Reference in French and German: A developmental perspective
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Sarah Schimke
Abstract
The present study investigates how French and German adults and 7- and 10-year-old children introduce and maintain reference to entities in short stretches of connected discourse. Data consisted of retellings of video clips in which a protagonist was promoted from a “new” to two degrees of “given” statuses. In the adult data, retellings were denser and forms were leaner in French than in German. Results for children showed common tendencies within age groups and across languages, in particular an overuse of definite forms for referent introduction and the use of less reduced forms for reference maintenance than in the adults. There were also differences between age groups across languages; in particular, adult-like clause structures were used earlier in French than in German children. Overall, our results show that an adult-like discourse organization is not fully acquired even by age ten. Moreover, they provide further evidence that similar developments in discourse construction across languages interact with language- specific grammatical properties in the acquisition of adult-like means of reference (similar to Hickmann, 2003; von Stutterheim, Halm and Carroll 2011).
Abstract
The present study investigates how French and German adults and 7- and 10-year-old children introduce and maintain reference to entities in short stretches of connected discourse. Data consisted of retellings of video clips in which a protagonist was promoted from a “new” to two degrees of “given” statuses. In the adult data, retellings were denser and forms were leaner in French than in German. Results for children showed common tendencies within age groups and across languages, in particular an overuse of definite forms for referent introduction and the use of less reduced forms for reference maintenance than in the adults. There were also differences between age groups across languages; in particular, adult-like clause structures were used earlier in French than in German children. Overall, our results show that an adult-like discourse organization is not fully acquired even by age ten. Moreover, they provide further evidence that similar developments in discourse construction across languages interact with language- specific grammatical properties in the acquisition of adult-like means of reference (similar to Hickmann, 2003; von Stutterheim, Halm and Carroll 2011).
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Introduction 1
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Part 1: Relational coherence
- The comprehension of coherence relations in expository texts at the age of 10 and 12 11
- Short sentences, easy to read? Effects of connectives and layout on text comprehension by beginning readers 41
- Explicit coherence relations in children’s and adults’ spoken narratives: the importance of und for the acquisition of German connectives 57
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Part 2: Referential coherence
- Text organization in typically developing bilinguals and bilinguals at risk of DLD: what is different and how language independent is it? 85
- Referential coherence: Children’s understanding of pronoun anaphora. Insights from mono- and bilingual language acquisition 105
- Reference in French and German: A developmental perspective 139
- The use of pronouns as a developmental factor in early Russian language acquisition 171
- Index 207
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Introduction 1
-
Part 1: Relational coherence
- The comprehension of coherence relations in expository texts at the age of 10 and 12 11
- Short sentences, easy to read? Effects of connectives and layout on text comprehension by beginning readers 41
- Explicit coherence relations in children’s and adults’ spoken narratives: the importance of und for the acquisition of German connectives 57
-
Part 2: Referential coherence
- Text organization in typically developing bilinguals and bilinguals at risk of DLD: what is different and how language independent is it? 85
- Referential coherence: Children’s understanding of pronoun anaphora. Insights from mono- and bilingual language acquisition 105
- Reference in French and German: A developmental perspective 139
- The use of pronouns as a developmental factor in early Russian language acquisition 171
- Index 207
