This paper investigates the acquisition of compound vs. phrasal stress ("hot dog" vs. "hot dog") in English. This has previously been shown to be acquired quite late, in contrast to recent research showing that infants both perceive and prefer rhythmic patterns in their own language. Subjects (40 children in four groups the averages ages of which…

Presents details of the linguistic modification in speech to children in the Mayan language, Quiche. Evaluates 17 features commonly cited for speech to children and notes seven additional features for Quiche: whispering, initial-syllable deletion, BT formed for verbs, a verbal suffix, more fixed word order, more imperatives, and a special…

Presents data from 4 Inuit children ages 2;0 to 3;6 that shows relatively early acquisition of both simple and complex forms of the passive. Within this age range, children are productively producing truncated, full, action, and experiential passive. Reasons for this precociousness, including adult input and language structure, are explored. (56…

Examined the development of Irish word order patterns. It was found that the 1.5- to 3-year-olds (N=3) studied used subject-initial utterances more frequently than adults in input, and that for both adults and children the elision of the verb "to be" had a significant role in the placement of subjects in the utterances. (42 references)…

Longitudinal observation of one- to three-year-olds' (N=2) acquisition of complement phrasal construction in Korean found that, in spite of typological differences between English and Korean, both syntactic and semantic characteristics were shared by children acquiring complement structure in the two languages. (Author/CB)

Comprehension of relative clauses was assessed in 10 Hebrew-speaking school-age children with syntactic SLI and in two groups of younger children with normal language development. Comprehension of subject- and object-relatives was assessed using a binary sentence-picture matching task. The findings were that while Hebrew-speaking children with…

Assesses verb phrase development in three Trinidadian children in which Standard English and Trinidad Creole coexist. Adverbials were found to be crucial in delineating specific areas of semantic intent. (20 references) (GLR)

This study investigated the use of generic noun phrases by preschool children and their mothers. Results indicate striking differences in the way generics and non-generics are distributed in the speech of both groups, suggesting generic noun phrases differ in their semantics and conceptual organization from non-generics and may reflect children's…

Examined how rules for interpreting empty category (EC) subjects of complement clauses vary crosslinguistically across structural and lexical dimensions. Twenty-three Greek-speaking 4- and 5-year-olds and 10 adults, 29 Spanish-speaking 4- and 5-year-olds, 18 6- and 7-year-olds, and 8 adults took part in act-out experiments. Results indicate an…

This study assessed the relative merits of adult-like syntactic and limited scope formula accounts of children's early determiner use to evaluate the claim that children can be said to be operating with a syntactic determiner category early in development. The study focuses specifically on Valian's (1986) criteria for attributing the syntactic…

Normal and Specific Language Impaired (SLI) children were tested for evidence of the binding domain and orientation properties of their grammars. Results suggest that normal children acquiring English pass through a long-distance binding stage, whereas SLI children behave like very young normal children in requiring the nearest available noun…

Focuses on the influence of language specific properties in the acquisition of locative expressions. Some of the claims from literature on the acquisition of locative expressions are discussed and data from the acquisition of Warlpiri are presented and discussed in terms of these claims. (Author/CB)

Investigates the similarities and differences in individual approaches to the linguistic organization of narrative. The study identified strategies used, including thematic subject, nominal and anaphoric. Findings reveal that a variety of strategies was adopted by all age groups and that ability to maintain a strategy across the narrative's…

Polysyllabic words from 2 Dutch children from 1;6 to 2;11 were truncated so that they fitted a trochaic (strong-weak SW) pattern, particularly in early samples. Some observations with respect to the (non)realization of determiners suggest an influence of a SW-constraint on the realization of noun phrases. Findings support the hypothesis that words…

Examines children's uses of nominal determiners ("local markings") and utterance structure ("global markings") to introduce new referents through the use of narratives elicited from preschoolers, elementary school students and adults in English, French, German and Mandarin Chinese. Findings reveal that local markings emerge first, and local and…