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We present an experiment which tests children’s comprehension of the requirements of use of pronouns and definites. An adult-like use of definites and pronouns imposes different but related requirements. In the case of definites, a unique referent is required in the context, whereas in the case of a pronoun, the referent in the context has to be salient. In this experiment, we use a novel word task to test three-year-olds’ sensitivity to these requirements. Our results show that children are adult-like in their sensitivity to salience in their comprehension of pronouns, compared to definites. However, they failed to show sensitivity to the uniqueness requirement on the use of definites.
In the field of second language acquisition, a lot of emphasis has been placed on factors such as input, age, linguistic background, and prior knowledge of the learner, and there has been ongoing examination and refinement of teaching methods and pedagogy. However, there is still an important factor that is not always considered in the learning process: socio-emotional prerequisites. These prerequisites refer to the non-linguistic factors that vary from person to person and can contribute to the complexity of the learning process. The social environment and emotional states of the learner can heavily influence the learning context, and it is no longer just a matter of considering the cognitive variables of an individual, but rather looking at the individual as a whole, which is formed by multiple variables. The group-specific learning atmosphere can also have greatly impact on the development of the learning process. All these factors raise the question of to what extent they influence the reception and production of a foreign language.
Sintaksa se u ranom jezičnom razvoju povećanjem kronološke dobi mijenja i usložnjava. Različitim teorijskim modelima pokušava se opisati razvoj sintakse, ali i put kojim dijete od najranijih iskaza dolazi do kompetencije odraslog govornika. Slijedeći navedenu misao, Tomasello (2006) je ponudio opis gramatičkih struktura ranih višečlanih iskaza kojim prikazuje put usložnjavanja sintakse iskaza, od jednočlanih i višečlanih iskaza (kombinacije riječi, pivot-sheme, konstrukcije zasnovane na čestici) do apstraktnih konstrukcija. Posebno su za opis ranog razvoja sintakse važne dvije kategorije konstrukcija, pivot-sheme (engl. pivot schemes) i konstrukcije zasnovane na čestici (engl. item-based constructions). Pivot-sheme definirane su kao dvočlane konstrukcije u kojima postoji ‘stalni’ element koji se nadopunjava novim elementima. Konstrukcije zasnovane na čestici od pivot-konstrukcija razlikuje veća sloboda u leksičkom izboru te prikladna uporaba gramatičkih kategorija (uporaba morfologije i reda riječi). Ovim se istraživanjem željelo provjeriti uklapaju li se hrvatske dvočlane glagolske konstrukcije u uobičajene podjele pivot-konstrukcija i konstrukcija zasnovanih na čestici i kakav je njihov red riječi s obzirom na tipološke karakteristike, odnosno morfološku razvedenost i relativno slobodan red riječi hrvatskoga jezika. Istraživanjem su obuhvaćeni dvočlani glagolski iskazi u Hrvatskom korpusu dječjeg jezika (HKDJ – Kovačević 2002). Izdvojene su i opisane pivot-konstrukcije te njihov put prema sintaktički složenijim oblicima, konstrukcijama zasnovanima na čestici. Rezultati hrvatskih dvočlanih iskaza upućuju na vrlo ranu uporabu gramatičkih morfema što nije u skladu s istraživanjima provedenima u engleskom jeziku. Nadalje, definicija pivot-shema samo se djelomično može primijeniti na iskaze pronađene u HKDJ-u. Hrvatske pivot-konstrukcije sadrže specifične morfološke i sintaktičke veze, različite od potpunoga gramatičkog sustava odraslih govornika, ali nedvojbeno s pripadajućim značenjima. Istraživanje je pokazalo da tipološke osobine određenog jezika utječu na razvoj sintakse pri usvajanju jezika te potiču ranu pojavu složenih gramatičkih elemenata.
Theoretical accounts agree that German restrictive relative clauses (RCs) are integrated at the level of syntax as well as at the level of prosody (; , ; ; ; ) in both the default verb-final and the marked verb-second variant (referred to as iV2). Both variants are assumed to show the same prosodic pattern, i. e., prosodic integration into the main clause, and not unintegrated prosody, which would signal a sequence of two main clauses. To date strong empirical evidence for this close correspondence between prosody and syntax in RCs is missing. Findings regarding prosodic integration of verb-final RCs are not consistent, and research regarding the prosody of iV2 structures is very scarce. Using a delayed sentence-repetition task, our study investigated whether subordination is signaled by prosody in RCs in both the verb-final and the V2 variant in adults (n = 21). In addition, we asked whether young language learners (n = 23), who at the age of 3 have just started to produce embedded clauses, are already sensitive to this mapping. The adult responses showed significantly more patterns of prosodic integration than of prosodic non-integration in the V-final and the iV2 structures, with no difference between the two conditions. Notably, the child responses mirrored this adult behavior, showing significantly more patterns of prosodic integration than of prosodic non-integration in both V-final and iV2 structures. The findings regarding adults’ prosodic realizations provide novel empirical evidence for the claim that iV2 structures, just like verb-final RCs, show prosodic integration. Moreover, our study strongly suggests that subordination is signaled by prosody already by age 3 in both verb-final and V2 variants of RCs.