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Acqusisition of Syntax

Acqusisition of Syntax. Guasti Chapter 6; Thornton (1995). Outline. Finish up Truncation Theory from last time Start acquisition of Wh-movement. Review from last time. Truncation Theory Where train go? Why mummy crying? Do these utterances constitute a problem?. Review from last time.

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Acqusisition of Syntax

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  1. Acqusisition of Syntax Guasti Chapter 6; Thornton (1995)

  2. Outline • Finish up Truncation Theory from last time • Start acquisition of Wh-movement

  3. Review from last time Truncation Theory • Where train go? • Why mummy crying? Do these utterances constitute a problem?

  4. Review from last time • Children learn language in a highly systematic way • Many similarities can be observed in child language acquisition across languages • Children’s errors are also systematic and similar across languages. • What could this ultimately mean?

  5. Wh-Movement in Adult Grammar The witch drinks water What can we move? Subject wh- Who t drinks water? Object wh- What does the witch drink t ?  Let’s draw a Tree! Can we make predictions about children’s mistakes based on our knowledge of wh-movement?

  6. Short-Distance Movement vs. Long-Distance Movement • Short Distance [What did John eat t] • Long Distance [ What did John say [he wanted t]]

  7. Long-Distance Movement: Subject vs. Object Extraction Subject extraction: • Who did you say wanted a book? Object extraction: • What did you say John wanted?

  8. Children’s utterances with Long-Distance Wh-Movement: Medial Wh- What children say: • What do you think is in the box? • What do you think what’s in the box? • What do you think that’s in the box? • Who do you think is in the room? • Who do you think who’s in the room? • Who do you think that’s in the room?

  9. How can we elicit medial wh- utterances? • Movie about an experiment eliciting wh-medial utterances.

  10. Are Medial Wh-questions possible in adult grammars? • Yes! Some dialects of German, Romani, and Dutch have medial wh-questions What does this tell us about English children’s early grammar?

  11. Children’s utterances with Long-Distance Wh-Movement: Medial Wh- Children produce medial wh- words in finite clauses: -What do you think what’s in the box? Children never produce medial wh- words when the embedded clause is infinitival: Who do you want to help you? Who do you want WHO to help you?

  12. Let’s draw a tree… • What do you think WHAT the mouse ate? • Can we speculate about why children produce medial wh-words like that?

  13. Analysis of the medial-wh:finite embedded clauses • Thornton (1990, 1995) proposes that medial-wh questions result from children treating ‘what’ and ‘that’ as agreeing complemetizers (CP agreement). Evidence for this claim comes from French and Irish (see Guasti pp. 213 - 223) Que crois-tu tj qui tj est arrivé? What think-you that has happened = What do you think (what/that) has happened?

  14. Today we spoke about: -short vs. long wh- movement -subject vs. object extraction in wh-movement We also saw that medial wh- words are -possible in finite embedded clauses -impossible in infinitival embedded clauses EXERCISE: For each of the sentences on the board decide if: 1) the wh-movement is short or long; 2) we have a case of subject or object extraction; 3) a child utterance with a medial wh-word would be possible.

  15. Analysis of the medial-wh:infinitival embedded clauses What do you want WHAT to drink? • Thornton believes that medial-wh words do not occur in infinitival clauses because the verb takes an IP complement (not a CP) • Therefore, intermediate CP agreement cannot apply.

  16. Conclusion • Children make systematic mistakes when they acquire language. • Some of the utterances they produce may represent parametric options that are not available in their native language, but available in other languages. • This means that acquisition is guided by the principles of Universal Grammar and children have to discover the parameters of their L1.

  17. Analysis of the medial-wh:finite embedded clauses • Thornton (1990, 1995) proposes that medial-wh questions result from children treating ‘what’ and ‘that’ as agreeing complemetizers (CP agreement). Evidence for this claim comes from French and Irish (see Guasti pp. 213 - 223) Que crois-tu tj qui tj est arrivé? What think-you that has happened = What do you think (what/that) has happened?

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