Jagielska, D.
université de Toulouse-Le Mirail, France
Our aim is to consider two elements linked with verbal lexicon in acquisition of Polish as first language and French as second language. First we want to demonstrate significance of non conventional utterances which are regard as errors or metaphors or over-extensions. We are against status of error of these utterances and we consider that they show a cognitive flexibility at work among speakers in acquisition of their first and second language.
Secondly through these utterances we study hierarchical organization of verbs, we want to show the significance of generic verbs in acquisition of a first and a second language.
Our subjects are Polish children (three-five years/six-ten years) and adults learning French, they all are in lack of lexicon in French and the young children are also in lack of lexicon in Polish. We want to compare the part of non conventional utterances within all those subjects.
They watch a video showing a succession of seventeen daily actions like /to cut (up) bread/ (with a knife). After each action they have to describe it a first time and then to reformulate it with other words. We establish then semantic proximity between waited conventional verbs and verbs given by subjects as answers.
We pick up different kind of these utterances. Some of them rest on generic verbs, in that case the use of the verb can be seen as an over-extension like in Elle a cassé le ballon “She broke a balloon”. The other non conventional utterances take on metaphorical appearance as Elle épile l’orange “She removes the hair from orange”. This kind of non conventional utterance is used in particular as palliative strategy by our subjects.