Word Order and Information Structure in Czech 3- and 4-Year-Olds' Comprehension

Autor/in	Smolík, Filip
Titel	Word Order and Information Structure in Czech 3- and 4-Year-Olds' Comprehension
Quelle	In: First Language, 35 (2015) 3, S.237-253 (17 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0142-7237
DOI	10.1177/0142723715596098
Schlagwörter	Word Order; Nouns; Verbs; Grammar; Slavic Languages; Toddlers; Young Children; Sentence Structure; Language Acquisition; Language Processing; Preschool Children; Morphology (Languages); Pictorial Stimuli; Computer Assisted Testing; Statistical Analysis; Foreign Countries; Czech Republic + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Wortfolge; Grammatik; Slawische Sprache; Infant; Infants; Toddler; Kleinkind; Frühe Kindheit; Satzbau; Satzstruktur; Sprachaneignung; Spracherwerb; Sprachverarbeitung; Pre-school age; Preschool age; Child; Children; Pre-school education; Preschool education; Vorschulalter; Kind; Kinder; Vorschulkind; Vorschulkinder; Vorschulerziehung; Vorschule; Morphology; Morphologie; Fantasieanregung; Statistische Analyse; Ausland; Tschechische Republik
Abstract	This article reports on an experiment that examined the comprehension of transitive sentences in Czech children and its relationship to case marking, word order and information structure. A total of 107 Czech children aged 2;9-4;5 were tested for comprehension of noun-verb-noun sentences in which word order and given-new status of individual nouns were manipulated. The results confirmed that noncanonical, object-initial sentences are generally more difficult to comprehend than sentences with the standard word order, but that many children can interpret noncanonical sentences before 4 years of age. Information structure did not have any clear effect on sentence comprehension. Overall, the results indicate that children have some abstract knowledge of word order and case marking when they first show evidence of transitive sentence comprehension, but initially they cannot use this knowledge when word order and case marking signal conflicting interpretations. Information structure is not a major factor in early sentence comprehension. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01