This study examines the processing and interpretation of passive sentences in German-speaking seven-year-olds, ten-year-olds, and adults. This structure is often assumed to be particularly difficult to understand, and not yet fully mastered in primary school (Kemp, Bredel, & Reich, 2008), i.e. in children aged between six and eleven. Few studies provide empirical data concerning this age range; it is therefore unknown whether this assumption is warranted. Against this background, we tested whether the three age groups differed in their off-line comprehension of passive sentences. In addition, we employed Visual World eye-tracking to measure processing difficulties that may differ between age groups and may not be reflected in the final interpretations. Previous studies on adult language processing in German and English have documented a preference to interpret sentences according to an agent-first strategy. Our results show that all three groups make use of this strategy, and that all of them are able to revise this interpretation once the first cue indicating a passive sentence is encountered (the auxiliary verb form wurde).We conclude that at least from age seven on, children have the linguistic and cognitive prerequisites to process the passive morphosyntax of German and to revise initial sentence misinterpretations.

The contributions assembled in this volume are devoted to Trudel Meisenburg and address central aspects of her research: language contact, variation and change. The individual papers testify the growing interest in complex heterogeneous and hybrid language constellations and show the explanatory power of linguistic theories which account for contact-induced variability in empirical data. Die Beiträge dieses Bandes sind Trudel Meisenburg gewidmet und gruppieren sich um die zentralen Themen ihrer Forschung: Sprachkontakt, Variation und Wandel. Die Beiträge bezeugen das neue Interesse für komplexe heterogene und hybride sprachliche Situationen und zeigen die Leistungsfähigkeit einer für kontaktbedingte Variabilität offenen linguistischen Theoriebildung auf.

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