28.3945, Diss: Applied Linguistics, Language Acquisition, Syntax; French: Sophia Bello: ''Prolegomenon to the study of French indirect objects in first language acquisition''

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-28-3945. Tue Sep 26 2017. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 28.3945, Diss: Applied Linguistics, Language Acquisition, Syntax; French: Sophia Bello: ''Prolegomenon to the study of French indirect objects in first language acquisition''

Moderators: linguist at linguistlist.org (Damir Cavar, Malgorzata E. Cavar)
Reviews: reviews at linguistlist.org (Helen Aristar-Dry, Robert Coté,
                                   Michael Czerniakowski)
Homepage: http://linguistlist.org

Please support the LL editors and operation with a donation at:
           http://funddrive.linguistlist.org/donate/

Editor for this issue: Sarah Robinson <srobinson at linguistlist.org>
================================================================


Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2017 14:43:07
From: Sophia Bello [sophia.bello at gmail.com]
Subject: Prolegomenon to the study of French indirect objects in first language acquisition

 
Institution: University of Toronto 
Program: Department of French Studies 
Dissertation Status: Completed 
Degree Date: 2017 

Author: Sophia Bello

Dissertation Title: Prolegomenon to the study of French indirect objects in
first language acquisition 

Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics
                     Language Acquisition
                     Syntax

Subject Language(s): French (fra)


Dissertation Director(s):
Mihaela Pirvulescu
Yves Roberge
Anne-Marie Brousseau

Dissertation Abstract:

The objective of this dissertation is to expand upon the current studies
pertaining to the acquisition of indirect objects in Romance languages. Our
investigation of the production of indirect objects in various ditransitive
constructions in French provides a good foundation to further explore their
development. Sixty-five children, aged 3 to 6, and an adult control group of
16 native Quebec French speakers participated in the study. Our experiment was
designed through our observations from naturalistic data (York corpus, CHILDES
database; MacWhinney 2000). A video elicitation task was administered to
determine how and when children acquire indirect objects with two different
types of verbs: obligatorily relational (OR) and freely relational (FR) verbs.
OR verbs are always used in a relational structure (i.e., a structure for
ditransitive constructions denoting a transfer between the direct object and
the indirect object like giving something to someone). To capture the
association between the objects when a transfer is required, the prepositional
phrase (PP) merges with a verb. Some non-relational verbs are FR verbs because
they can alternate between two different representations of VP (i.e., VDP and
VPP). Although they are compatible with a transfer relation, they do not
require it. Therefore, FR verbs usually require an overt direct object DP
(e.g., to throw something) because they are transitive verbs, but they can be
used ditransitively like OR verbs, provided that an overt indirect object is
generated within PP (e.g., to throw something to someone). 

The results of our experiment demonstrate that French-speaking children
produce overt indirect objects with OR and FR verbs. A two-step developmental
path is also observed in early grammar. During Step 1, children aged 3 to 5
continue to use verbs interchangeably in both representations of VP. At age 6,
on the other hand, children reach a period (Step 2) where they have
successfully learned that only transitive verbs, which are freely relational,
can alternate between VPs. This study of French indirect objects in first
language acquisition suggests an overuse of null indirect objects in
ditransitive constructions. Further research on this phenomenon is needed.




------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*****************    LINGUIST List Support    *****************
Please support the LL editors and operation with a donation at:
            http://funddrive.linguistlist.org/donate/
 


----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-28-3945	
----------------------------------------------------------