Ergatiboen jabekuntza: ikerketa experimental bat eta beraren emaitzak
89 visitas recibidas
Autoría:
Maider Huarte Abasolo
Director/a:
Itziar Idiazabal Gorrotxategi eta Cecile Mckee
Universidad:
Universidad del País Vasco
Facultad:
Facultad de Letras
Departamento:
Lingüística y Estudios Vascos
Área:
Lingüística
Año:
2007
|Euskararen jabekuntza aztertu dutenek ergatiboaren jabekuntzarekin arazo bat dagoela iradoki dute: elebakarrak edo elebidunak izan, haurrek hilabete gutxi batzuk behar dituzte kasu marka hau modu emankorrean erabiltzeko. Tesi honek, berriz, ulermen froga batean oinarrituta, haurren sistema gramatikala, ergatiboari dagokionez behintzat, hasieratik guztiz osatuta dagoela iradokitzen du.
Ergatiboaren jabekuntza ustez berantiar hau azaltzeko, bi hipotesi proposatu izan dira: hedatuenak sintaxiari leporatzen dio haurrek ergatiboarekin duten balizko zailtasuna (Barreña 1995, eta ondorengo lanak; Ezeizabarrena eta Larrañaga 1996; Elosegi 1996, 2000; Byrnes Austin 2001, 2007). Honen arabera, haurrak modu mailakatuan jabetuko lirateke euskaraz kasuak ezartzen dituzten proiekzio funtzionalez (cf. jabekuntza mailakatuaren hipotesia; Radford 1986 eta geroko lanak). Fonologian oinarritutako bigarren hipotesiak iradokitzen du ergatiboaren ekoizpena testuinguruak baldintzatuta egon daitekeela (Elosegi 1996): haurren datuetan, gehiagotan ekoizten da ergatiboa bokal artean edo ekoizpenaren amaieran badago, kontsonante aurrean badago baino.
Nolanahi ere, interpretazio biek dituzte arazoak. Alde batetik, hipotesi sintaktikoak nekez azaldu dezake haurren arazoak ergatiboarekin lotuta baino ez egotea. Zergatik izan beharko litzateke zailagoa ergatiboaz jabetzea absolutiboaz edo datiboaz jabetzea baino? Gainera, hipotesi honek ezin du haurrek egiten dituzten akatsen azalpenik eman. Gehienetan, kasu markarik gabe uzten dute sintagma baina ez dute sintagmari ez dagokion kasu marka bat erabiltzen beharrezkoa litzatekeenaren ordez, proiekzioak finkatu barik baleude esperoko genukeen bezala. Beste alde batetik, hipotesi fonologikoa indartuko lukeen argudiorik ere ezin dugu aztertutako korpusetan bilatu. Ikusi beharko genuke haurrek arazorik duten ¿k fonemarekin osatutako beste morfema batzuekin: plurala (-k), partitiboa (-rik). Baina tankera honetako adibide gutxi agertzen dira haurrek ergatiboa modu emankorrean erabiltzen ez duten aro horretan, eta, beraz, ezinezkoa da konparaketa egitea.
Ikerketa lan honetan, 66 haur elebidunekin egindako ulermen froga baten emaitzak plazaratzen dira. Haurrak hiru adin taldetan daude banatuta: 2;04tik 2;09ra bitarteko 24 haur aztertu dira; 2;09tik 3;03ra bitarteko 21 haur; eta 3;04tik 4;01ra bitarteko beste 21 haur. Haurrei hiru estimulu mota eman zitzaizkien: esaldi motak eskatzen zuen bezala ergatiboarekin markatutako estimuluak; haurrek egiten dituzten hutsetan gertatzen den bezala, ergatiboaren ordez absolutiboarekin markatutako estimuluak; eta azkenik, ¿l sasimorfemarekin markatutako estimuluak. Estimulua entzun ondoren, lau marrazkiren artean aukeratzeko eskatu zitzaien.
Ulermen froga honetatik hiru ondorio nagusi ateratzen dira: batetik, ekoizpenean gertatzen denak iradokitzen duenaren kontra, testuinguruari dagokion kasu marka ez agertzeak ulermena eragozten du. Bestela esanda, haurrei emandako estimuluak ergatiboarekin markatuta egoteak erraztu egiten du marrazki zuzena aukeratzeko lana. Bigarrenez, haurrek ulermenean kasu marka bakoitzari dagokion testuingurua bereizten dutela erakusten da. Eta hirugarren ondorioa, eta beharbada garrantzitsuena, ergatiboa modu helduan erabiltzen ez duten haurrek kasu hau hitzen jarioaren ulermenean erabiltzeak haurren sistema gramatikala osatuta dagoela pentsatzeara garamatza. Hortaz, kasuak ezartzen dituzten proiekzio funtzionalak piztuta eta ondo finkatuta daude uste baino lehenagotik. Azkenik, ekoizpen eta ulermen mailen arteko jauzia Levelten (1989) Ekoizpen ereduan oinarrituta azaltzea proposatzen dut.ACQUISITION OF THE ERGATIVE CASE: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY AND ITS FINDINGS
Previous researchers have suggested that there is a difficulty with the acquisition of the ergative case: children, regardless of whether they are monolingual or bilingual, take several months to learn the productive use of this case. The present study, on the contrary, suggests on the basis of a comprehension test that children¿s grammatical system is complete from the start as far as the ergative is concerned.
Two hypotheses have been put forward to explain the putative late acquisition of the ergative. According to the most widespread of these, which attributes children¿s assumed difficulty with the ergative to syntax (Barreña 1995 and subsequent publications; Ezeizabarrena & Larrañaga 1996; Elosegi 1996, 2000; Byrnes Austin 2001, 2007), children¿s acquisition of the functional projections of Basque cases is thought to be gradual (cf. the gradual acquisition hypothesis: Radford 1986 and subsequent publications). The other hypothesis refers to the phonology, and posits that production of the ergative is contextually conditioned (Elosegi 1996): in children¿s data ergative forms are more often produced intervocalically or at the end of utterances than in front of consonants.
But there are problems with both theories. The syntactic theory faces the challenge of explaining why children¿s difficulties are limited to just the ergative. Why should it be harder to acquire the ergative than the absolutive or the dative? Moreover, this hypothesis fails to account for the kinds of mistakes children make. They usually omit the case marker from a noun phrase, but they do not attach the wrong case marker to a given NP, as we might expect if projections were not clearly established. The phonological hypothesis, on the other hand, finds no confirming argument in the data of the corpus studied, for which it would be relevant if children had difficulties with other morphemes containing a final k, such as the plural (-k) or the partitive (-rik). But there are few such examples to be found at the stage at which children do not yet use the ergative productively, making such a comparison impossible.
The present study presents the results of a comprehension test to which 66 bilingual children were subjected. Children were classified into three age groups: 24 children aged from 2;04 to 2;09, 21 children from 2;09 to 3;03, and 21 children from 3;04 to 4;01. Children were presented with three stimulus types: utterances containing an ergative marker as required by the sentence type; utterances lacking the required ergative marker in the manner of children¿s typical mistakes; and lastly, stimuli containing a mock morpheme ¿l. After hearing the stimulus the subjects were asked to choose between four pictures.
The results of the test yielded three major findings: first, that contrary to what seems to be suggested by their production, the absence of the appropriate case marker tends to impede comprehension. In other words, ergative marking in the stimuli helps children with the task of choosing the right picture. Secondly, it shows that children differentiate in comprehension between contexts that call for different cases. The third finding, and perhaps the most striking one, is that the fact that children who do not use the ergative as adults do nevertheless draw on it in their comprehension of speech suggests that their grammatical system is in fact already complete. It follows that the functional projections of cases are activated and function properly earlier than had been thought. Finally, I propose an explanation of the gap between production and comprehension levels based on Levelt¿s (1989) production model.
