Speculations About Early Syntax: the Production of Wh-questions by Normally Developing French Children and French Children with SLI

• Autores: Cornelia Hamann
• Localización: Catalan journal of linguistics, ISSN-e 2014-9719, ISSN 1695-6885, Vol. 5, 2006 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Acquisition of Romance languages), págs. 143-189
• Idioma: inglés
• DOI: 10.5565/rev/catjl.82
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo  1    2  
• Resumen

  • This paper examines the spontaneous (and elicited) production of questions in 3 typically developing French children (1;8-2;10) and 11 French children with SLI (3;10-9;1). French has three types of constituent questions (Wh-in-situ, fronted Wh without inversion, fronted Wh with inversion) graded in syntactic complexity, allowing detailed investigation of syntactic competence.

    The results show that both groups of children greatly prefer Wh-in-situ over fronted Wh and avoid inversion. Infinitives are extremely rare in all questions, whereas null subjects are rare in fronted Wh-questions but occur in in-situ questions in typically developing children. SLI children do not produce infinitives in Wh-questions, but allow null subjects in all question types. The elicitation experiment confirmed these trends, though the SLI children had significantly more difficulties with movement than the normal children.

    A tentative account uses the truncation approach and the assumption that young children avoid movement by deriving in-situ questions with a Q-element in the head position of an Interrogative Phrase entering into an Agree relation with the element left in-situ. SLI children might extend this economic analysis to all Wh-questions.

• Referencias bibliográficas
  • Baker, C.L. (1970). «Notes on the description of English questions. The role of an abstract question morpheme.» Foundations of Language 6:...
  • Baranzini, Lara (2003). Le sujet nul, les infinitives racine et les questions Wh dans la grammaire des enfants normaux et des enfants SLI...
  • Bloom, Paul (1990). «Subjectless sentences in child language». Linguistic Inquiry 21:491-504.
  • Boskovic, Zeljko (2000). «Sometimes in SpecCP, sometimes in-situ». In: Martin, R.; Michael, D.; Uriagereka, J. (eds.). Step by Step. Cambridge,...
  • Bromberg, H.; Wexler, Ken (1995). «Null subjects in child Wh-questions». MIT Working Papers in Linguistics 26: 221-247.
  • Cardinaletti, Anna; Starke, Michal (1994). «The typology of structural deficiency». University of Geneva, unpublished manuscript.
  • Chang, Lisa (1977). Wh-in-situ Phenomena in French. University of British Columbia, master’s thesis.
  • Cheng, Lisa; Rooryck, Johan (2000). «Licensing Wh-in-situ». Syntax 3,1:1-19..
  • Chomsky, Noam (1976). «Conditions on rules of grammar». Linguistic Analysis, vol.2; no.4. Reprinted in
  • Chomsky, Noam (1977). Essays on Form and Interpretation. Amsterdam: North Holland.
  • Chomsky, Noam (1995). The Minimalist Program. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
  • Chomsky, Noam (1999). «Derivation by phase». MIT Occasional Paper in Linguistics 20, Cambridge, Mass.
  • Clahsen, Harald; Kursawe, Claudia; Penke, Martina (1996). «Introducing CP: Whquestions and subordinate clauses in German child language»....
  • Clark, Robin; Roberts, Ian (1993). «A computational model of language learnability and language change». Linguistic Inquiry 24: 299-345.
  • Crain, Stephen; Thornton, Rosalind (1998). Investigations in Universal Grammar. Cambridge, Mass.:MIT Press.
  • Crisma, Paola (1992). «On the acquisition of Wh in French». Geneva Generative Papers 0 (1-2): 155-122.
  • Cronel-Ohayon, Stephany (2004). Etude longitudinal d’une population d’enfants dysphasiques. University of Geneva, doctoral dissertation.
  • Daméry, L.; Dussauze, M.; Schelling, R. (2000) «La compréhension des questions Wh chez des enfants dysphasiques francophones». Recherche de...
  • Friedemann, Marc-Ariel (1992). «The underlying position of external arguments in French». Geneva Generative Papers 0 (1-2): 123-144.
  • Friedemann, Marc-Ariel (2000). «Early French Postverbal Subjects». In: Friedemann, Marc-Ariel; Rizzi, Luigi (eds.). The Acquisition of Syntax....
  • Guasti, Maria-Teresa (2000). «An excursion into interrogatives in early English and Italian». In: Friedemann, Marc-Ariel; Rizzi, Luigi (eds.)....
  • Guasti, Maria-Teresa; Rizzi, Luigi (1996). «Null Aux and the acquisition of residual V2». In Stringfellow, Andy; Cahana-Amitay, Dalia; Hughes,...
  • Hamann, Cornelia (1998) «The acquisition of Whrevisited». Paper presented at the Liverpool Questions Conference, november 1998.
  • Hamann, Cornelia (2000). «The acquisition of constituent questions and the requirements of interpretation». In: Friedemann, Marc-Ariel; Rizzi,...
  • Hamann, Cornelia (2000b). «Negation, infinitives and heads». In: Powers, Susan; Hamann, Cornelia (eds.). The Acquisition of Scrambling and...
  • Hamann, Cornelia (2002). From Syntax to Discourse. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
  • Hamann, Cornelia (2004). «Comparing the development of the nominal and the verbal functional domain in French language impairment». In: Prévost,...
  • Hamann, Cornelia; Cronel-Ohayon, Stephany; Dubé, Sébastien; Frauenfelder, Ulrich; Rizzi, Luigi; Starke, Michal; Zesiger, Pascal (2003). «Aspects...
  • Hamann, Cornelia; Penner, Zvi; Lindner, Katrin (1998). «German impaired grammar: The clause structure revisited». Sonderheft: 'Specific...
  • Hamann, Cornelia; Plunkett, Kim (1998). «Subjectless sentences in child Danish». Cognition 69: 35-72.
  • Hamann, Cornelia; Rizzi, Luigi; Frauenfelder, Ulrich (1996). «The acquisition of subject and object clitics in French». In Clahsen, Harald...
  • Heim, Irene (1982). The Semantics of Definite and Indefinite Noun Phrases. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Published...
  • Huang, C.T. James (1982). Logical Relations in Chinese and the Theory of Grammar. MIT, doctoral dissertation.
  • Hulk, Aafke; Zuckermann, Shalom (2000). «The interaction between input and economy: Acquiring optionality in French Wh-questions». In: Howell,...
  • Jakubowicz, Celia (2004). «Question formation in French SLI: Is movement costly?». Paper presented at Groningen Workshop on the L1 Acquisition...
  • Jakubowicz, Celia (2005). «The language faculty: (Ab)normal development and interface constraints». Paper presented at GALA 2005.
  • Jakubowicz, Celia; Nash, Lea (2001). «Functional categories and syntactic operations in (ab)normal language acquisition». Brain and Language...
  • Ko, Heejeong (in press). «On the structural height of reason Wh-adverbials». In Cheng, Lisa; Corver, Norbert (eds.). Wh-Movement on the Move....
  • Leonard, Laurence (1998). Children with Specific Language Impairment. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
  • Levow, G.-A. (1995). «Tense and subject position in interrogatives and negatives in Child French: Evidence for and against truncated structures»....
  • MacWhinney, Brian (2000). The CHILDES Database: Tools for Analyzing Talk. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  • Mathieu, Eric (1998). «French Wh-in-situ and intervention effects». Paper presented at the Liverpool Questions Conference, November 1998.
  • Pesetsky, David (1987 ). «Wh-in-situ: Movement and unselective binding». In: Reuland, Eric; terMeulen, Alice (eds.). The Representation of...
  • Philips, Colin (2003). «Syntax at age two: Cross linguistic differences». In: Schütze, Carson; Ganger, Jennifer; Boihier, Kevin (eds.). MIT...
  • Pierce, Amy (1989). On the Emergence of Syntax: a Cross-linguistic Study. MIT, doctoral dissertation.
  • Plunkett, Bernadette (2004). «Early peripheries in the absence of C». In: Adger, David; De Cat, Cecile; Tsoulas, George (eds.). Peripheries....
  • Plunkett, Bernadette; De Cat, Cécile (2001). «Root specifiers and null subjects revisited». In Do, Anna H.-J., Dominguez, Laura; Johansen,...
  • Rasetti, Lucienne (1995). La distribution du sujet nul dans la grammaire enfantine du francais. University of Geneva, mémoire de licence.
  • Rasetti, Lucienne (2000). «Null subjects and root infinitives in the child grammar of French». In Friedemann, Marc-Ariel; Rizzi, Luigi (eds.)....
  • Rasetti, Lucienne (2003). Optional Categories in early French Syntax: a developmental study of root infinitives and null arguments. University...
  • Reinhart, Tanya (1995). «Interface strategies». OTS Working Papers, University of Utrecht.
  • Reinhart, Tanya (1997). «Quantifier scope: How labor is divided between QR and choice functions». Linguistics and Philosophy 20:335-397.
  • Rice; Mabel; Wexler, Ken (1995). «Extended optional infinitive (EOI) account of Specific Language Impairment». In: Stringfellow, Andy; Cahana-Amitay,...
  • Rizzi, Luigi (1990). Relativized Minimality. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
  • Rizzi, Luigi (1991). «Residual verb second and the Wh-criterion». Technical Reports on Formal and Computational Linguistics No2, University...
  • Rizzi, Luigi (1994). «Some notes on linguistic theory and language development: the case of root infinitives». Language Acquisition 3: 371-393.
  • Rizzi, Luigi (1995). A Note on Do-support. University of Geneva, unpublished manuscript.
  • Rizzi, Luigi (1997). «The fine structure of the left periphery». In: Haegeman, Liliane (ed.). Elements of Grammar. A Handbook of Generative...
  • Rizzi, Luigi (1999). «On the position “Int(errogative)” in the left periphery of the clause». University of Siena, MS.
  • Rizzi, Luigi (2000). «Remarks on early null subjects». In: Friedemann, Marc-Ariel; Rizzi, Luigi (eds.). The Acquisition of Syntax. London:...
  • Roeper, Tom; de Villiers, Jill (1991). «The emergence of bound variable structures». In: Maxfeld, T.; Plunkett, Bernadette (eds.). Papers...
  • Roeper, Tom; Rohrbacher, Bernhard (2000). «Null subjects in early child English and the theory of economy of projection». In: Powers, Susan;...
  • Safir, Ken (1992). «Structural economy». Rutgers University, unpublished manuscript.
  • Schütze, Carson; Wexler, Ken (1996). «Subject case licencing and English root infinitives». In: Stringfellow, Andy; Cahana-Amitay, Dalia;...
  • Shlonsky, Ur (in preparation). «On Wh and why». University of Geneva, unpublished manuscript.
  • Strik, Nelleke (2005). «Computational complexity and the production of long distance questions in child French». Paper Presented at GALA 2005.
  • Suppes, Paul; Smith, R.; Leveillé, Madeleine (1973). «The French syntax of a child’s Noun Phrases». Archives de Psycholgie 42:207-269.
  • Thornton, Rosalind (1990). Adventures in Long-distance Moving: The Acquisition of Complex Wh-questions. University of Connecticut, doctoral...
  • Thornton, Rosalind (2004). «Why continuity». In: Brugos, Alejna (ed.). Proceedings of the 28th Annual Boston University Conference on Language...
  • Treichler, Michael (in preparation) A cross-linguistic comparison of the acquisition of why-questions by young children. Master’s thesis,...
  • Van der Lely, Heather (1998). «SLI in children: movement, economy and deficits in the computational-syntactic system». Language Acquisition...
  • Von Stechow, Arnim (1999). Some Remarks on Choice Functions and LF Movement. University of Tübingen, unpublished manuscript.
  • Wexler, Ken (1994). «Optional infinitives, head movement and the economy of derivations in child grammar». In: Hornstein, N.; Lightfoot, D....
  • Wexler, Ken (1998). «Very Early Parameter Setting and the Unique Checking Constraint: a new explanation of the Optional Infinitive Stage»....
  • Wexler, Ken (2000). «Three problems in the theory of the optional infinitive stage: stage/individual predicates, eventive verbs, and finite...
  • Wexler, Ken (in press). «The Unique checking constraint as the explanation of clitic omission in SLI and normal development.» In: Jakubowicz,...
  • Wijnen, Frank (1997). «Temporal reference and eventivity in root infinitives». MIT Occasional Papers in Linguistics 12: 1-25.