Acquisition of agreement in the Ɓàsàá numeral system

Abstract

This paper seeks to investigate the acquisition of agreement in the Ɓàsàá numeral system, and account for why children could fail to use agreements in the numeral system. Eighteen children (18) aged from 3.1 -14.1 have participated to the study following a cross-sectional sampling approach. Data have been collected using spontaneous speech recording and elicited production methods. It is found that children do consistently use agreements at the age of 3.0 when it is only a question of simple singular / plural pairing. When extended to the numeral system, participants registered 81.41% correct responses in spontaneous speech production against 47.77% in elicited production task. Morphological agreement errors, overgeneralisation of class 7 and overgeneralisation of class 5 errors were observed. While morphological agreement errors are not given attention, overgeneralisations of class 7 are attributed to the lexicalisation of class 7 and assumed to precede the adult-like grammar stage of agreements in the numeral system. As far as the overgeneralisation of class 5 is concerned, it is assumed that children are trying to apply the leftmost agreement rule as described by Hyman, Jenks and Makasso (2013). Hence, it is concluded that agreements in the Ɓàsàá numeral system may become consistent with age.