Testing the Effect of an Arbitrary Subject Pronoun on Relative Clause Comprehension: A Study with Hebrew-Speaking Children

Autor/inn/en	Haendler, Yair; Adani, Flavia
Titel	Testing the Effect of an Arbitrary Subject Pronoun on Relative Clause Comprehension: A Study with Hebrew-Speaking Children
Quelle	In: Journal of Child Language, 45 (2018) 4, S.959-980 (22 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0305-0009
Schlagwörter	Semitic Languages; Child Language; Form Classes (Languages); Comprehension; Comparative Analysis; Nouns; Accuracy; Language Processing; Young Children + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Arabisch; Hebräisch; 'Children''s language'; Kindersprache; Analytischer Sprachbau; Verstehen; Verständnis; Sprachverarbeitung; Frühe Kindheit
Abstract	Previous studies have found that Hebrew-speaking children accurately comprehend object relatives (OR) with an embedded non-referential arbitrary subject pronoun (ASP). The facilitation of ORs with embedded pronouns is expected both from a discourse-pragmatics perspective and within a syntax-based locality approach. However, the specific effect of ASP might also be driven by a mismatch in grammatical features between the head noun and the pronoun, or by its relatively undemanding referential properties. We tested these possibilities by comparing ORs whose embedded subject is either ASP, a referential pronoun, or a lexical noun phrase. In all conditions, grammatical features were controlled. In a referent-identification task, the matching features made ORs with embedded pronouns difficult for five-year-olds. Accuracy was particularly low when the embedded pronoun was referential. These results indicate that embedded pronouns do not facilitate ORs across the board, and that the referential properties of pronouns affect OR processing. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01