Comparing Different Accounts of Inversion Errors in Children's Non-Subject Wh-Questions: "What Experimental Data Can Tell Us?"

Autor/inn/en	Ambridge, Ben; Rowland, Caroline F.; Theakston, Anna L.; Tomasello, Michael
Titel	Comparing Different Accounts of Inversion Errors in Children's Non-Subject Wh-Questions: "What Experimental Data Can Tell Us?"
Quelle	In: Journal of Child Language, 33 (2006) 3, S.519-557 (39 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0305-0009
DOI	10.1017/S0305000906007513
Schlagwörter	Foreign Countries; Language Acquisition; Error Analysis (Language); Child Language; Word Order; Sentence Structure; Sentences; Form Classes (Languages); Young Children; Early Childhood Education; United Kingdom + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Ausland; Sprachaneignung; Spracherwerb; Error analysis; Language; Fehleranalyse; 'Children''s language'; Kindersprache; Wortfolge; Satzbau; Satzstruktur; Sentence analysis; Satzanalyse; Analytischer Sprachbau; Frühe Kindheit; Early childhood; Education; Frühkindliche Bildung; Frühpädagogik; Großbritannien
Abstract	This study investigated different accounts of children's acquisition of non-subject wh-questions. Questions using each of 4 wh-words ("what," "who," "how" and "why"), and 3 auxiliaries (BE, DO and CAN) in 3sg and 3pl form were elicited from 28 children aged 3;6-4;6. Rates of non-inversion error ("Who she is hitting?") were found not to differ by wh-word, auxiliary or number alone, but by lexical auxiliary subtype and by wh-word+lexical auxiliary combination. This finding counts against simple rule-based accounts of question acquisition that include no role for the lexical subtype of the auxiliary, and suggests that children may initially acquire wh-word+lexical auxiliary combinations from the input. For DO questions, auxiliary-doubling errors ("What does she does like?") were also observed, although previous research has found that such errors are virtually non-existent for positive questions. Possible reasons for this discrepancy are discussed. [This research was funded by Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany and by an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship.] (Author).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10