Developments of syntactic and semantic features of Karitiana (Tupi)

• Grant number: 23/07642-0
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: November 01, 2023
• End date: October 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Linguistics - Psycholinguistics
• Principal Investigator: Karin Camolese Vivanco
• Grantee: Karin Camolese Vivanco
• Host Institution: Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem (IEL). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project investigates the linguistic behavior of children between the ages of 2 and 7 years old who are acquiring karitiana (Tupi) as their first language. This study makes use of experiments to observe the children's linguistic production and comprehension. Three syntactic and semantic phenomena will be investigated: (1) causativization and agentivity; (2) negation; and (3) questions and relative clauses. Two distinct methodologies will be used to gather the relevant data: semi-spontaneous production tasks and truth value judgement tasks.Adults who speak karitiana fluently will also be tested and their data will be compared with the linguistic results of the children. Taking the literature on language acquisition into account, young children are expected to show non-adult behavior, either by producing constructions not attested in the adult language or by accepting them as well-formed sentences. Observation of the linguistic development of Karitiana children has an important impact on language acquisition studies, as there are descriptions of the acquisition process of this language. (AU)