NotesFAQContact Us
Collection
Advanced
Search Tips
Showing all 3 results Save | Export
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
Gao, Na; Zhou, Peng; Thornton, Rosalind; Crain, Stephen – First Language, 2021
It has long been noted that verb phrase (VP) ellipsis cancels the polarity sensitivity of the English Positive Polarity Items (PPIs). In recent work, it has been proposed that words for disjunction are governed by a parameter. On one value of the parameter, disjunction is a PPI for adult speakers of many languages including Mandarin Chinese. On…
Descriptors: Mandarin Chinese, Verbs, Sentence Structure, Age Differences
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
Geçkin, Vasfiye; Thornton, Rosalind; Crain, Stephen – Language Acquisition: A Journal of Developmental Linguistics, 2018
This study investigates the interpretation of disjunction words (English or) in negative sentences by Turkish- and German-speaking children. Both children and adults were asked to judge Turkish/German sentences corresponding to the English sentence "This animal did not eat the carrot or the pepper." Children acquiring both languages…
Descriptors: Contrastive Linguistics, Turkish, Language Acquisition, German
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
Huang, Aijun; Crain, Stephen – Language Acquisition: A Journal of Developmental Linguistics, 2014
In addition to serving as question markers with interrogative force, "wh"-words such as "shenme" "what" in Mandarin Chinese have a noninterrogative meaning. For the noninterrogative meaning, these words have been typically analyzed as negative polarity items, i.e., as "wh"-pronouns that are similar in…
Descriptors: Child Language, Language Acquisition, Mandarin Chinese, Language Research