The acquisition of direct object scrambling and clitic placement : syntax and pragmatics / Jeannette C. Schaeffer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Schaeffer, Jeannette C.

Series:

Language acquisition & language disorders ; v. 22.

Language acquisition & language disorders, 0925-0123 ; v. 22

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Language acquisition.

Grammar, Comparative and general--Direct object.

Grammar, Comparative and general.

Grammar, Comparative and general--Clitics.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (200 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam ; Philadelphia, PA : J. Benjamins Pub. Co., 2000.

Summary:

This book offers a new contribution to the debate concerning the "real time acquisition" of grammar in First Language Acquisition Theory. It combines detailed and quantitative observations of object placement in Dutch and Italian child language with an analysis that makes use of the Modularity Hypothesis. Real time development is explained by the interaction between two different modules of language, namely syntax and pragmatics. Children need to build up knowledge of how the world works, which includes learning that in communicating with someone else, one must realize that speaker and hearer knowledge are always independent. Since the syntactic feature referentiality can only be marked if this (pragmatic) distinction is made, and assuming that certain types of object placement (such as scrambling and clitic placement) are motivated by referentiality, it follows that the relevant syntactic mechanism is dependent on the prior acquisition of a pragmatic distinction.

Contents:

THE ACQUISITION OF DIRECT OBJECT SCRAMBLING AND CLITIC PLACEMENT

Editorial page

Title page

LCC data

Table of Contents

List of Tables and Figures

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1. Introduction

Chapter 2. Object Scrambling and Cliticization

Chapter 3. Methodology

Chapter 4. Results and Discussion

Chapter 5. Some Further Results

Chapter 6. Conclusion

Appendix

References

Subject Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (p. [175]-181) and index.

ISBN:

9786612163319

9781282163317

1282163310

9789027299116

9027299110

OCLC:

70725880