On the comprehension of recursive nominal modifiers in child Romanian
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Anca Sevcenco
Abstract
We investigate the comprehension of recursive locative adnominal PPs and subject RCs by Romanian monolinguals with a view to weighing the role of language specific properties (overt functional category encoding recursion and definiteness of the modified DP) in the acquisition of recursive structures. Our data show that comprehension of recursive nominal modifiers is delayed. Romanian 5- and 7-year-olds randomly assign a recursive or a conjunctive interpretation to recursive nominal modifiers. The availability of overt recursion markers in both modification structures is reflected in the absence of a main effect of structure; PP and RC modifiers are equally vulnerable. Our data suggest that children acquire recursive nominal modifiers late across languages, but language specific properties may determine the acquisition path.
Abstract
We investigate the comprehension of recursive locative adnominal PPs and subject RCs by Romanian monolinguals with a view to weighing the role of language specific properties (overt functional category encoding recursion and definiteness of the modified DP) in the acquisition of recursive structures. Our data show that comprehension of recursive nominal modifiers is delayed. Romanian 5- and 7-year-olds randomly assign a recursive or a conjunctive interpretation to recursive nominal modifiers. The availability of overt recursion markers in both modification structures is reflected in the absence of a main effect of structure; PP and RC modifiers are equally vulnerable. Our data suggest that children acquire recursive nominal modifiers late across languages, but language specific properties may determine the acquisition path.
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
