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I need your help.

Unknown
edited November -1 in General Discussion
I'm looking for kids that speak English as their mother tongue and that are between 2 and maybe 6 years old. I'm working on a project for my class in Uni, it's about linguistics, called "How children learn language" and what I want to do is a case study. I'm asking the kids to complete my sentences, like, "Peter likes to paint. He is a _______ (painter)" To anyone interested in this, it's about morphology, the derivational suffix -er and how children can apply it to words and how they deal with exceptions, like, "Peter likes to cook. He is a ________ (cook)"
Anyone here knowing kids that fit into the age group and would help me? It's totally ok to just tell me if they knew the words or what they said instead. I have other examples and fun picture cards to keep the kid motivated biggrin.gif

Help...??

It's absolutely NOT about finding out if those kids I ask are smart enough or anything like that, really, don't let that stop you from helping me here tongue.gif


I need this for my presentation (I'm having on monday, so it's quite late already for that...) and for my paper I have to hand in in a few weeks, so even if you cannot do it in the next two days it'd be fine.


Thank you.


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Comments

  • CourtneytasticCourtneytastic
    Aw! That seems like such a fun project. I'll try to hunt down some little kids for you. wink.gif
  • mayonaisemayonaise
    haha, yes it really is a cool topic, I LOVE that seminar!


    here are some pictures of the way I thought would be best. Just did them in my other, not so great, lecture tongue.gif


    image


    I'm open for any suggestions or other examples biggrin.gif
  • spy9blackspy9black
    aww mayo those drawings are so cute!!!!

    Can I answer your questions? tongue.gif (my english isn't that great anyway lol)
  • mayonaisemayonaise
    erm, go ahead and don't look at the answers I posted right next to the pictures! tongue.gif You'll be the test if this thing is manageable for anyone older than 6... ^^
  • Surfer RosaSurfer Rosa
    I have one but the little rascal speaks only Spanish. wink.gif
  • mayonaisemayonaise
    mh, I dunno, would you know any examples for Spanish? Is the language similar? Because in German we also have the suffix -er to have an agent from a verb, like in teach the act of doing something and teacher, the person that does the act. German: lehren (verb), Lehrer (noun)
    If you know an example in Spanish that can do that it'd be great!!
  • DJRoseDJRose
    In Spanish the suffix is "isto/ista", correct?

    I might have a kid that fits the bill, I'll ask his Mom how she feels about it.
  • mayonaisemayonaise
    aw, that'd be great!! thank you so much smile.gif

    -isto for male and -ista for female?
  • spy9blackspy9black
    QUOTE (mayonaise @ Jun 26 2008, 10:29 PM)
    mh, I dunno, would you know any examples for Spanish? Is the language similar? Because in German we also have the suffix -er to have an agent from a verb, like in teach the act of doing something and teacher, the person that does the act. German: lehren (verb), Lehrer (noun)
    If you know an example in Spanish that can do that it'd be great!!

    well we do have some examples like that in portuguese...I can try to help you wink.gif

    in portuguese is -eiro/-eira

    EDIT: now that I think of it, we have more exceptions that rules ahah...unsure.gif but I'll try anyway wink.gif
  • mayonaisemayonaise
    aw you guys are great, thanks to anyone here trying to help me, you'll get a mention in my sources at the end of the paper tongue.gif
  • CourtneytasticCourtneytastic
    Slightly-off-topic, but did you draw those pictures? They're adorable.



  • mayonaisemayonaise
    I did, yes smile.gif thank you
  • Surfer RosaSurfer Rosa
    oh, I'm sorry I didn't check this thread before. sad.gif

    It's not so easy though. For example Peter likes to cook. He's a _______ In Spanish will be "A Pedro le gusta cocinar. Él es un cocinero (not "cocinisto") and Peter likes to paint. He's a _______. In Spanish will be "A Pedro le gusta pintar. Él es un pintor (not "pintoristo")...so there really are lots of different suffixes (?), but I think the most common one is "dor/or" (male) and "dora/ora" (female)

    I asked my little neighbor Felipe (6 years old) and here are his answers. Oh, I wish you were around miss mayo...

    verb: to paint A Pedro le gusta pintar. Pedro es un pintor. A María le gusta pintar. Ella es una pintora.

    verb: to cook A Pedro le gusta cocinar. Pedro es un cocinero. A María le gusta cocinar. Ella es una cocinera.

    Verb: to run A Pedro le gusta correr, él es un corredor. A María le gusta correr. Ella es una corredora.

    Verb: to smoke A Pedro le gusta fumar. Él es un fumador. A María le gusta fumar. Ella es una fumadora.

    Verb: to add A Pedro le gusta sumar, él es un sumador. A María le gusta sumar. Ella es una sumadora.


    All were answered correctly except for the "to add" one; the correct answer was "matemático/matemática", not "sumador/sumadora" which aren't words in spanish but extracting from the sequence Felipe decided to follow the pattern of using the root and the most common suffix "dor" and "dora" in the example.

    I know I'm oh so late for this...damn. dry.gif
  • mayonaisemayonaise
    Aw, THANK YOU SO SO MUCH!!! haha, I just answered your pm, and now read that and was kinda sad because I thought I missed my chance but NO, are, YOU ARE AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!


    And that'S EXACTLY what I need, him following a pattern because he hasn't understood the rule yet, it's perfect for my theory.


    thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou

    wub.gif







    aw, you just totally made my day, haha.
  • spy9blackspy9black
    hi mayo! so sorry I couldn't do that yet but my cousins will be here soon (at my house) and I'll ask them wink.gif

    though we have that same problem Rosa mentioned, waaay to many exceptions, but I think that with my mom's help (she's a teacher) I can do that wink.gif
  • mayonaisemayonaise
    you're great, thank you smile.gif

    And yes, we also have exceptions in German, but that's exactly what I'm looking for, the fact that kids can do the simple stuff but cannot figure out what to do with the exceptions.

    I'll tell you how my presentation went tomorrow, gotta do some note making stuff tonight and after that I can focus on my paper with loads of great examples biggrin.gif
  • CourtneytasticCourtneytastic
    Good luck!
  • mayonaisemayonaise
    done. the presentation is over, only the paper left to write.

    I was really really nervous because I never really know how good (or bad) my English is when talking infront of other people, but it was alright-ish ^^

    And I very proudly presented the Spanish example (Rosa, you're in my references tongue.gif ) and afterwards my professor asked me questions about it...ohmy.gif I answered somewhat likt this: "er...well, you see.... I don't speak Spanish... but--- I think that... yes" haha, no I actually found satisfying answers for her ^^



    Thank you again for your help up to this point, if you still want to help me, go ahead, I have 2 weeks from now on to finish my paper biggrin.gif
  • CourtneytasticCourtneytastic
    I'm sure it was awesome!

    If all your great art is any indication of how good your presentations are, I'm sure you did amazingly!
  • mayonaisemayonaise
    aw, thank you wub.gif


    I am now working on my paper I have to hand in on Monday, any studys still welcome till tomorrow, but really, thank you already, esp Surfer Rosa wub.gif


    I'm now writing my paper in English about German and Spanish language tongue.gif
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