- The document analyzes the nouns and noun phrases used by two Cebuano children (ages 2-3 and 3-8) in conversations with their mothers. - The study found that the category of "people" was the most prevalent type of noun used. It also found that the children formed simple noun phrases by pairing nouns with grammatical markers like personal pronouns or case markers. - The children's noun phrases demonstrated principles of simplicity, transparency and productivity, though productivity was not fully evident. The study provides recommendations for further research on Cebuano grammar and language acquisition.

1. A Descriptive
Analysis of Cebuano
Children‟s Nouns
and Noun Phrases
Don Enricuso

2. Theoretical background and related studies
• Acquistional principles in lexical development
(Clark, 1991)
• First 50 words produced by children (Clark, 1979a;
Goldin Meado, Seligman, & Gelman, 1976; Nelson, 1973)
as cited by Clark (1991)
• Cebuano noun phrase structure
(Tanangkangsingsing, 2005)

3. Schematic diagram

4. The problem and sub-problems
• To investigate Cebuano children‟s nouns and
noun phrases

5. The problem and sub-problems
• To investigate Cebuano children‟s nouns and
noun phrases
– What are the categories of noun present in a
Cebuano child‟s utterances?
– What are the noun phrase structures utilized by a
Cebuano child?

6. Methodology
• Method
– Triangulation of qualitative and quantitative styles
– Verbatim transcription (Ashmore & Reed, 2000;
Pomerantz & Fehr, 1997)

7. Methodology
• Method
– Triangulation of qualitative and quantitative styles
– Verbatim transcription (Ashmore & Reed, 2000;
Pomerantz & Fehr, 1997)
• Environment
– Respondents‟ respective residence in Dumingag,
Zamboanga del Sur
– Mostly in the bedroom

8. Methodology
• Method
– Triangulation of qualitative and quantitative styles
– Verbatim transcription (Ashmore & Reed, 2000;
Pomerantz & Fehr, 1997)
• Environment
– Respondents‟ respective residence in Dumingag,
Zamboanga del Sur
– Mostly in the bedroom
• Participants
– Two children aged 2, 3 (child A) and 3, 8 (child B)
and their respective mother
– Cebuano is the first language

9. • Instrument and tools
– Checklist; audio tracks; transcribed
conversations
– Mobile phones with a voice recorder

10. • Instrument and tools
– Checklist; audio tracks; transcribed
conversations
– Mobile phones with a voice recorder
• Data gathering
– Combination of purposive and convenience non-
probability sampling procedures (Rosal, 2008)
– Naturalistic recording during bedtime and
breakfast
– 45 minute talk for child A and 26 for child B

11. • Definition of terms
– Nouns are words that refer to people, animals,
objects, places and ideas.
– Noun phrase is a grammatical unit that combines
a marker and a noun. The former usually precedes
the latter.
– Marker is a grammatical unit that introduces a
noun.

12. • Definition of terms
– Nouns are words that refer to people, animals,
objects, places and ideas.
– Noun phrase is a grammatical unit that combines
a marker and a noun. The former usually precedes
the latter.
– Marker is a grammatical unit that introduces a
noun.
• Treatment of data
– Audio tracks were transcribed and grouped
according to noun types and noun phrase
structures
– two sets of tallies - one for child A and his
mother; another for child B and her mothers

13. Data

14. Findings
• Other word classes (child A): basakan „farm‟; simpol
„swimming pool‟; balay „house‟; ugahip „a kind of
skin disease‟; ilong „nose‟; kamot „hand‟; load
(mobile phone load credit

15. Findings
• Other word classes (child A): basakan „farm‟; simpol
„swimming pool‟; balay „house‟; ugahip „a kind of
skin disease‟; ilong „nose‟; kamot „hand‟; load
(mobile phone load credit
• Other word classes (child B): nawong „face‟; church;
Molave (proper noun for a town)

16. Findings
• Other word classes (child A): basakan „farm‟; simpol
„swimming pool‟; balay „house‟; ugahip „a kind of
skin disease‟; ilong „nose‟; kamot „hand‟; load
(mobile phone load credit
• Other word classes (child B): nawong „face‟; church;
Molave (proper noun for a town)
• “People” was the most prevalent category.

21. Sample utterances
• Child A with his mother
Good morning baby. Asa man ang kiss ni mommy beh.
-Ba-ba.Kinsa ni? Daddy?bilin?
Asa si ate ____?
-Ila balay
Asa dapit ila balay?
-Dadto oh, nahan.
Kinsa man ni balay?
-Kani balay? Mama Chat
Kinsa textsan nimo?
-Janet
Kabalo diay ka magtext?
-Asa bola?
Wala pa man ring.Pila na kabook imo ball oi?
-Duha
Hala duha na kabook?kinsa ga buy ana?
-Asa ni buy?
Gaisano

22. • Child B with her mother
Unya mag unsa man ta unya inig katulog nato, before ta mag sleep.mag unsa man ta?
-Mag pray
Asa man ta mag pray?kang?
-Kang…
Aha man ta magpray?kang?
-Jesus
Aw,kang jesus!dayon,very good diay ka?
-Oh
Dayon, sige daw,try daw mag pray beh.sige daw…
-Jesus, please watch nanay, tatay, tita,daddy, tatay john mark, mommy Checkky, ate
twylyt,amen!
Tomorrow, muadto man ta sa birthday ni tatay alo.mag unsa man ta didto?
-Magkaon!
What else?
-Mag swimming!
Swimming, unsa may suoton nimo kung mag swimming ta tomorrow?
-Katong…katong…
Color?
-Color pink!
Katong pink?katong two piece?
-Nay bra, dayon nay panty

23. Findings
• Child A: PERSONAL PRONOUN nominative +
NOUN, as in: “Ikaw baby” (Ikaw =
PERSONAL PRONOUN nominative; baby=
NOUN)

24. Findings
• Child A: PERSONAL PRONOUN nominative +
NOUN, as in: “Ikaw baby” (Ikaw =
PERSONAL PRONOUN nominative; baby=
NOUN)
• Child B: CASE MARKER nominative + NOUN, as in:
“Si Pretty” (Si = CASE MARKER
nominative; Pretty = noun)

25. Findings
• Child A: PERSONAL PRONOUN nominative +
NOUN, as in: “Ikaw baby” (Ikaw =
PERSONAL PRONOUN nominative; baby=
NOUN)
• Child B: CASE MARKER nominative + NOUN, as in:
“Si Pretty” (Si = CASE MARKER
nominative; Pretty = noun)
• Cebuano children preferred the simplest syntactic
form (marker + noun).

26. Findings
• Child A: PERSONAL PRONOUN nominative +
NOUN, as in: “Ikaw baby” (Ikaw =
PERSONAL PRONOUN nominative; baby=
NOUN)
• Child B: CASE MARKER nominative + NOUN, as in:
“Si Pretty” (Si = CASE MARKER
nominative; Pretty = noun)
• Cebuano children preferred the simplest syntactic
form (marker + noun).
• The noun paired with the preferred grammatical
marker is always under the word class, “People”.

27. • Simplicity of noun “People” combination
– PERSONAL PRONOUN nominative for respondent A
– CASE MARKER nominative for respondent B

28. • Simplicity of noun “People” combination
– PERSONAL PRONOUN nominative for respondent A
– CASE MARKER nominative for respondent B
• Transparency
– Able to expand the ability their use of NPs
– Even more complex structures, with the same set of nouns
• PERSONAL PRONOUN locative + NOUN + CASE
MARKER genitive + NOUN as in: “Sa balay ni nanay” (as
uttered by respondent A)
• PERSONAL PRONOUN possessive + „bya‟ +
DEMONSTRATIVE nominative + LINKER + NOUN + CASE
MARKER nominative + noun as in: “Ako bya tong
manghod Si baby Rain” (as uttered by respondent B)

29. • Productivity
– Respondents‟ nouns and noun phrases were also in their
mother‟s utterances
– However, It is impossible to conclude on productivity based
on the recorded conversation, “for it remains a major factor
in determining speakers‟ choices for adults as well as
children”.

30. • Productivity
– Respondents‟ nouns and noun phrases were also in their
mother‟s utterances
– However, It is impossible to conclude on productivity based on
the recorded conversation, “for it remains a major factor in
determining speakers‟ choices for adults as well as children”.
• Additional findings:
• Respondent A used a demonstrative „kani‟ [highlighted in
appendix A], which is apparently a variant of „kini‟ in the
inventory of Tanangkangsingsing (2009).
• Respondent B uttered „ka‟ as in: „ka tatay Ronnie‟, which seems
to be a variant, yet again, of the recognized dative „kang‟.

31. Conclusion
• The category of people is the most prevalent in Cebuano
children‟s conversation with their mother.

32. Conclusion
• The category of people is the most prevalent in
Cebuano children‟s conversation with their mother.
• Noun phrases are formed by children under the
principles of simplicity, transparency and
productivity, although the latter is not well
manifested as children explore on the nouns they
already know.

33. Conclusion
• The category of people is the most prevalent in
Cebuano children‟s conversation with their mother.
• Noun phrases are formed by children under the
principles of simplicity, transparency and
productivity, although the latter is not well
manifested as children explore on the nouns they
already know.
• In forming noun phrases, children also use various
combinations, and the most common ones are those
with personal nouns paired with either a personal
pronoun or case marker.

34. Conclusion
• The category of people is the most prevalent in
Cebuano children‟s conversation with their mother.
• Noun phrases are formed by children under the
principles of simplicity, transparency and
productivity, although the latter is not well
manifested as children explore on the nouns they
already know.
• In forming noun phrases, children also use various
combinations, and the most common ones are those
with personal nouns paired with either a personal
pronoun or case marker.
• They only utilize what is already available and
experiment on what is simple, transparent and
productive

35. Recommendations
• Researchers especially those interested in Cebuano
grammar could make use of the existing data on the
various noun phrase structures in investigating
syntactic features and possible movements based
on Chomsky‟s transformational grammar.

36. Recommendations
• Researchers especially those interested in Cebuano
grammar could make use of the existing data on the
various noun phrase structures in investigating
syntactic features and possible movements based
on Chomsky‟s transformational grammar.
• A study on noun bias in Cebuano would have a
better route from the data gathered in this study.

37. Recommendations
• Researchers especially those interested in Cebuano
grammar could make use of the existing data on the
various noun phrase structures in investigating
syntactic features and possible movements based
on Chomsky‟s transformational grammar.
• A study on noun bias in Cebuano would have a
better route from the data gathered in this study.
• Acquisition of nouns and verbs and their
interrelationship would be of great interest in
studying Cebuano.

38. • The relationship between mother/caregiver input and
the linguistic features of Cebuano is of great interest
for a new research.

39. • The relationship between mother/caregiver input and
the linguistic features of Cebuano is of great interest
for a new research.
• Since this study has mainly explored on the
structure of Cebuano that could somehow provide
insights in looking into possibilities of noun bias in
learning the language, a longitudinal study on the
characteristics of mother/caregiver – directed
speech in Cebuano would be a good empirical
complement.

40. • The relationship between mother/caregiver input and
the linguistic features of Cebuano is of great interest
for a new research.
• Since this study has mainly explored on the
structure of Cebuano that could somehow provide
insights in looking into possibilities of noun bias in
learning the language, a longitudinal study on the
characteristics of mother/caregiver – directed
speech in Cebuano would be a good empirical
complement.
• A study that correlates mother‟s input and child‟s
utterances in terms of the types of noun and noun
phrase structures would bring the significance of
this study on to another level.

41. THANK YOU!