ERIC Number: EJ1340132
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2022-Jun
Pages: 28
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0142-7237
EISSN: N/A
Postverbal Subjects in Child Italian: Argument Structure, Discourse and the Definiteness Effect
Cairncross, Alex; Dal Pozzo, Lena
First Language, v42 n3 p333-360 Jun 2022
While previous work on postverbal subjects in Italian has shown that young children are sensitive to the effects of argument structure and definiteness, little is known about the acquisition of postverbal subjects at the VP-periphery. In response, the present study investigated such subjects under new-information focus by monolingual Italian children (6;1 - 7;4). For this, we employed an elicitation task and a forced-choice task. The results indicated that the children use postverbal subjects at the VP-periphery felicitously, although they do not perform at ceiling. Unexpectedly, the results also suggested possible remnant difficulty with the definiteness effect. However, after comparison with adult data we argue that this is not a developmental issue and instead may suggest that our children were aware that the definiteness effect is not about definiteness per se.
Descriptors: Italian, Monolingualism, Language Acquisition, Adults, Comparative Analysis, Verbs, Phrase Structure, Task Analysis, Color, Pictorial Stimuli, Foreign Countries, Elementary School Students, Familiarity, Animation
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Italy
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A