Null arguments in monolingual children
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Natascha Müller
Abstract
Research on the development of pronouns in French and Italian has shown that object clitics are acquired with more effort than other syntactic categories: they are realized later in development than subject clitics and strong subject and object pronouns. Both the delay of object clitics and the subject-object asymmetry are robust. Unlike earlier studies, the present one compares the development in monolingual acquisition of French and Italian with regard to language-specific differences in the development of object clitics:We show that very young French children tend to repeat the object DP in obligatory contexts for clitics, while Italian children omit the object altogether. The difference between the groups becomes smaller in the course of the acquisition process.We explain this difference by proposing different licensing strategies for null objects: While French children use a pragmatic strategy like in adult Japanese, Italian children use a syntactic structure which is representative of Brazilian Portuguese, i.e. they license objects via AGR. In the vein of Zushi (2003), we investigate the role of agreement morphemes in the licensing of pro. With regard to the identification of null objects, we follow Shlonsky (1997) by associating different pro-types to these strategies: Italian children use FP-pro, French children NP-pro.
Abstract
Research on the development of pronouns in French and Italian has shown that object clitics are acquired with more effort than other syntactic categories: they are realized later in development than subject clitics and strong subject and object pronouns. Both the delay of object clitics and the subject-object asymmetry are robust. Unlike earlier studies, the present one compares the development in monolingual acquisition of French and Italian with regard to language-specific differences in the development of object clitics:We show that very young French children tend to repeat the object DP in obligatory contexts for clitics, while Italian children omit the object altogether. The difference between the groups becomes smaller in the course of the acquisition process.We explain this difference by proposing different licensing strategies for null objects: While French children use a pragmatic strategy like in adult Japanese, Italian children use a syntactic structure which is representative of Brazilian Portuguese, i.e. they license objects via AGR. In the vein of Zushi (2003), we investigate the role of agreement morphemes in the licensing of pro. With regard to the identification of null objects, we follow Shlonsky (1997) by associating different pro-types to these strategies: Italian children use FP-pro, French children NP-pro.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- The acquisition of syntax in Romance languages ix
- The production of SE and SELF anaphors in Spanish and Dutch children 3
- On the acquisition of ambiguous Valency-Marking Morphemes 23
- Definite and bare noun contrasts in child Catalan 51
- Null arguments in monolingual children 69
- Prenominal elements in French-Germanic bilingual first language acquisition 95
- A cross-sectional study on the use of “be” in early Italian 117
- Patterns of copula omission in Italian child language 135
- Looking for the universal core of the RI stage 159
- The acquisition of experiencers in Spanish L1 and the external argument requirement hypothesis 183
- Early operators and late topic-drop/pro-drop 203
- The acquisition of A- and A’-bound pronouns in Brazilian Portuguese 227
- Acquiring long-distance wh-questions in L1 Spanish 251
- Evidence from L1 acquisition for the syntax of wh -scope marking in French * 289
- Acquisition of focus marking in European Portuguese 319
- Subject pronouns in bilinguals 331
- Is the semantics/syntax interface vulnerable in l2 acquisition? 353
- The development of the syntax-information structure interface 371
- Beyond the syntax of the Null Subject Parameter 401
- Index 419
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- The acquisition of syntax in Romance languages ix
- The production of SE and SELF anaphors in Spanish and Dutch children 3
- On the acquisition of ambiguous Valency-Marking Morphemes 23
- Definite and bare noun contrasts in child Catalan 51
- Null arguments in monolingual children 69
- Prenominal elements in French-Germanic bilingual first language acquisition 95
- A cross-sectional study on the use of “be” in early Italian 117
- Patterns of copula omission in Italian child language 135
- Looking for the universal core of the RI stage 159
- The acquisition of experiencers in Spanish L1 and the external argument requirement hypothesis 183
- Early operators and late topic-drop/pro-drop 203
- The acquisition of A- and A’-bound pronouns in Brazilian Portuguese 227
- Acquiring long-distance wh-questions in L1 Spanish 251
- Evidence from L1 acquisition for the syntax of wh -scope marking in French * 289
- Acquisition of focus marking in European Portuguese 319
- Subject pronouns in bilinguals 331
- Is the semantics/syntax interface vulnerable in l2 acquisition? 353
- The development of the syntax-information structure interface 371
- Beyond the syntax of the Null Subject Parameter 401
- Index 419
