**Project outline for 2011_7**
*Keywords: psych verbs; emotion verbs; novel verbs; children; English*
**Overview:** What expectations do children who have just begun learning emotion verbs have about their argument structure patterns?
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**Publications:**
1. Hartshorne, O'Donnell, Sudo, Uruwashi, Lee, and Snedeker (in press). Psych verbs, the Linking Problem, and the Acquisition of Language. Data for Exp. 9.
**Team:**
1. Joshua Hartshorne
2. Jesse Snedeker
3. Dan Tassone
**Data Collection:**
Summer 2011-February 2012 \
Local preschools
**Description**
Children read paired stories. Animal A interacts with B. Then B interacts with C. Question: "Who did Animal A wixter/gorfin?" Two novel verbs: wixter and gorfin. Both were ES verbs (envy, pity) or EO verbs (disgust/encourage). Children were introduced to each verb in a semi-improvised script. First they were told "Sometimes people wixter/gorfin each other." They then were told what wixter and gorfin are, using the words in noun form, with some examples of relevant scenarios. They then were asked if they had ever "felt wixter/gorfin". Usually, answer was no or irrelevant. Then queried child for something they liked to do, thought was disgusting, etc. That was then used to construct a hypothetical scenario in which they might feel wixter/gorfin. Then they were told "Some people wixter/gorfin other people. Let's hear a story about that". Thus the novel verb was used twice in verb form and several times in noun form, but never in a way that gave away argument mappings. The ES discussions focused more on habitualness. The stories themselves were clearly habitual, whereas the EO stories were clearly eventive.
8 ES forms and 8 EO forms. Counterbalanced order of wixter/gorfin, whether the target answer was on left or right, and whether the target animal was A or C. 4 practice trials: two with transitive verbs (pull, push) in which the relevant verb was used, to familiarize children with procedure. Then two stories with 3 animals each that were intransitive (roll & kick) so as to diminish any priming. Some aspects of the practice trials were counter-balanced as well, but not in a fully crossed design as these are just practice trials.
**Notes:**
Pictures drawn by John Campbell
