Ergative Case Acquisition in Georgian Children

Abstract

Case system acquisition, an important part of overall language acquisition, plays a major role in morphologically complex languages.  In Georgian, the acquisition of the ergative case is especially interesting due to the split ergativity system of the language. This article examines the acquisition of the ergative case in Georgian children (48-84 months).

Based on sentence repetition task data, we analyze the functional use of argument cases, case omission, and the mistakes made by children. The study considers all three argument cases, while the article focuses on ergative case acquisition.

We conclude that, at the age of 48-84 months, children generally use the ergative case functionally and correctly. However, errors persist, indicating that acquisition is not fully completed by this age.

Key findings include: 

• Georgian-speaking children demonstrate a high rate of functionally correct use of the ergative case across the examined age groups, with errors persisting in older children, suggesting that full mastery of ergative functions may extend beyond the age of 84 months.
• The highest omission rate (15%) occurred in the 61-72-month group (compared with 6.25% at 48-60 months and 0% at 73-83 months). This could reflect a simplification strategy at this age. It would be interesting to see if the same pattern held in case of an increased number of participants.
• Case substitution patterns revealed that the children studied never constituted the ergative case for the nominative case, while nominative-for-ergative substitutions were frequent. These patterns are influenced by Georgian’s split-ergativity system and initial nominative constructions. It would be interesting to compare this characteristic with data from other split-ergativity system languages.
• The use of the archaic ergative marker -man presented an unexpected discovery, warranting further exploration.

Our research suggests that by the age of 48 months, the acquisition of ergative case has already started, and it continues beyond 84 months.