Pub Date : 2020-06-10DOI: 10.1080/10489223.2020.1769628
José Sequeros-Valle, Bradley Hoot, Jennifer Cabrelli
ABSTRACT This project examines whether second-language (L2) learners can converge on a native-like pattern at the interface between syntax and discourse under low and high processing pressure, using Spanish clitic-doubled left dislocation (CLLD) as a test case. The original version of the Interface Hypothesis (IH) predicts that L2 competence on syntax-discourse interface structures may diverge from that of L1 speakers , yet there is experimental evidence of native-like offline judgments of clitic-doubling and its correlation to relevant discourse contexts in L2 Spanish. However, the most updated version of the IH argues that problems at the syntax-discourse interface are not due to divergent competence but rather to L2 processing limitations. To isolate the potential source of divergence, in the present study L2 Spanish learners completed an Acceptability Judgment Task (low processing pressure) and a Speeded Production Task (high processing pressure). Group results show convergence on the native-like pattern on the Acceptability Judgment Task and divergence on the Speeded Production Task. The first finding suggests that L2 learners have linguistic knowledge of discourse-related clitic-doubling, challenging the original version of the IH. The second finding suggests that the processing pressure induced by time constraints and production is correlated with L2 divergence, as predicted by the new version of the IH. We conclude by considering whether this divergence is most appropriately attributed to processing at the interfaces or could alternatively be explained as a result of real-time production specifically.
{"title":"Clitic-doubled left dislocation in L2 Spanish: The effect of processing load at the syntax-discourse interface","authors":"José Sequeros-Valle, Bradley Hoot, Jennifer Cabrelli","doi":"10.1080/10489223.2020.1769628","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10489223.2020.1769628","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This project examines whether second-language (L2) learners can converge on a native-like pattern at the interface between syntax and discourse under low and high processing pressure, using Spanish clitic-doubled left dislocation (CLLD) as a test case. The original version of the Interface Hypothesis (IH) predicts that L2 competence on syntax-discourse interface structures may diverge from that of L1 speakers , yet there is experimental evidence of native-like offline judgments of clitic-doubling and its correlation to relevant discourse contexts in L2 Spanish. However, the most updated version of the IH argues that problems at the syntax-discourse interface are not due to divergent competence but rather to L2 processing limitations. To isolate the potential source of divergence, in the present study L2 Spanish learners completed an Acceptability Judgment Task (low processing pressure) and a Speeded Production Task (high processing pressure). Group results show convergence on the native-like pattern on the Acceptability Judgment Task and divergence on the Speeded Production Task. The first finding suggests that L2 learners have linguistic knowledge of discourse-related clitic-doubling, challenging the original version of the IH. The second finding suggests that the processing pressure induced by time constraints and production is correlated with L2 divergence, as predicted by the new version of the IH. We conclude by considering whether this divergence is most appropriately attributed to processing at the interfaces or could alternatively be explained as a result of real-time production specifically.","PeriodicalId":46920,"journal":{"name":"Language Acquisition","volume":"27 1","pages":"306 - 330"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2020-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/10489223.2020.1769628","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45125662","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-06-09DOI: 10.1080/10489223.2020.1769630
Tsung-Ying Chen
ABSTRACT In two artificial grammar learning experiments, we tested the learnability of tonal phonotactics forbidding non-domain-final rising tones (*NonFinalR) against the phonotactics banning non-domain-final high-level tones (*NonFinalH). We propose that a firm phonetic ground drives a presumably innate inductive bias favoring *NonFinalR and against *NonFinalH. In Exp. I, we trained two groups of participants with an artificial language conforming to either *NonFinalR or *NonFinalH and tested them with the same set of novel items violating either tonal constraint in an acceptability judgment task. In two separate test sessions, *NonFinalR learners demonstrated a significantly higher consistency in making correct judgments than *NonFinalH learners. In Exp. II, learners participated in the same acceptability judgment task without being exposed to inputs in an a priori training session; participants had to learn from the immediate explicit feedback given to their judgments on every test item. Results suggest that only *NonFinalR learners demonstrated signs of converging on the target tonal phonotactics. In addition, both experiments found that *NonFinalR learners, but not *NonFinalH learners, acquired the tonal phonotactics and a baseline segmental phonotactics prohibiting retroflex consonants similarly. Altogether, the experimental results support the hypothesis of an inductive learning bias toward *NonFinalR and against *NonFinalH.
{"title":"An inductive learning bias toward phonetically driven tonal phonotactics","authors":"Tsung-Ying Chen","doi":"10.1080/10489223.2020.1769630","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10489223.2020.1769630","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In two artificial grammar learning experiments, we tested the learnability of tonal phonotactics forbidding non-domain-final rising tones (*NonFinalR) against the phonotactics banning non-domain-final high-level tones (*NonFinalH). We propose that a firm phonetic ground drives a presumably innate inductive bias favoring *NonFinalR and against *NonFinalH. In Exp. I, we trained two groups of participants with an artificial language conforming to either *NonFinalR or *NonFinalH and tested them with the same set of novel items violating either tonal constraint in an acceptability judgment task. In two separate test sessions, *NonFinalR learners demonstrated a significantly higher consistency in making correct judgments than *NonFinalH learners. In Exp. II, learners participated in the same acceptability judgment task without being exposed to inputs in an a priori training session; participants had to learn from the immediate explicit feedback given to their judgments on every test item. Results suggest that only *NonFinalR learners demonstrated signs of converging on the target tonal phonotactics. In addition, both experiments found that *NonFinalR learners, but not *NonFinalH learners, acquired the tonal phonotactics and a baseline segmental phonotactics prohibiting retroflex consonants similarly. Altogether, the experimental results support the hypothesis of an inductive learning bias toward *NonFinalR and against *NonFinalH.","PeriodicalId":46920,"journal":{"name":"Language Acquisition","volume":"27 1","pages":"331 - 361"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2020-06-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/10489223.2020.1769630","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45912373","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-06-08DOI: 10.1080/10489223.2020.1769623
Anthony Yacovone, Ian Rigby, Akira Omaki
ABSTRACT Children’s sentence interpretations often lack flexibility. For example, when French-speaking adults and children hear ambiguous wh-questions like Where did Annie explain that she rode her horse?, they preferentially associate the wh-phrase with the first verb and adopt the main clause interpretation (e.g., She explained at the campsite). This preferred association results in shorter syntactic dependencies compared to second verb associations (i.e., the embedded clause interpretation: She rode in the forest). Moreover, this bias toward shorter dependencies persists in “filled-gap” wh-questions, where the preferred interpretation is blocked by a prepositional phrase (e.g., Where did Annie explain at the campsite that she rode her horse?). Here, adults preferentially suppress their main clause bias and adopt embedded clause interpretations, whereas children still prefer their initial interpretations. The present study investigates how English-speaking children interpret ambiguous and filled-gap wh-questions. Cross-linguistic evidence suggests that children struggle to adopt second verb associations when first verb interpretations are unavailable. In five story-based experiments, we show that English-speaking children prefer main clause (first verb) interpretations in both wh-question conditions—although they seem to adopt more second verb associations than has been previously reported for children in other languages. We also document a novel repair strategy used by adults and children in which they describe who was at the main clause event rather than where it occurred. Taken together, our findings highlight the cross-linguistic stability of children’s shorter dependency biases and suggest that children’s abilities to inhibit preferred interpretations may be shaped by the development of language-specific syntactic knowledge.
{"title":"Children’s comprehension and repair of garden-path wh-questions","authors":"Anthony Yacovone, Ian Rigby, Akira Omaki","doi":"10.1080/10489223.2020.1769623","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10489223.2020.1769623","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Children’s sentence interpretations often lack flexibility. For example, when French-speaking adults and children hear ambiguous wh-questions like Where did Annie explain that she rode her horse?, they preferentially associate the wh-phrase with the first verb and adopt the main clause interpretation (e.g., She explained at the campsite). This preferred association results in shorter syntactic dependencies compared to second verb associations (i.e., the embedded clause interpretation: She rode in the forest). Moreover, this bias toward shorter dependencies persists in “filled-gap” wh-questions, where the preferred interpretation is blocked by a prepositional phrase (e.g., Where did Annie explain at the campsite that she rode her horse?). Here, adults preferentially suppress their main clause bias and adopt embedded clause interpretations, whereas children still prefer their initial interpretations. The present study investigates how English-speaking children interpret ambiguous and filled-gap wh-questions. Cross-linguistic evidence suggests that children struggle to adopt second verb associations when first verb interpretations are unavailable. In five story-based experiments, we show that English-speaking children prefer main clause (first verb) interpretations in both wh-question conditions—although they seem to adopt more second verb associations than has been previously reported for children in other languages. We also document a novel repair strategy used by adults and children in which they describe who was at the main clause event rather than where it occurred. Taken together, our findings highlight the cross-linguistic stability of children’s shorter dependency biases and suggest that children’s abilities to inhibit preferred interpretations may be shaped by the development of language-specific syntactic knowledge.","PeriodicalId":46920,"journal":{"name":"Language Acquisition","volume":"27 1","pages":"363 - 396"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2020-06-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/10489223.2020.1769623","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42319142","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-05-31DOI: 10.1080/10489223.2020.1769624
Stéphanie Durrleman
ABSTRACT Understanding that people’s ideas may be false is a challenging step in Theory of Mind (ToM) development, which is accomplished around the age of 4–5 years old by typically developing (TD) children. False-belief attribution remains difficult beyond this age for certain clinical populations, such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), where delays in this realm are significant, and Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), where delays tend to be subtler. Research has identified links between ToM success and language skills, in particular complement clauses such as John thought/said that aliens landed in his garden, in TD, as well as in ASD and DLD. It has been hypothesized that these structures serve as tools for representing subjective truths. This article reports results from our experimental work further examining the link between complementation and ToM. Study 1 investigates if complements have a more privileged influence on ToM in ASD and TD children than abilities such as Executive Functions, which arguably also play a role. Study 2 determines if complementation skills in ASD support ToM reasoning or are merely implied in ToM task performance. Study 3 extends the evaluation of complementation in ToM reasoning to DLD and explores whether clinical groups of different etiologies—ASD and DLD—perform comparably for ToM once they have similar complementation skills, as expected by a linguistic determinism approach. Study 4 addresses speculation that complementation training may not be efficient to trigger improved ToM in instances of ToM impairments by empirically testing whether training on complements via a newly created iPad application can be useful for ToM remediation in both ASD and DLD. Taken together, this body of work both enhances our theoretical understanding of the language-cognition interface as well as widens our repertoire of clinical tools addressing difficulties in this domain.
{"title":"Mentalizing: What’s language got to do with it?","authors":"Stéphanie Durrleman","doi":"10.1080/10489223.2020.1769624","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10489223.2020.1769624","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Understanding that people’s ideas may be false is a challenging step in Theory of Mind (ToM) development, which is accomplished around the age of 4–5 years old by typically developing (TD) children. False-belief attribution remains difficult beyond this age for certain clinical populations, such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), where delays in this realm are significant, and Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), where delays tend to be subtler. Research has identified links between ToM success and language skills, in particular complement clauses such as John thought/said that aliens landed in his garden, in TD, as well as in ASD and DLD. It has been hypothesized that these structures serve as tools for representing subjective truths. This article reports results from our experimental work further examining the link between complementation and ToM. Study 1 investigates if complements have a more privileged influence on ToM in ASD and TD children than abilities such as Executive Functions, which arguably also play a role. Study 2 determines if complementation skills in ASD support ToM reasoning or are merely implied in ToM task performance. Study 3 extends the evaluation of complementation in ToM reasoning to DLD and explores whether clinical groups of different etiologies—ASD and DLD—perform comparably for ToM once they have similar complementation skills, as expected by a linguistic determinism approach. Study 4 addresses speculation that complementation training may not be efficient to trigger improved ToM in instances of ToM impairments by empirically testing whether training on complements via a newly created iPad application can be useful for ToM remediation in both ASD and DLD. Taken together, this body of work both enhances our theoretical understanding of the language-cognition interface as well as widens our repertoire of clinical tools addressing difficulties in this domain.","PeriodicalId":46920,"journal":{"name":"Language Acquisition","volume":"27 1","pages":"255 - 275"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2020-05-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/10489223.2020.1769624","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44494810","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-04-02DOI: 10.1080/10489223.2019.1659276
Irene de la Cruz-Pavía, J. Gervain, E. Vatikiotis-Bateson, J. Werker
ABSTRACT The acoustic realization of phrasal prominence is proposed to correlate with the order of V(erbs) and O(bjects) in natural languages. The present production study with 15 talkers of Japanese (OV) and English (VO) investigates whether the speech signal contains coverbal visual information that covaries with auditory prosody, in Infant- and Adult-Directed Speech (IDS and ADS). Acoustic analysis revealed that phrasal prominence is carried by different acoustic cues in the two languages and speech styles, while analyses of motion showed that this acoustic prominence is not accompanied by coverbal gestures. Instead, the talkers of both languages produced eyebrow movements to mark the boundaries of target phrases within elicited utterances in combination with head nods. These results suggest that the signal might contain multimodal information to phrase boundaries, which could help listeners chunk phrases from the input.
{"title":"Coverbal speech gestures signal phrase boundaries: A production study of Japanese and English infant- and adult-directed speech","authors":"Irene de la Cruz-Pavía, J. Gervain, E. Vatikiotis-Bateson, J. Werker","doi":"10.1080/10489223.2019.1659276","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10489223.2019.1659276","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The acoustic realization of phrasal prominence is proposed to correlate with the order of V(erbs) and O(bjects) in natural languages. The present production study with 15 talkers of Japanese (OV) and English (VO) investigates whether the speech signal contains coverbal visual information that covaries with auditory prosody, in Infant- and Adult-Directed Speech (IDS and ADS). Acoustic analysis revealed that phrasal prominence is carried by different acoustic cues in the two languages and speech styles, while analyses of motion showed that this acoustic prominence is not accompanied by coverbal gestures. Instead, the talkers of both languages produced eyebrow movements to mark the boundaries of target phrases within elicited utterances in combination with head nods. These results suggest that the signal might contain multimodal information to phrase boundaries, which could help listeners chunk phrases from the input.","PeriodicalId":46920,"journal":{"name":"Language Acquisition","volume":"27 1","pages":"160 - 186"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2020-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/10489223.2019.1659276","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44695526","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-04-02DOI: 10.1080/10489223.2019.1659795
Yi-Ching Su
ABSTRACT This study reports findings from two truth value judgment experiments to address two research questions on Mandarin: (i) whether children and adults have the knowledge of the structural constraint Principle C in their pronoun resolution; and (ii) whether adults and children show the prohibition effect of the cyclic-c-command constraint or the QR account of pronouns on the coreference reading of backward anaphora for different types of subordinate clauses. The results show that children pattern similarly to adults for their interpretation of the Principle C sentences. For backward anaphora sentences, adults disallow the coreference reading for the deshihou ‘while/when’ clause but accept it for the yinwei ‘because’ clause, contrary to the predictions of the cyclic-c-command account and the QR account. However, children allow coreference for both types of clauses. The pattern from Mandarin-acquiring children is in line with previous studies on English, Italian, and Russian, which demonstrate that children respect a language-universal structural constraint (i.e., Principle C) at the initial stage of development, with the language-specific or even construction-specific constraint being acquired later.
{"title":"Backward/forward anaphora in child and adult Mandarin Chinese","authors":"Yi-Ching Su","doi":"10.1080/10489223.2019.1659795","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10489223.2019.1659795","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This study reports findings from two truth value judgment experiments to address two research questions on Mandarin: (i) whether children and adults have the knowledge of the structural constraint Principle C in their pronoun resolution; and (ii) whether adults and children show the prohibition effect of the cyclic-c-command constraint or the QR account of pronouns on the coreference reading of backward anaphora for different types of subordinate clauses. The results show that children pattern similarly to adults for their interpretation of the Principle C sentences. For backward anaphora sentences, adults disallow the coreference reading for the deshihou ‘while/when’ clause but accept it for the yinwei ‘because’ clause, contrary to the predictions of the cyclic-c-command account and the QR account. However, children allow coreference for both types of clauses. The pattern from Mandarin-acquiring children is in line with previous studies on English, Italian, and Russian, which demonstrate that children respect a language-universal structural constraint (i.e., Principle C) at the initial stage of development, with the language-specific or even construction-specific constraint being acquired later.","PeriodicalId":46920,"journal":{"name":"Language Acquisition","volume":"27 1","pages":"187 - 216"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2020-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/10489223.2019.1659795","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43171587","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-04-02DOI: 10.1080/10489223.2019.1659275
Sujeong Kim, Heejeong Ko, Hyun-Kwon Yang
ABSTRACT Resultative constructions show a wide range of cross-linguistic variation, which may pose nontrivial challenges to L2 learners. This study investigates how syntactic and semantic differences between L1 and L2 affect L2 acquisition of resultatives. In particular, we investigate how L1-Korean learners project the syntax and semantics of L2-English resultative constructions. Two different experiments are presented. The first is a comprehension test that employs an acceptability judgment task and an elicited choice task, and the second is a production test using an elicited writing task. Our experimental results consistently show that Korean learners project English resultatives with adjunct structures and interpret them as atelic events, in sharp contrast to native speakers of English. This finding is in line with previous studies in demonstrating that L1 syntax plays a crucial role in projecting L2 syntax. More importantly, this study provides novel evidence that L1 semantics (i.e., telicity) crucially influences L2 acquisition, in tandem with (but over and above) L1 syntax. The study’s results imply that a proper theory of L2 acquisition of resultatives must consider not only syntactic transfer effects but also subtle semantic differences between L1 and L2.
{"title":"Telicity and mode of merge in L2 acquisition of resultatives","authors":"Sujeong Kim, Heejeong Ko, Hyun-Kwon Yang","doi":"10.1080/10489223.2019.1659275","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10489223.2019.1659275","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Resultative constructions show a wide range of cross-linguistic variation, which may pose nontrivial challenges to L2 learners. This study investigates how syntactic and semantic differences between L1 and L2 affect L2 acquisition of resultatives. In particular, we investigate how L1-Korean learners project the syntax and semantics of L2-English resultative constructions. Two different experiments are presented. The first is a comprehension test that employs an acceptability judgment task and an elicited choice task, and the second is a production test using an elicited writing task. Our experimental results consistently show that Korean learners project English resultatives with adjunct structures and interpret them as atelic events, in sharp contrast to native speakers of English. This finding is in line with previous studies in demonstrating that L1 syntax plays a crucial role in projecting L2 syntax. More importantly, this study provides novel evidence that L1 semantics (i.e., telicity) crucially influences L2 acquisition, in tandem with (but over and above) L1 syntax. The study’s results imply that a proper theory of L2 acquisition of resultatives must consider not only syntactic transfer effects but also subtle semantic differences between L1 and L2.","PeriodicalId":46920,"journal":{"name":"Language Acquisition","volume":"27 1","pages":"117 - 159"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2020-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/10489223.2019.1659275","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41762064","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-02-13DOI: 10.1080/10489223.2020.1724293
J. Schaeffer
ABSTRACT This study addresses the question as to what cognitive abilities influence performance on article choice and direct object scrambling in high-functioning Dutch-speaking children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Schaeffer (2016/2018) shows that a group of 27 high-functioning Dutch-speaking children with ASD, aged 5–14, overgenerates the indefinite article, and fails to scramble significantly more often than TD age-mates. As article choice, direct object scrambling, and false belief are all hypothesized to rely on perspective taking, we first predict a correlation between scores on article choice, direct object scrambling, and false belief. Furthermore, hypothesizing that article choice and direct object scrambling require holding the previous discourse in mind, it is predicted that memory abilities predict article choice and direct object scrambling performance. Surprisingly, the results reveal no correlation between article choice, direct object scrambling, and false belief. Moreover, no influence of working memory was found, nor of inhibition or morphosyntax, which were also tested. Phonological memory turns out to be the only cognitive ability that predicts scores on direct object scrambling (but not on article choice!). It is suggested that another cognitive skill may contribute to article choice and/or direct object scrambling, namely, central coherence.
{"title":"The influence of cognitive abilities on article choice and scrambling performance in Dutch-speaking children with autism","authors":"J. Schaeffer","doi":"10.1080/10489223.2020.1724293","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10489223.2020.1724293","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This study addresses the question as to what cognitive abilities influence performance on article choice and direct object scrambling in high-functioning Dutch-speaking children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Schaeffer (2016/2018) shows that a group of 27 high-functioning Dutch-speaking children with ASD, aged 5–14, overgenerates the indefinite article, and fails to scramble significantly more often than TD age-mates. As article choice, direct object scrambling, and false belief are all hypothesized to rely on perspective taking, we first predict a correlation between scores on article choice, direct object scrambling, and false belief. Furthermore, hypothesizing that article choice and direct object scrambling require holding the previous discourse in mind, it is predicted that memory abilities predict article choice and direct object scrambling performance. Surprisingly, the results reveal no correlation between article choice, direct object scrambling, and false belief. Moreover, no influence of working memory was found, nor of inhibition or morphosyntax, which were also tested. Phonological memory turns out to be the only cognitive ability that predicts scores on direct object scrambling (but not on article choice!). It is suggested that another cognitive skill may contribute to article choice and/or direct object scrambling, namely, central coherence.","PeriodicalId":46920,"journal":{"name":"Language Acquisition","volume":"28 1","pages":"166 - 194"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2020-02-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/10489223.2020.1724293","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45412849","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-01-02DOI: 10.1080/10489223.2019.1659273
Haiquan Huang, S. Crain
ABSTRACT It has been proposed that children differ from adults in that children license a conjunctive inference to disjunctive sentences that lack any licensing expression. The proposal is that children infer “A and B” from sentences of the form “A or B.” Although children’s conjunctive interpretations of disjunction have been reported in some studies, they have not been observed in other studies. This study investigates one possible source of the different findings, which is the presence or absence of objects that are contextually introduced, beyond those mentioned in the test sentences. Using a Truth Value Judgment Task, we conducted three experiments with preschool Mandarin-speaking children and a control group of adults. Test sentences in Experiment 1 included disjunction and a deontic modal verb, and the contexts only included objects that were mentioned in the test sentences. In Experiment 2, the deontic modal verb was omitted from the test sentences. Experiment 3 presented the same sentences as Experiment 2, but the contexts included additional objects beyond those mentioned in the test sentences. Both children and adults assigned a conjunctive inference to the test sentences in Experiment 1. In Experiment 2, with no deontic verbs and no contextually introduced objects, a subset of children computed conjunctive inferences, whereas none of the adults did. In Experiment 3, neither group made a conjunctive inference. The findings reveal that entities in nonlinguistic contexts influence children’s understanding of logical expressions. Moreover, preschool children already have linguistic knowledge that modal verbs license conjunctive inferences for sentences with disjunction.
{"title":"When OR is assigned a conjunctive inference in child language","authors":"Haiquan Huang, S. Crain","doi":"10.1080/10489223.2019.1659273","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10489223.2019.1659273","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT It has been proposed that children differ from adults in that children license a conjunctive inference to disjunctive sentences that lack any licensing expression. The proposal is that children infer “A and B” from sentences of the form “A or B.” Although children’s conjunctive interpretations of disjunction have been reported in some studies, they have not been observed in other studies. This study investigates one possible source of the different findings, which is the presence or absence of objects that are contextually introduced, beyond those mentioned in the test sentences. Using a Truth Value Judgment Task, we conducted three experiments with preschool Mandarin-speaking children and a control group of adults. Test sentences in Experiment 1 included disjunction and a deontic modal verb, and the contexts only included objects that were mentioned in the test sentences. In Experiment 2, the deontic modal verb was omitted from the test sentences. Experiment 3 presented the same sentences as Experiment 2, but the contexts included additional objects beyond those mentioned in the test sentences. Both children and adults assigned a conjunctive inference to the test sentences in Experiment 1. In Experiment 2, with no deontic verbs and no contextually introduced objects, a subset of children computed conjunctive inferences, whereas none of the adults did. In Experiment 3, neither group made a conjunctive inference. The findings reveal that entities in nonlinguistic contexts influence children’s understanding of logical expressions. Moreover, preschool children already have linguistic knowledge that modal verbs license conjunctive inferences for sentences with disjunction.","PeriodicalId":46920,"journal":{"name":"Language Acquisition","volume":"27 1","pages":"74 - 97"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/10489223.2019.1659273","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42427346","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-01-02DOI: 10.1080/10489223.2019.1598412
Victoria Mateu
ABSTRACT The present study is designed to investigate whether children’s difficulties with subject-to-subject raising (StSR) are due to intervention effects. We examine English-speaking children’s comprehension of StSR with seem and Spanish-speaking children’s comprehension of StSR with parecer ‘seem,’ a configuration never before tested in this language. Spanish parecer is ambiguous between a functional verb, which does not select an experiencer argument, and a lexical verb, which requires an overt experiencer (e.g.. In the first part of this study, we consider the hypothesis that the experiencer argument of seem may induce intervention effects even when it is not overtly produced and find support for this claim—English-speaking children perform poorly on StSR both when the intervening experiencer is overtly expressed and when it is implicit; Spanish-speaking children, on the other hand, only perform poorly on StSR with lexical parecer but do well on StSR with functional parecer. These results are in line with intervention accounts. The second part of this study aims to investigate whether these intervention effects are rooted in children’s grammatical or processing deficits. Results from a verbal processing task suggest that for a group of children—those who perform at chance or above on the StSR task—comprehension of sentences with an intervening experiencer is modulated by processing capacity. However, for those who consistently obtain a non-adult-like interpretation of StSR, processing capacity does not positively correlate with their performance. We hypothesize that, for this group, the difficulty is instead grammar-based.
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