Acquisition of focus marking in European Portuguese
-
João Costa
Abstract
This paper investigates whether children make the distinction between syntactic marking and prosodic marking of focus. The acquisition of focus marking provides a good testing ground to compare parametric and interface views on focus. If focus marking is parametric, children acquiring a language with syntactic focus marking should fail to comprehendmarked word orders. If a language marks focus only prosodically, they should initially fail to comprehend prosodic markedness. Crucially, in Portuguese, in which both strategies co-exist, children are expected to fail on both. The results show that children have problems with the prosodic strategy only, favoring an interface approach to focus.
Abstract
This paper investigates whether children make the distinction between syntactic marking and prosodic marking of focus. The acquisition of focus marking provides a good testing ground to compare parametric and interface views on focus. If focus marking is parametric, children acquiring a language with syntactic focus marking should fail to comprehendmarked word orders. If a language marks focus only prosodically, they should initially fail to comprehend prosodic markedness. Crucially, in Portuguese, in which both strategies co-exist, children are expected to fail on both. The results show that children have problems with the prosodic strategy only, favoring an interface approach to focus.
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
