head-final i.e., genitive, adjectives precede the head noun, and adverbs precede the verb. • It is a pro-drop language i.e., the subject can be omitted since the verb itself marks person and number. • Telugu lacks coordinating conjunctions; coordinated phrases lengthen their final vowels. • To form relative clauses a relative participle is used instead of the finite verb.
Participants 15-24 Months Old (N = 13) Baby’s name Sreehita Sai Deekshita Diyansh Kirtan Jashwanth Honey Kushi Sanvika Amarnath Hanish Gamyashri Srijini Tanmayee Joy
Subject number Child-1 Child-13 Child-18 Child-19 Child-23 Child-28 Child-30 Child-32 Child-33 Child-15 Child-16 Child-21 Child-20
Gender Female Female Male Male Male Male Female Male Male Female Female Female Male
Recorded Duration 70 min 120 min 60 min 54 min, 12 sec 70 min 100min 85 min 65min 80 min 35 min, 2 sec 28 min, 4sec 45 min 65 min
Language Telugu, English, Hindi Telugu, Hindi, English Telugu, Hindi Telugu Telugu Telugu, English, Hindi Telugu Telugu Telugu, English, Hindi Telugu Telugu Telugu, English, Hindi
Birth Order 1 st Child 1st chid 2nd Child 1st Child 1st Child 1st 2nd Child 1st Child 3rd Child 1st child 1st Child
Recurment Location Padma Nagar Padmanagar Rameshwaram Rameshwaram Rameshwaram Beerumguda Beerumguda Nandigama ptc RCPur Rameshwaram HCU Masid Banda
Participants 15-24 Months Old (N = 13) Child # 1 13 15 16 18 19 20 21 23 28 30 32 33
Name Age Sreehita 23.11 Sai Deekshita 23.24 Gamyashri 18.24 Srijini 15.28 Diyansh 20.19 Kirtan 21.23 Joy 18 Tanmayee 15 Jaswanth 21.17 Honey 19.03 Sanvika 22.14 Amarnath 22.14 Hanish 22.14
No. of verb No. of Utterances types 114 21 214 22 15 2 24 0 69 7 125 19 20 2 29 2 98 8 120 14 77 11 203 24 179 24
No. of verb tokens 55 80 2 0 18 52 2 4 14 35 15 85 82
MLU 1 1 1 1 1.07 1.008 1 1 1 1.008 1 1.004 1
Maternal Input to 15-24 Month Old Babies Child # 1 13 15 16 18 19 20 21 23 28 30 32 33
Mothers’ Utterances 156 272 149 174 294 407 172 125 275 364 338 387 287
Mother's verb types 25 44 34 26 41 48 21 27 41 49 55 54 46
Mother's Verb tokens 100 226 138 126 227 425 135 100 289 340 312 324 237
Mother's MLU 0.9 1 1.02 0.98 0.95 1.23 1.023 1.04 1.22 1.23 1.13 1.002 1.01
14 12 10
8 6 4 2
0 2
4
6
8
10
11
12
14
22
24
25
27
29
1&2-sg-us-future
1-sg-fem-future
1-sg-us-future
1--us-future
2-not sure-us-future
2-pl-us-future
2-sg-fem-future
2-sg-ms-future
2-sg-us-future
3-sg-us-future
31
6 5 4 3 2 1 0 2
4
6
8
10
12
22
24
1-pl-us-past
1-sg-fem-past
1-sg-ms-past
2-pl-us-past
2-sg-fem-past
2-sg-us-past
25
26
1-sg-us-past
29
31
Telugu Morphology Voice: Telugu has two voices - affirmative and negative
Passive voice is compounded with -pad’ut’a
middle voice with -konut’a
causal voice with insertion of –inchu Chuduvinchu (make {him/her} read)
The Verb ‘come’ in Telugu Negative meanings of ‘come’ • To emphasize the fact that someone has not done something as expected: ataniki rogam vaccindi. he.dat disease come.pt.3sg • negative outcome when attaches to communicative verbs like ask, tell, advise, etc.: atanu elaa naDacukovaalo naaku cheppoccheeDu. He.nom how to behave me.dat say come.pt.3sg.ms • The light verb - to emphasize that the listener does not know what had happened: nuvvu adi chooDoccavaa? You.nom that see.come.pres.2sg You don’t know that at all
The Verb ‘come’ in Telugu Positive meanings of ‘come’ • to say that something recorded, shot, photographed or painted is good: bomma baga vaccindi. picture.nom good.come.pt.3sg The painting has come out well • As a light verb, goes with nouns to speak of physical appearance: aame chaayoccindi. She.nom. colour.come.pt.3sg She became fairer
The Verb ‘come’ in Telugu Positive meanings of ‘come’ • With awards, marks and achievements also, vaccu ‘to come’ is used to leave a happy note: maa abbayi padava taragati fastu vaccaDu. my son.nom 10th class first come.pt.3sg.ms My son came out first in 10th class
• vaccu ‘to come’ goes with the names of languages, sports, dance, music etc. to say that we have some knowledge about them: naaku kannaDamu vaccu. me.dat Kannada come.pres.3sg I know how to speak Kannada
