Minimality effects in children’s passives
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William Snyder
Abstract
Many studies find true verbal passives in English acquired only after age four, but some find three-year-olds fully adultlike. We explain this discrepancy using Relativized Minimality (RM, Rizzi 2004). Collins (2005a) argues the passive involves movement of the logical object across the logical subject (either PRO, or a lexical DP with ‘by’), and normally this requires smuggling. We propose smuggling is maturationally unavailable until age four. Three-year-olds succeed only if the intervener is eliminated, as in certain Romance reflexive-clitic constructions; or if +Topic/+WH on the logical object can prevent an RM violation, as in certain studies of the English passive. Following Grillo (2008), we explain the still-later acquisition of non-actional passives by their need for both smuggling and semantic coercion.
Abstract
Many studies find true verbal passives in English acquired only after age four, but some find three-year-olds fully adultlike. We explain this discrepancy using Relativized Minimality (RM, Rizzi 2004). Collins (2005a) argues the passive involves movement of the logical object across the logical subject (either PRO, or a lexical DP with ‘by’), and normally this requires smuggling. We propose smuggling is maturationally unavailable until age four. Three-year-olds succeed only if the intervener is eliminated, as in certain Romance reflexive-clitic constructions; or if +Topic/+WH on the logical object can prevent an RM violation, as in certain studies of the English passive. Following Grillo (2008), we explain the still-later acquisition of non-actional passives by their need for both smuggling and semantic coercion.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors vii
- Preface ix
- Introduction xi
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PART I. The Architecture of the Computational Component
- Problems of projection 3
- Notes on labeling and subject positions 17
- On a PP/DP asymmetry in extraction 47
- Augmentative, pejorative, diminutive and endearing heads in the extended nominal projection 67
- A note on parallels between agreement and intervention 83
- Locality effects in Italian verbal morphology 97
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PART II. The Realization of Structure Relative to Discourse and Referential Dependencies: Focus, the vP periphery, and pronominal reference
- Be careful how you use the left periphery 135
- Exhaustivity operators and fronted focus in Italian 163
- Some notes on clefting and fronting 181
- A case of focal adverb preposing in French 209
- Transferring strategies and the nature of transfer 237
- Resolving pronominal anaphora in real-time 257
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PART III. Complex clauses in linguistic theory and acquisition: The role of intervention
- On the comprehension and production of passive sentences and relative clauses by Italian university students with dyslexia 279
- Relatively easy relatives 303
- Intervention effects in the spontaneous production of relative clauses in (a)typical language development of French children and adolescents 321
- Minimality effects in children’s passives 343
- Subject intervention in free relatives 369
- Relative clauses in Cimbrian 393
- Index 417
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors vii
- Preface ix
- Introduction xi
-
PART I. The Architecture of the Computational Component
- Problems of projection 3
- Notes on labeling and subject positions 17
- On a PP/DP asymmetry in extraction 47
- Augmentative, pejorative, diminutive and endearing heads in the extended nominal projection 67
- A note on parallels between agreement and intervention 83
- Locality effects in Italian verbal morphology 97
-
PART II. The Realization of Structure Relative to Discourse and Referential Dependencies: Focus, the vP periphery, and pronominal reference
- Be careful how you use the left periphery 135
- Exhaustivity operators and fronted focus in Italian 163
- Some notes on clefting and fronting 181
- A case of focal adverb preposing in French 209
- Transferring strategies and the nature of transfer 237
- Resolving pronominal anaphora in real-time 257
-
PART III. Complex clauses in linguistic theory and acquisition: The role of intervention
- On the comprehension and production of passive sentences and relative clauses by Italian university students with dyslexia 279
- Relatively easy relatives 303
- Intervention effects in the spontaneous production of relative clauses in (a)typical language development of French children and adolescents 321
- Minimality effects in children’s passives 343
- Subject intervention in free relatives 369
- Relative clauses in Cimbrian 393
- Index 417
