Learning Indigenous Languages: Child Language Acquisition in Mesoamerica

This book includes six studies on the acquisition of single Mesoamerican indigenous languages, (Huichol, Zapotec, and the Mayan languages Ch'ol, Tzeltal, K'iche', and Yukatek); and a crosslinguistic study of five Mayan languages (K'anjob'al, K'iche', Tzeltal, Tzotzil, and Yukatek). Three topics are theoretically and methodologically discussed and empirically demonstrated: with respect to ergativity, the ergative-absolutive cross-referencing pattern on the morphological level, noun-verb distinction and the acquisition of body-part locatives in the early lexicon, and the role of semantic properties and cultural context in language acquisition and socialization. This book makes important claims regarding the methodology of cross-linguistic studies as well as the results of these studies and the comparative method used in the book (structural and discursive factors in language acquisition, cross-linguistic relationships and variation).

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 3110195593
• ISBN13: 9783110195590
• Release Date: August 2007
• Publisher: de Gruyter Mouton
• Length: 215 Pages
• Weight: 1.07 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 9.2"
• Age Range: 22 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary