I have been a busy bee lately, my friends. It's been the busiest six weeks or so of the 9+ months that I've had this job. My revised article was due last month, and I've been analyzing data for a conference presentation this weekend, and I'm trying to get my dissertation manuscript submitted by June 24. Next week I'm guest-lecturing for the associate head of the department in town where I hope to get a job someday, so I'd love to knock it out of the park.
I'm not complaining -- it's all stuff I've chosen to do, projects I'm excited about. Still, I'll be glad when the 24th rolls around and life quiets down again. I have a half-dozen partially written posts kicking around in my head, and I know that sometimes the best way to get blogging again is to toss off a hasty post.
This is a picture that's been puzzling me: it shows kids' use of perfect aspect (log-transformed density values on the x axis, proportion of the sample on the y axis). What it's saying is that kids either like perfect or they hate it -- either they sprinkle their language samples with "I'd been wondering" and "she's been grumpy lately" or else they never use those structures at all. I've been trying to figure out why. Perfect aspect is more common in books than in spoken language, so I've been poking around in the database to get a fix on family reading culture -- nothing there. I've been looking at parental education, which is weakly predictive but not significantly so. And I've been looking separately at the kids with language troubles, thinking they might prefer simpler forms. Even there, the distribution is bimodal: they use fewer perfect forms, but some of them have a few and some have zero. I'm scratching my head, but it's a fun kind of puzzle. Any ideas?
I have one! Second-language ability of the parents and/or grandparents (who'd have set the tone).
I've always been a fan of that tense and I've even seen my 28 month old bust it out on occasion (he's my oldest). We're sticklers for it, and I think it's because my mother, her family, and I all speak a second language where it's used far more frequently. Anecdotal data points from my family: my Mom was born in Italy and still speaks fluent Italian, as does my Nonna. I understand Italian and I speak fluent French - my job requires that I interact with people in both English and French. I lead hiring committees for jobs, so the required level is high. In both cases, these Latin-root languages adore the use of the perfect (and are particular sticklers for the pluperfect).
It may not have any influence, but I thought I'd suggest it.
Posted by: Sarah in Ottawa | June 06, 2011 at 10:56 PM
My child would be at the peak for love of it. I think it comes from a temperament of social focus.
Posted by: Celeste | June 08, 2011 at 12:25 PM
Could we have more examples (or links) of usage vs. non-usage? On or after the 24th is fine ;)
I had to Google what it is and am not sure I'm wrapping my brain around it. Sounds interesting.
Posted by: Angela | June 08, 2011 at 01:53 PM