TY - JOUR

T1 - Object relatives made easy

T2 - a cross-linguistic comparison of the constraints influencing young children's processing of relative clauses

AU - Kidd, Evan

AU - Brandt, Silke

AU - Lieven, Elena

AU - Tomasello, Michael

PY - 2007

Y1 - 2007

N2 - We present the results from four studies, two corpora and two experimental, which suggest that English- and German-speaking children (3;1-4;9 years) use multiple constraints to process and produce object relative clauses. Our two corpora studies show that children produce object relatives that reflect the distributional and discourse regularities of the input. Specifically, the results show that when children produce object relatives they most often do so with ( a) an inanimate head noun, and (b) a pronominal relative clause subject. Our experimental findings show that children use these constraints to process and produce this construction type. Moreover, when children were required to repeat the object relatives they most often use in naturalistic speech, the subject-object asymmetry in processing of relative clauses disappeared. We also report cross-linguistic differences in children's rate of acquisition which reflect properties of the input language. Overall, our results suggest that children are sensitive to the same constraints on relative clause processing as adults.

AB - We present the results from four studies, two corpora and two experimental, which suggest that English- and German-speaking children (3;1-4;9 years) use multiple constraints to process and produce object relative clauses. Our two corpora studies show that children produce object relatives that reflect the distributional and discourse regularities of the input. Specifically, the results show that when children produce object relatives they most often do so with ( a) an inanimate head noun, and (b) a pronominal relative clause subject. Our experimental findings show that children use these constraints to process and produce this construction type. Moreover, when children were required to repeat the object relatives they most often use in naturalistic speech, the subject-object asymmetry in processing of relative clauses disappeared. We also report cross-linguistic differences in children's rate of acquisition which reflect properties of the input language. Overall, our results suggest that children are sensitive to the same constraints on relative clause processing as adults.

U2 - 10.1080/01690960601155284

DO - 10.1080/01690960601155284

M3 - Journal article

VL - 22

SP - 860

EP - 897

JO - Language and Cognitive Processes

JF - Language and Cognitive Processes

SN - 0169-0965

IS - 6

ER -