Chapter 3. The acquisition of generic null subjects under the Borer-Chomsky conjecture
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Karina Bertolino
Abstract
This chapter examines how Brazilian Portuguese (BP)-speaking children acquire a critical property associated with partial null-subject languages, generic null subjects. The purpose is to investigate whether the data about the acquisition of generic null subjects are compatible with the idea that parametric variation is caused by the cross-linguistic distribution of features in functional heads (known as the Borer-Chomsky conjecture). To acquire the distribution of (null) subjects, the child should pay close attention to ϕ-features on T and D. Studies have shown that children become sensitive to the presence of verbal inflections and determiners before their first words (Dye et al., 2019), which leads to the prediction that children should not show evidence of parameter misssetting. We found that generic null subjects emerge as early as 1;9 in BP, which is consistent with the prediction of early parameter setting. However, generic null subjects did not appear frequently in spontaneous production and they increase as the child grows older. As generic null subjects are used to talk about rules, patterns and generalizations, not about specific individuals, the production of generic null subjects increases as children’s conversational topics become less egocentric.
Abstract
This chapter examines how Brazilian Portuguese (BP)-speaking children acquire a critical property associated with partial null-subject languages, generic null subjects. The purpose is to investigate whether the data about the acquisition of generic null subjects are compatible with the idea that parametric variation is caused by the cross-linguistic distribution of features in functional heads (known as the Borer-Chomsky conjecture). To acquire the distribution of (null) subjects, the child should pay close attention to ϕ-features on T and D. Studies have shown that children become sensitive to the presence of verbal inflections and determiners before their first words (Dye et al., 2019), which leads to the prediction that children should not show evidence of parameter misssetting. We found that generic null subjects emerge as early as 1;9 in BP, which is consistent with the prediction of early parameter setting. However, generic null subjects did not appear frequently in spontaneous production and they increase as the child grows older. As generic null subjects are used to talk about rules, patterns and generalizations, not about specific individuals, the production of generic null subjects increases as children’s conversational topics become less egocentric.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- Introduction 1
-
Section 1. The acquisition of pronouns
- Chapter 1. Anaphora resolution in L2 European Portuguese 12
- Chapter 2. Aspects of morphosyntax of Majorcan Catalan-Spanish bilingual variety 34
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Section 2. The acquisition of or empty categories
- Chapter 3. The acquisition of generic null subjects under the Borer-Chomsky conjecture 58
- Chapter 4. The acquisition of object drop in L2 Spanish by German speakers 86
- Chapter 5. Parameter setting in multilingual children with special reference to acceleration in French 114
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Section 3. The development of locality
- Chapter 6. Relative clauses and intervention effects 146
- Chapter 7. On the production of subject and object relative clauses by child speakers of heritage Romanian in France 168
-
Section 4. The development of quantifiers
- Chapter 8. “Nobody” isn’t in time 198
- Chapter 9. Quantifier comprehension in Brazilian Portuguese and the extra-object visual effect 212
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Section 5. Language impairment
- Chapter 10. On the production and omission of dative and accusative clitics in Italian children with learning difficulties 232
- Chapter 11. The narrative abilities of Spanish monolinguals and Spanish–Catalan bilinguals with Prader–Willi syndrome 253
- Chapter 12. Code-switching and code-mixing in bilingual Spanish–Catalan children with and without Developmental Language Disorder 283
- Index 307
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- Introduction 1
-
Section 1. The acquisition of pronouns
- Chapter 1. Anaphora resolution in L2 European Portuguese 12
- Chapter 2. Aspects of morphosyntax of Majorcan Catalan-Spanish bilingual variety 34
-
Section 2. The acquisition of or empty categories
- Chapter 3. The acquisition of generic null subjects under the Borer-Chomsky conjecture 58
- Chapter 4. The acquisition of object drop in L2 Spanish by German speakers 86
- Chapter 5. Parameter setting in multilingual children with special reference to acceleration in French 114
-
Section 3. The development of locality
- Chapter 6. Relative clauses and intervention effects 146
- Chapter 7. On the production of subject and object relative clauses by child speakers of heritage Romanian in France 168
-
Section 4. The development of quantifiers
- Chapter 8. “Nobody” isn’t in time 198
- Chapter 9. Quantifier comprehension in Brazilian Portuguese and the extra-object visual effect 212
-
Section 5. Language impairment
- Chapter 10. On the production and omission of dative and accusative clitics in Italian children with learning difficulties 232
- Chapter 11. The narrative abilities of Spanish monolinguals and Spanish–Catalan bilinguals with Prader–Willi syndrome 253
- Chapter 12. Code-switching and code-mixing in bilingual Spanish–Catalan children with and without Developmental Language Disorder 283
- Index 307
