scholarly journals Stages rather than ages in the acquisition of movement structures: Data from sentence repetition and 27696 spontaneous clauses

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Naama Friedmann ◽  
Julia Reznick
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Spontaneous Speech ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Crossing Over ◽  
Syntactic Movement ◽  
Sentence Repetition ◽  
Unaccusative Verbs ◽  
Different Ages ◽  
Wh Questions ◽  
Repetition Task

This study explored the order of acquisition of various types of syntactic-movement and embedding structures in Hebrew, using a sentence-repetition task, in which 60 children aged 2;2-3;10 repeated 80 sentences (with a total of 4800 sentences), and an analysis of the spontaneous speech of 61 children aged 1;6-6;1 (27,696 clauses). The sentence repetition task revealed a set order of acquisition of the various types of syntactic movement: A-movement is acquired first, then A-bar-movement, and finally movement of the verb to C. The analysis of spontaneous speech revealed the same order: A-movement of the object of unaccusative verbs to subject position appears first, together with simple SV sentences; then, wh-questions appear, then relative clauses and topicalization, which appear together with embedding of finite clauses, and lastly, V-to-C movement. Previous studies have shown that Hebrew speakers under age six have difficulty comprehending and producing sentences with A-bar-movement in which a lexically-restricted object crosses over a lexically-restricted subject. And indeed, whereas children produced A-bar structures very early (wh-questions from age 1;6, relative-clauses and topicalization from age 2;6), until age 5;8 these structures never included a lexical DP crossing over another lexical DP. Both tasks indicated that the order of structure acquisition is fixed, creating Guttman scales between structures, but different children acquire the same structure at very different ages. It seems that whereas the syntactic path and the stages of structure acquisition along it are constant between children, each child walks this path in their own pace.

scholarly journals The acquisition of relative clauses in Russian and Polish in monolingual and bilingual children

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 216-248
Author(s):  
Alla V. Peeters-Podgaevskaja ◽  
Bibi E. Janssen ◽  
Anne E. Baker
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clause ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Sentence Repetition ◽  
Subject And Object ◽  
Repetition Task

Abstract In this paper, we present the results on (re)production of relative clauses in a sentence repetition task by Russian and Polish monolingual and bilingual children (3;6–6;6 years). Russian and Polish both involve overt case marking in the relative clause formation, but the case marking in Polish is more regular and transparent. Our results suggest that, when case marking is the only disambiguating cue, its transparency and regularity contributes to a significantly better performance. This explains why the Polish children, both monolingual and bilingual, were more successful in reproduction of subject and object relatives compared to their Russian peers.

scholarly journals Assessing understanding of relative clauses: a comparison of multiple-choice comprehension versus sentence repetition

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 1435-1457 ◽  
Author(s):  
PAULINE FRIZELLE ◽  
CLODAGH O'NEILL ◽  
DOROTHY V. M. BISHOP
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Multiple Choice ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Processing Load ◽  
Sentence Repetition ◽  
Additional Processing ◽  
Two Measures ◽  
Grammatical Structures ◽  
Repetition Task

AbstractAlthough sentence repetition is considered a reliable measure of children's grammatical knowledge, few studies have directly compared children's sentence repetition performance with their understanding of grammatical structures. The current study aimed to compare children's performance on these two assessment measures, using a multiple-choice picture-matching sentence comprehension task and a sentence repetition task. Thirty-three typically developing children completed both assessments, which included relative clauses representing a range of syntactic roles. Results revealed a similar order of difficulty of constructions on both measures but little agreement between them when evaluating individual differences. Interestingly, repetition was the easier of the two measures, with children showing the ability to repeat sentences they did not understand. This discrepancy is primarily attributed to the additional processing load resulting from the design of multiple-choice comprehension tasks, and highlights the fact that these assessments are invoking skills beyond those of linguistic competence.

scholarly journals Does Timing in Acquisition Modulate Heritage Children’s Language Abilities? Evidence from the Greek LITMUS Sentence Repetition Task

Languages ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 49
Author(s):  
Christos Makrodimitris ◽  
Petra Schulz
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Age Of Onset ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Sentence Repetition ◽  
Wh Questions ◽  
Digit Recall ◽  
Repetition Task

Recent proposals suggest that timing in acquisition, i.e., the age at which a phenomenon is mastered by monolingual children, influences acquisition of the L2, interacting with age of onset of bilingualism and amount of L2 input. Here, we examine whether timing affects acquisition of the bilingual child’s heritage language, possibly modulating the effects of environmental and child-internal factors. The performance of 6- to 12-year-old Greek heritage children residing in Germany (age of onset of German: 0–4 years) was assessed across a range of nine syntactic structures via the Greek LITMUS (Language Impairment Testing in Multilingual Settings) Sentence Repetition Task. Based on previous studies on monolingual Greek, the structures were classified as “early” (main clauses (SVO), coordination, clitics, complement clauses, sentential negation, non-referential wh-questions) or as “late” (referential wh-questions, relatives, adverbial clauses). Current family use of Greek and formal instruction in Greek (environmental), chronological age, and age of onset of German (child-internal) were assessed via the Questionnaire for Parents of Bilingual Children (PABIQ); short-term memory (child-internal) was measured via forward digit recall. Children’s scores were generally higher for early than for late acquired structures. Performance on the three early structures with the highest scores was predicted by the amount of current family use of Greek. Performance on the three late structures was additionally predicted by forward digit recall, indicating that higher short-term memory capacity is beneficial for correctly reconstructing structurally complex sentences. We suggest that the understanding of heritage language development and the role of child-internal and environmental factors will benefit from a consideration of timing in the acquisition of the different structures.

scholarly journals Can Frequency Account for the Grammatical Choices of Children and Adults in Nominal Modification Contexts? Evidence from Elicited Production and Child-Directed Speech

Languages ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 35
Author(s):  
Emanuela Sanfelici ◽  
Petra Schulz
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Production Rate ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Spontaneous Speech ◽  
Production Task ◽  
Specific Context ◽  
High Production Rate ◽  
High Production ◽  
Acquisition Order

There is consensus that languages possess several grammatical variants satisfying the same conversational function. Nevertheless, it is a matter of debate which principles guide the adult speaker’s choice and the child’s acquisition order of these variants. Various proposals have suggested that frequency shapes adult language use and language acquisition. Taking the domain of nominal modification as its testing ground, this paper explores in two studies the role that frequency of structures plays for adults’ and children’s structural choices in German. In Study 1, 133 three- to six-year-old children and 21 adults were tested with an elicited production task prompting participants to identify an agent or a patient referent among a set of alternatives. Study 2 analyzed a corpus of child-directed speech to examine the frequency of passive relative clauses, which children, similar to adults, produced very often in Study 1. Importantly, passive relatives were found to be infrequent in the child input. These two results show that the high production rate of rare structures, such as passive relatives, is difficult to account for with frequency. We claim that the relation between frequency in natural speech and use of a given variant in a specific context is indirect: speakers may opt for the less grammatically complex computation rather than for the variant most frequently used in spontaneous speech.

Surprising dissociations in two Greek agrammatic speakers. Evidence from wh-questions and relative clauses

2011 ◽  
Vol 500 ◽  
pp. e44
Author(s):  
Michaela Nerantzini ◽  
Spyridoula Varlokosta ◽  
Despina Papadopoulou ◽  
Costantin Potagas ◽  
Ioannis Evdokimidis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Wh Questions

Effects of Sentence Structure on Sentence Elicited Imitation Responses

1978 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 809-819 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jo Carol Hudgins ◽  
Walter L. Cullinan
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Relative Clause ◽  
Female College Students ◽  
Sentence Structure ◽  
Response Accuracy ◽  
Relative Pronoun ◽  
Elicited Imitation ◽  
Sentence Repetition ◽  
Repetition Task

This study investigates the effects of sentence structure on the number of error sentences and response latency in a sentence-repetition task. Forty female college students repeated short and long test sentences containing either a single self-embedded or right-branching subject-focus or object-focus relative clause. Sentences were also controlled for deletion of the relative pronoun of the relative clause. Sentence structure was found to affect sentence elicited imitation response accuracy and latency in a manner similar to the effects of structure on ease of comprehension. The findings are consistent with a canonical-sentoid strategy explanation of sentence processing during sentence imitation.

scholarly journals Thematic Composition and Idiom Variation

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-55
Author(s):  
Attila Cserép
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clauses ◽  
American English ◽  
Wh Questions

Abstract The Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) has been studied to retrieve variant forms of semantically decomposable idioms that have no thematic composition for the purpose of determining whether thematic composition is a necessary criterion for idiom variation as claimed by Horn (2003). The syntactic variants searched for include passive, raising, tough-movement, relative clauses and wh-questions. Horn’s (2003) hypothesis is not fully confirmed, as some variation has been found.

scholarly journals Typology and nuance: relativization

2020 ◽  
pp. 104-130
Author(s):  
Marianne Mithun
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Spontaneous Speech ◽  
The Other ◽  
Stages Of Development ◽  
Linguistic Typology ◽  
The North

Much of linguistic typology is inherently categorical. In large-scale typological surveys, grammatical constructions, distinctions, and even variables are typically classified as present, absent, or embodying one of a set of specified options. This work is valuable for a multitude of purposes, and in many cases such categorization is sufficient. In others, we can advance our understanding further if we take a more nuanced approach, considering the extent to which a particular construction, distinction, or variable is installed in the grammar. An important tool for this approach is the examination of unscripted speech in context, complete with prosody. This point is illustrated here with Mohawk, an Iroquoian language indigenous to the North American Northeast. As will be seen, the two types of construction which might be identified as relative clauses are emergent, one less integrated into the grammar than the other. Examination of spontaneous speech indicates that the earliest stages of development are prosodic, as speakers shape their messages according to their communicative purposes at each moment.

scholarly journals How do language-specific characteristics affect the acquisition of different relative clause types? Evidence from Finnish

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 120-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
MINNA KIRJAVAINEN ◽  
EVAN KIDD ◽  
ELENA LIEVEN
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clause ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Rc Structures ◽  
Relative Complexity ◽  
Sentence Repetition ◽  
Subject And Object

AbstractWe report three studies (one corpus, two experimental) that investigated the acquisition of relative clauses (RCs) in Finnish-speaking children. Study 1 found that Finnish children's naturalistic exposure to RCs predominantly consists of non-subject relatives (i.e. oblique, object) which typically have inanimate head nouns. Study 2 tested children's comprehension of subject, object, and two types of oblique relatives. No difference was found in the children's performance on different structures, including a lack of previously widely reported asymmetry between subject and object relatives. However, children's comprehension was modulated by animacy of the head referent. Study 3 tested children's production of the same RC structures using sentence repetition. Again we found no subject–object asymmetry. The pattern of results suggested that distributional frequency patterns and the relative complexity of the relativizer contribute to the difficulty associated with particular RC structures.

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