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1、NORTHWESTERNUNIVERSITYLearningabouttheStructureofScales:AdverbialModificationandtheAcquisitionoftheSemanticsofGradableAdjectivesADISSERTATIONSUBMITTEDTOTHEGRADUATESCHOOLINPARTIALFULFILLMENTOFTHEREQUIREMENTSforthedegreeDOCTOROFPHILOSOPHYFieldofLinguistic
2、sByKristenL.SyrettEVANSTON,ILLINOISDecember2007UMINumber:3278075Copyright2007bySyrett,KristenL.Allrightsreserved.UMIMicroform3278075Copyright2007byProQuestInformationandLearningCompany.Allrightsreserved.Thismicroformeditionisprotectedagainstunauthorized
3、copyingunderTitle17,UnitedStatesCode.ProQuestInformationandLearningCompany300NorthZeebRoadP.O.Box1346AnnArbor,MI48106-13462©CopyrightbyKristenL.Syrett2007AllRightsReserved3ABSTRACTLearningabouttheStructureofScales:AdverbialModificationandtheAcquisitiono
4、ftheSemanticsofGradableAdjectivesKristenL.SyrettThisworkinvestigateschildren’searlysemanticrepresentationsofgradableadjectives(GAs)andproposesthatinfantsperformaprobabilisticanalysisoftheinputtolearnaboutabstractdifferenceswithinthiscategory.Ifirstdemon
5、stratethatchildrenasyoungasagethreedistinguishbetweenrelative(e.g.,big,long),maximumstandardabsolute(e.g.,full,straight),andminimumstandardabsolute(e.g.,spotted,bumpy)GAsinthewaythatthestandardofcomparisonissetandhowitinteractswiththediscoursecontext.It
6、henaskifadverbsenableinfantstolearnthesedifferences.Inacorpusanalysis,Idemonstratethatstatisticallysignificantpatternsofadverbialmodificationareavailabletothelanguagelearner:restrictedadverbs(e.g.,completely)aremorelikelythannon-restrictedadverbs(e.g.,v
7、ery)toselectformaximalGAswithboundedscales.Non-maximalGAs,whicharemorelikelytobemodifiedbyadverbsingeneral,aremorelikelytobemodifiedbyanarrowerrange,predominantlycomposedofintensifiers(e.g.,very).Ithenaskiflanguagelearnersrecruitthisinformationwhenlearn
8、ingnewadjectives.Inawordlearningtaskemployingthepreferentiallookingparadigm,Idemonstratethat30-month-oldsuseadverbialmodifierstheyarenotnecessarilyproducingtoassignaninterpretationtonoveladjectives.Adjectivesmodifiedbycompletelya
