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Agent–patient word-order preference in the acquisition of Tagalog*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Norman S. Segalowitz  and
Rosita G. Galang
Norman S. Segalowitz
Affiliation:
Concordia University, Montreal
Rosita G. Galang
Affiliation:
Ateneo University-Philippine Normal College Linguistics Consortium, Manila
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Abstract

This study investigated 3-, 5- and 7-year-old Tagalog-speaking children's mastery of agent-focus (active) and patient-focus (passive) sentence structures. In contrast to the usual English developmental pattern with actives and passives, the Tagalog children generally showed better mastery of patient-focus sentences than agent-focus sentences. These results were attributed to the children's strategy of interpreting the first noun of a sentence to be the agent of the action. The structure and usage of these sentence types in Tagalog do not appear to provide linguistic pressures favouring such a strategy. Thus these results are consistent with the view that such a strategy might be non-linguistic in origin.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , February 1978 , pp. 47 - 64
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978

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Footnotes

[*]

The authors are grateful to Dr Felisa Anonuevo, Principal of the University of the Philippines Elementary School and to Mr and Mrs Alberto Racho and Mrs Paulina Santos for assistance in testing and making arrangements to test the children in this study. We would also like to thank Drs Tannis Arbuckle, Anna-Beth Doyle and Elizabeth Gatbonton and Ms Helen Gougeon for their constructive criticisms of earlier drafts of this paper. The senior author would also like to thank Dr Bonifacio Sibayan, President of the Philippine Normal College, for an invitation to teach at the Summer Institute which made it possible to conduct the present research. Address for correspondence: N. Segalowitz, Psychology Department, Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

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