Usage-Based Theories and Construction of the Determiner-Noun Group Among French-Speaking Children
Résumé
This chapter discusses Usage-Based Theories and their relation with construction grammar (Hoffmann & Trousdale, 2013), in the specific framework of L1 acquisition. After a presentation of these fields, it shows how some principles of usage-based theories combine with those of construction grammar to provide a robust framework to explain the acquisition of a typical French phenomenon, namely liaison between the determiner and noun. Liaison corresponds to the phonological production of a consonant between two words (e.g., the /z/ in les ânes “donkeys” /lezɑnə/, the /t/ in grand ami “close friend” /gʁ̃ɑtami/). Their occurrence depends on certain conditions which are discussed below. This phenomenon extends beyond a simple phonological manifestation, however, since by involving the presence of two words that are linked by an external sandhi phenomenon (Andersen, 1986), it illustrates the difficulties of segmentation encountered by children. By observing their errors (e.g., /denan/ for /dezan/ in des ânes “donkeys”), we can follow the process by which they gradually build patterns that allow them to produce the target forms. This liaison analysis helps account, more broadly, for the way in which nominal groups are constructed from a morphosyntactic point of view.