Chapter 4. Some thoughts on (the acquisition of) control
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Ana Lúcia Santos
Abstract
This paper discusses the subject / object control asymmetry in child language acquisition. Based on data reflecting the acquisition of European Portuguese, I argue that children do not have an initial absolute preference for object control and that not only subject control but also object control structures show developmental effects. This argues against analyses which assume that children are initially guided only by syntactic principles that preclude a non-local controller. Even though not excluding a syntactic bias that may favour object control, the acquisition data reviewed in this paper show that lexical acquisition has a larger role in the acquisition of control structures than is often assumed.
Abstract
This paper discusses the subject / object control asymmetry in child language acquisition. Based on data reflecting the acquisition of European Portuguese, I argue that children do not have an initial absolute preference for object control and that not only subject control but also object control structures show developmental effects. This argues against analyses which assume that children are initially guided only by syntactic principles that preclude a non-local controller. Even though not excluding a syntactic bias that may favour object control, the acquisition data reviewed in this paper show that lexical acquisition has a larger role in the acquisition of control structures than is often assumed.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
-
Part 1. Syntactic complexity and intervention effects in the L1 acquisition of Romance
- Chapter 1. Acquisition of clitic climbing by European Portuguese children 13
- Chapter 2. Strategies in the production of PP relative clauses in Brazilian Portuguese 39
- Chapter 3. Cost-reducing strategies in the production of Brazilian Portuguese relative clauses 67
- Chapter 4. Some thoughts on (the acquisition of) control 83
- Chapter 5. The production of variable number agreement in Brazilian Portuguese 109
- Chapter 6. Assessing children’s syntactic proficiency through a sentence repetition task 133
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Part 2. Crosslinguistic influence in 2L1 acquisition and L2 learning
- Chapter 7. L1 effects in the L2 acquisition of long-distance binding in European Portuguese 173
- Chapter 8. On the nature of crosslinguistic influence 203
- Chapter 9. Can explicit instruction help L2 learners overcome persistent L1 interference? 229
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Part 3. Language acquisition at the interface in various learning settings
- Chapter 10. Combining Focus VS and Topic constructions 259
- Chapter 11. Gender marking in L1 and L2 French 289
- Chapter 12. The acquisition of disjunction under negation and recursive ni in French 315
- Chapter 13. Deriving scalar implicatures with quantifiers by Romanian children 331
- Chapter 14. The acquisition of mood in child Spanish 355
- Index 379
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
-
Part 1. Syntactic complexity and intervention effects in the L1 acquisition of Romance
- Chapter 1. Acquisition of clitic climbing by European Portuguese children 13
- Chapter 2. Strategies in the production of PP relative clauses in Brazilian Portuguese 39
- Chapter 3. Cost-reducing strategies in the production of Brazilian Portuguese relative clauses 67
- Chapter 4. Some thoughts on (the acquisition of) control 83
- Chapter 5. The production of variable number agreement in Brazilian Portuguese 109
- Chapter 6. Assessing children’s syntactic proficiency through a sentence repetition task 133
-
Part 2. Crosslinguistic influence in 2L1 acquisition and L2 learning
- Chapter 7. L1 effects in the L2 acquisition of long-distance binding in European Portuguese 173
- Chapter 8. On the nature of crosslinguistic influence 203
- Chapter 9. Can explicit instruction help L2 learners overcome persistent L1 interference? 229
-
Part 3. Language acquisition at the interface in various learning settings
- Chapter 10. Combining Focus VS and Topic constructions 259
- Chapter 11. Gender marking in L1 and L2 French 289
- Chapter 12. The acquisition of disjunction under negation and recursive ni in French 315
- Chapter 13. Deriving scalar implicatures with quantifiers by Romanian children 331
- Chapter 14. The acquisition of mood in child Spanish 355
- Index 379