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On the Source of Children's Conjunctive Interpretation of Disjunction: Scope, Strengthening, or Both?
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Shimada, Hiroyuki; Goro, Takuya – Language Acquisition: A Journal of Developmental Linguistics, 2021
In a body of empirical research, it has been observed that young children from across different linguistic communities adhered to a particular type of nonadult interpretation of disjunction: They appear to interpret disjunction conjunctively. Through three experiments with Japanese-speaking preschoolers, we investigate the source of this nonadult…
Descriptors: Language Acquisition, Japanese, Preschool Children, Form Classes (Languages)
Arabic Morpheme per Utterance: A Morphological Measure of Child Language Development in Spoken Arabic
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Naila Tallas-Mahajna; Esther Dromi – Language Acquisition: A Journal of Developmental Linguistics, 2024
Given the rich bound morphology of Spoken Arabic, an attempt was made here to construct a developmental measure corresponding to the mean length utterance (MLU) in English and to morpheme-per-utterance (MPU) in Hebrew. The adaptation to Arabic resulted in a new measurement termed Arabic-MPU, that was experimentally tested on a sample of 98…
Descriptors: Morphology (Languages), Morphemes, Language Acquisition, Arabic
Child Heritage Speakers' Acquisition of the Spanish Subjunctive in Volitional and Adverbial Clauses
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Dracos, Melisa; Requena, Pablo E. – Language Acquisition: A Journal of Developmental Linguistics, 2023
The Spanish subjunctive mood (SUBJ) is said to be highly vulnerable in heritage language (HL) acquisition. However, there is little controlled research on HL-speaking children acquiring the various Spanish SUBJ contexts, so we do not have a clear picture of when, how, or why heritage speakers (HSs) develop in the SUBJ as they do. This study tests…
Descriptors: Spanish, Verbs, Form Classes (Languages), Monolingualism
Unclogging the Bottleneck: The Role of Case Morphology in L2 Acquisition at the Syntax-Discourse Interface
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Lecouvet, Mathieu; Degand, Liesbeth; Suner, Ferran – Language Acquisition: A Journal of Developmental Linguistics, 2021
The Bottleneck Hypothesis argues that properties of inflectional morphology explain why second-language learners may face persistent difficulties in articulating meaning in target-language forms. In particular, the acquisition task proves even harder when first and second languages differ in the way they organize the mapping of functional features…
Descriptors: Morphology (Languages), Second Language Learning, Native Language, Syntax
Telicity and Mode of Merge in L2 Acquisition of Resultatives
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Kim, Sujeong; Ko, Heejeong; Yang, Hyun-Kwon – Language Acquisition: A Journal of Developmental Linguistics, 2020
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…
Descriptors: Second Language Learning, Contrastive Linguistics, Semantics, Syntax
"Two-Pound Cookies" or "Two Pounds of Cookies": Children's Appreciation of Quantity Expressions
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Foushee, Ruthe; Falkou, Naoual; Li, Peggy – Language Acquisition: A Journal of Developmental Linguistics, 2017
Inspired by Syrett (2013), three experiments explored children's ability to distinguish "attributives" (e.g., "three-pound strawberries," where MPs as adjectives signal reference to attributes) versus "pseudopartitives" (e.g., "three pounds of strawberries," where MPs combine with "of" to signal…
Descriptors: Language Acquisition, Syntax, Semantics, Cognitive Mapping
Inflectional Morphology in Bilingual Language Processing: An Age-Of-Acquisition Study
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Bosch, Sina; Veríssimo, João; Clahsen, Harald – Language Acquisition: A Journal of Developmental Linguistics, 2019
This study addresses the question of how age of acquisition (AoA) affects grammatical processing, specifically with respect to inflectional morphology, in bilinguals. We examined experimental data of more than 100 participants from the Russian/German community in Berlin, all of whom acquired Russian from birth and German at different ages. Using…
Descriptors: Age Differences, Second Language Learning, Morphology (Languages), Syntax
The Role of Phonological Working Memory in Children with SLI
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Torrens, Vicenç; Yagüe, Esther – Language Acquisition: A Journal of Developmental Linguistics, 2018
This article studies three measures of phonological working memory as tools to identify SLI children: word repetition, nonce word repetition, and digit memory. We propose that a deficit in the phonological loop causes a delay in the acquisition of lexicon, morphosyntax, and discourse. In this research we try to find out whether the scores in these…
Descriptors: Language Impairments, Speech Impairments, Short Term Memory, Phonology
Selective Effects of Age of Acquisition on Morphological Priming: Evidence for a Sensitive Period
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Veríssimo, João; Heyer, Vera; Jacob, Gunnar; Clahsen, Harald – Language Acquisition: A Journal of Developmental Linguistics, 2018
Is there an ideal time window for language acquisition after which nativelike representation and processing are unattainable? Although this question has been heavily debated, no consensus has been reached. Here, we present evidence for a sensitive period in language development and show that it is specific to grammar. We conducted a masked priming…
Descriptors: Second Language Learning, Age Differences, Grammar, Bilingualism
Interface Hypothesis and the L2 Acquisition of Quantificational Scope at the Syntax-Semantics-Pragmatics Interface
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Özçelik, Öner – Language Acquisition: A Journal of Developmental Linguistics, 2018
According to the Interface Hypothesis (IH) (e.g., Tsimpli & Sorace 2006; Sorace 2011), external interfaces are more challenging for L2 learners than internal interfaces. It is not clear, however, if linguistic phenomena associated with external interfaces are necessarily problematic and if internal interfaces are necessarily unproblematic. In…
Descriptors: Linguistic Theory, Second Language Learning, Turkish, Native Language
A Cross-Linguistic Study of the Acquisition of Clitic and Pronoun Production
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Varlokosta, Spyridoula; Belletti, Adriana; Costa, João; Friedmann, Naama; Gavarró, Anna; Grohmann, Kleanthes K.; Guasti, Maria Teresa; Tuller, Laurice; Lobo, Maria; Andelkovic, Darinka; Argemí, Núria; Avram, Larisa; Berends, Sanne; Brunetto, Valentina; Delage, Hélène; Ezeizabarrena, María-José; Fattal, Iris; Haman, Ewa; van Hout, Angeliek; de López, Kristine Jensen; Katsos, Napoleon; Kologranic, Lana; Krstic, Nadezda; Kraljevic, Jelena Kuvac; Miekisz, Aneta; Nerantzini, Michaela; Queraltó, Clara; Radic, Zeljana; Ruiz, Sílvia; Sauerland, Uli; Sevcenco, Anca; Smoczynska, Magdalena; Theodorou, Eleni; van der Lely, Heather; Veenstra, Alma; Weston, John; Yachini, Maya; Yatsushiro, Kazuko – Language Acquisition: A Journal of Developmental Linguistics, 2016
This study develops a single elicitation method to test the acquisition of third-person pronominal objects in 5-year-olds for 16 languages. This methodology allows us to compare the acquisition of pronominals in languages that lack object clitics ("pronoun languages") with languages that employ clitics in the relevant context…
Descriptors: Language Research, Contrastive Linguistics, Form Classes (Languages), Morphology (Languages)
Acquiring the Scope of Disjunction and Negation in L2: A Bidirectional Study of Learners of Japanese and English
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Gruter, Theres; Lieberman, Moti; Gualmini, Andrea – Language Acquisition: A Journal of Developmental Linguistics, 2010
While L1 transfer and L2 learnability have been studied extensively in the domain of syntax and the syntax/semantics interface, purely semantic phenomena have received little attention in the L2 literature. This paper presents two experiments examining the relative scope assigned to disjunction and negation by English-speaking learners of Japanese…
Descriptors: Questionnaires, Semantics, Syntax, Japanese