Pronouns in competition : predicting acquisition delays cross-linguistically
- It is well known that English children between the age of 4 and 6 display a so-called Delay of Principle B Effect (DPBE) in that they allow pronouns to refer to a local c-commanding antecedent. Their guessing pattern with pronouns contrasts with their adult-like interpretation of reflexives. The DPBE has been explained as resulting from a lack of pragmatic knowledge or insufficient cognitive resources. However, such extra-grammatical accounts cannot explain why the DPBE only shows up in particular languages and in particular syntactic environments. Moreover, such accounts fail to explain why the DPBE only emerges in comprehension and not in production. This paper hypothesizes that the presence or absence of the DPBE can be explained from the properties of the grammar. Fischer's (2004) optimality-theoretic analysis of binding, explaining cross-linguistic variation, and Hendriks and Spenader's (2005/6) optimality-theoretic account of the acquisition of pronouns and reflexives are combined into a single model. This model yields testable predictions with respect to the presence or absence of the DPBE in particular languages, in particular syntactic environments, and in comprehension and/or production.
Author: | Petra Hendriks, Irene Siekman, Erik-Jan Smits, Jennifer Spenader |
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URN: | urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-310135 |
URL: | http://www.zas.gwz-berlin.de/185.html |
ISSN: | 1435-9588 |
ISSN: | 0947-7055 |
Parent Title (English): | Intersentential pronominal reference in child and adult language : proceedings of the Conference on Intersentential Pronominal Reference in Child and Adult Language, December 1 - 2, 2006, Berlin / Dagmar Bittner & Natalia Gagarina (ed.) |
Publisher: | Zentrum für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung |
Place of publication: | Berlin |
Document Type: | Part of a Book |
Language: | English |
Year of first Publication: | 2007 |
Publishing Institution: | Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg |
Release Date: | 2013/11/14 |
GND Keyword: | Bindungstheorie <Linguistik>; Sprachwahrnehmung; Sprachproduktion; Spracherwerb; Referenz <Linguistik>; Sprachverstehen; Genus verbi; Anapher <Syntax>; Referenzidentität; Optimalitätstheorie; Deutsch; Niederländisch; Italienisch |
Volume: | 48 |
Page Number: | 27 |
First Page: | 75 |
Last Page: | 101 |
HeBIS-PPN: | 454823088 |
Dewey Decimal Classification: | 4 Sprache / 41 Linguistik / 410 Linguistik |
Sammlungen: | Linguistik |
Linguistik-Klassifikation: | Linguistik-Klassifikation: Syntax |
Linguistik-Klassifikation: Spracherwerb / Language acquisition | |
Linguistik-Klassifikation: Psycholinguistik/Kognitive Linguistik / Psycholinguistics/Cognitive linguistics | |
Linguistik-Klassifikation: Grammatikforschung / Grammar research | |
Zeitschriften / Jahresberichte: | ZAS papers in linguistics : ZASPiL / ZASPiL 48 = Intersentential pronominal reference in child and adult language |
: | urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-306914 |
Licence (German): | Deutsches Urheberrecht |