Re: conjugation patterns in Spanish

Jim Heckman wrote:
On 2-Apr-2006, "John Atkinson" <johnacko@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote in message <lf2Yf.22740$dy4.20216@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:

Yes, and this objection is equally valid for native speakers of
Spanish. Spanish kids aren't born knowing Latin. But somehow they
manage to learn the four hundred or so verbs that have /ie/ or /ue/
when the root is stressed and /e/ or /o/ when the ending is
stressed. Or, if they internalise this as a general rule, they have
to learn the hundreds of verbs
which are exceptions to the rule, the ones which don't diphthongise
/e/ or /o/ when the root is stressed.

This doesn't faze Spanish kids at all, but it does worry linguists
who study
language acquisition, who like to think that kids devise internal
grammars which consist mostly of rules, with a comparatively small
number of exceptions (irregularities) which mostly apply to the
commonest words and can be listed individually in the grammar. The
idea of several hundred irregular verbs in a language is not easy to
fit into the way they postulate children's internal grammar-forming
devices should work.

Anyway, if the many experts who've agonised over this problem can't
find a way out, I don't like your chances. Sorry, you'll just have
to learn which group each verb belongs to, one at a time.

How many exceptions are there if one learns the rules the other way
'round, that is, treat the stem-stressed form as basic and apply
the rules that unstressed /i/ -> /e/, /ie/ -> /e/ and /ue/ -> /o/?

Too many. :)

Alex

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: conjugation patterns in Spanish
    ... Spanish kids aren't born knowing Latin. ... internalise this as a general rule, they have to learn the hundreds of ... which are exceptions to the rule, the ones which don't diphthongise /e/ ... irregular verbs in a language is not easy to fit into the way they ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: conjugation patterns in Spanish
    ... Spanish kids aren't born knowing Latin. ... internalise this as a general rule, they have to learn the hundreds of ... which are exceptions to the rule, the ones which don't diphthongise /e/ or ... who like to think that kids devise internal grammars ...
    (sci.lang)