A Study of Verb Forms of Five Japanese Transitive and Intransitive Verb Pairs in Parent-Child Discourse

Abstract

This study focuses on five Japanese transitive and intransitive verb pairs (hairu “enter,” ireru “put in,” noru “get on,” noseru “put on,” kowareru /kowasu “break,” and aku /akeru “open,”) and compares the frequency of verb forms that contain six morphemes (-ru (non-past), -ta (past), -te (imperative), -chau (perfective), -nai (negative), and -teiru (continuous)) in spontaneous speech data of children age 1-3 years old their mothers. Although there was no significant difference in the overall frequency of user between intransitive and transitive verbs, intransitive verbs were used significantly more frequently with four morphemes (-ru, -ta, -nai, and -teiru). This trend was observed for both children and mothers, suggesting that children's verb use is influenced by input from their mothers.