Topicality in L1-acquisition
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Nicole Hauser-Grüdl
Abstract
Although the study of human information structure has become a major field of linguistic interest, little research has examined topicality in L1-acquisition. Those studies dealing with topicality in child speech almost all focus on the question if children do or do not possess the adult ability to correctly identify and encode topics. The child’s performance of encoding topical information is thus classified as “correct” if it corresponds to the adult norm or as “deficient” in case it doesn’t. Such a way of interpreting the data does not consider that children’s topic-marking may follow its own rules, which are based on a different understanding of children of what a topic is. This latter possibility will be discussed in this article for the domain of null subjects in child French and German.
Abstract
Although the study of human information structure has become a major field of linguistic interest, little research has examined topicality in L1-acquisition. Those studies dealing with topicality in child speech almost all focus on the question if children do or do not possess the adult ability to correctly identify and encode topics. The child’s performance of encoding topical information is thus classified as “correct” if it corresponds to the adult norm or as “deficient” in case it doesn’t. Such a way of interpreting the data does not consider that children’s topic-marking may follow its own rules, which are based on a different understanding of children of what a topic is. This latter possibility will be discussed in this article for the domain of null subjects in child French and German.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface VII
- List of contributors IX
- List of abbreviations XI
- Introduction 1
- Contrastive topics and distributed foci as instances of sub-informativity 15
- Givenness and discourse anaphors 51
- Constraints on subject-focus mapping in French and English 77
- Wh -questions in French and English 101
- A comparative perspective on intensive reflexives 139
- Focus types and argument asymmetries 169
- Topicality in L1-acquisition 199
- Formal and functional constraints on constituent order and their universality 231
- On the foundations of the contrastive study of information structure 277
- Subject index 305
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface VII
- List of contributors IX
- List of abbreviations XI
- Introduction 1
- Contrastive topics and distributed foci as instances of sub-informativity 15
- Givenness and discourse anaphors 51
- Constraints on subject-focus mapping in French and English 77
- Wh -questions in French and English 101
- A comparative perspective on intensive reflexives 139
- Focus types and argument asymmetries 169
- Topicality in L1-acquisition 199
- Formal and functional constraints on constituent order and their universality 231
- On the foundations of the contrastive study of information structure 277
- Subject index 305
