French experiencer verbs and the Universal Freezing Hypothesis
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Jason Borga
Abstract
The Universal Freezing Hypothesis (UFH) of Snyder and Hyams (2015) predicts that the developmental time course of English be-passives follows from younger children’s inability to make exceptions to the Freezing Principle, required for smuggling derivations, where mature speakers can. Recent research (Belletti & Rizzi, 2012) indicates that Object-Experiencer (OE) verbs, but not Subject-Experiencer (SE) verbs, require smuggling. We use French to test the resulting prediction of the UFH: mastery of French OE verbs should be late, after age 4, but SE verbs are mastered much earlier. Analysis of longitudinal spontaneous-speech data from 11 children acquiring French indicates that OE verbs are infrequent in children’s speech prior to age 4, while SE verbs are present earlier, usually by age 2.
Abstract
The Universal Freezing Hypothesis (UFH) of Snyder and Hyams (2015) predicts that the developmental time course of English be-passives follows from younger children’s inability to make exceptions to the Freezing Principle, required for smuggling derivations, where mature speakers can. Recent research (Belletti & Rizzi, 2012) indicates that Object-Experiencer (OE) verbs, but not Subject-Experiencer (SE) verbs, require smuggling. We use French to test the resulting prediction of the UFH: mastery of French OE verbs should be late, after age 4, but SE verbs are mastered much earlier. Analysis of longitudinal spontaneous-speech data from 11 children acquiring French indicates that OE verbs are infrequent in children’s speech prior to age 4, while SE verbs are present earlier, usually by age 2.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
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Part I. The acquisition of subjects
- French experiencer verbs and the Universal Freezing Hypothesis 7
- Discrimination of passive predicates by Brazilian Portuguese-speaking children 31
- The acquisition of Spanish 57
- Favorable processing conditions in the production of passive sentences by Brazilian Portuguese-speaking children 91
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Part II. The TP field
- Clitic omission in bilingual Portuguese-Spanish acquisition 119
- Syntactic awareness of clitic pronouns and articles in French-speaking children with autism, specific language impairment and developmental dyslexia 147
- The comprehension of Italian negation in Mandarin-Italian sequential bilingual children 169
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Part III. The CP field and recursion
- Subject position in Spanish as a heritage language in the Netherlands: External and internal interface factors 187
- Acquisition of backward anaphora in European Portuguese by Chinese learners 215
- Sentence repetition and language impairment in French-speaking children with ASD 235
- On the comprehension of recursive nominal modifiers in child Romanian 259
- Name index 279
- Subject index 285
- Language index 287
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
-
Part I. The acquisition of subjects
- French experiencer verbs and the Universal Freezing Hypothesis 7
- Discrimination of passive predicates by Brazilian Portuguese-speaking children 31
- The acquisition of Spanish 57
- Favorable processing conditions in the production of passive sentences by Brazilian Portuguese-speaking children 91
-
Part II. The TP field
- Clitic omission in bilingual Portuguese-Spanish acquisition 119
- Syntactic awareness of clitic pronouns and articles in French-speaking children with autism, specific language impairment and developmental dyslexia 147
- The comprehension of Italian negation in Mandarin-Italian sequential bilingual children 169
-
Part III. The CP field and recursion
- Subject position in Spanish as a heritage language in the Netherlands: External and internal interface factors 187
- Acquisition of backward anaphora in European Portuguese by Chinese learners 215
- Sentence repetition and language impairment in French-speaking children with ASD 235
- On the comprehension of recursive nominal modifiers in child Romanian 259
- Name index 279
- Subject index 285
- Language index 287
