The Binding Theory Module: Evidence from First Language Acquisition for Principle C

Lust, Barbara; Eisele, Julie A.; Mazuka, Reiko

doi:10.2307/416944

Cited by 21 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Lust (in preparation); ). These results, taken together, corroborate the proposal that there exists a preprogrammed and universal "structuredependence" in first language acquisition (Lust, Eisele, and Mazuka (1992)). The structure-dependence is principled; yet, the application of the related principles is modulated by phrase structure parameter-setting (cf.…”

Section: Conclusion and Discussionsupporting

confidence: 79%

“…An interaction of principles and parameters in UG constrains children's early hypotheses about their grammar. (See Lust, Eisele, and Mazuka (1992) for a review of evidence that knowledge of Principle C appears early in acquisition. See Lust (to appear, in preparation) for theoretical arguments with regard to this proposal; and Mazuka (in press) for discussion of this proposal and evidence that knowledge of CP parameterization may appear early, perhaps before the first word.)…”

Section: Precedence Effects In Acquisition: Parameterization Of Chinementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Each subject was tested on 2 items in each condition in these left-branching constructions. (See Eisele (1988), Lust, Eisele and Mazuka (1992), and Eisele and Lust (to appear) for detailed design and analyses of this study.) ENGLISH …”

Section: A Corresponding English Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In particular, the results suggest that Chinese children, in their early stages of pronominal acquisition, are guided by the basic principles of Binding Theory, the basic principle of structure-dependence, as well as a universal structural notion of 'command' with regard to phrase structure (cf. Lust, Eisele, and Mazuka (1992)). The results are consistent with a continuous role of these components of UG over development and a uniform notion of local 'domain' with regard to the Binding Theory across languages.…”

Section: General Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Chinese pronominals in universal grammar: A study of linear precedence and command in Chinese and English children's first language acquisition

Lust

Chien

Chiang

et al. 1996

J East Asian Linguis

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This paper concerns a particular problem raised by Mandarin Chinese pronouns, viz. they appear to obey a linear precedence constraint unlike English (e.g., Huang (1982)). This calls into question the nature of UG and how it can account for these crosslinguistic differences.In this paper, experimental analyses of children's (null and lexical) pronoun interpretation in Chinese and English argue for universal 'structure dependence' (including 'command') in the Initial State and against either a universal or a languagespecific role of 'linear precedence' alone. A linear precedence effect is developmentally achieved only in Chinese.The acquisition results provoke a revised theoretical analysis of the grammar of pronouns in Chinese and a strong form of UG. We argue that it is not necessary to propose a language-specific definition of 'command' in Chinese in order to explain the apparent linearity effects on Chinese pronouns, and it is not necessary to propose a linear precedence rule in UG. Rather, consideration of an articulated structure of Chinese NP, which is motivated by the acquisition data, explains essential differences between lexical ta pronominals and null pronominals in Chinese and accounts for linearity effects in the adult language. We propose that ta pronominals are not themselves in argument position and are not N o heads. They are not equivalent to null pronominals.Together the experimental and theoretical results support a 'strong continuity' theory of UG in which universal "principles and parameters" of UG continuously constrain the child's mapping from UG to a specific-language grammar. Language development, and the Chinese precedence effect for pronouns, lies in pragmatic/semantic features connected with the lexical realization of the specifier of a pronominal NP, not in the development of UG. tigation we are led to new insights regarding the grammar of Chinese pronominals and its relation to Universal Grammar (UG). This paper represents one component of a cross-linguistic project in which first language acquisition of English and several other languages are compared in order to investigate the nature of principles and parameters in UG. We assume the theory of UG (as summarized in (1)) to provide a model of the "Initial State" for language development (cf. Lust (to appear, in preparation)).

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Section: Conclusion and Discussionsupporting

confidence: 79%

Section: Precedence Effects In Acquisition: Parameterization Of Chinementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Corresponding English Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: General Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Chinese pronominals in universal grammar: A study of linear precedence and command in Chinese and English children's first language acquisition

Lust

Chien

Chiang

et al. 1996

J East Asian Linguis

Self Cite

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“…A great deal of work in developmental psycholinguistics has been devoted to the study of anaphoric relations, that is, relations holding between a pronominal form and an antecedent in which the interpretation of the former depends on the interpretation of the latter (e.g., Chien and Wexler (1990), Crain and McKee (1986), Jakubowicz (1984), Lust, Eisele, and Mazuka (1992), among others). Less attention has been devoted to the emergence of "reconstruction" effects involving pronouns.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Backward Versus Forward Anaphora: Reconstruction in Child Grammar

Guasti¹,

Chierchia²

2000

Language Acquisition

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Experimental methods in studying child language acquisition

Ambridge

Rowland

2013

WIRES Cognitive Science

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This article reviews the some of the most widely used methods used for studying children's language acquisition including (1) spontaneous/naturalistic, diary, parental report data, (2) production methods (elicited production, repetition/elicited imitation, syntactic priming/weird word order), (3) comprehension methods (act-out, pointing, intermodal preferential looking, looking while listening, conditioned head turn preference procedure, functional neuroimaging) and (4) judgment methods (grammaticality/acceptability judgments, yes-no/truthvalue judgments). The review outlines the types of studies and age-groups to which each method is most suited, as well as the advantage and disadvantages of each. We conclude by summarising the particular methodological considerations that apply to each paradigm and to experimental design more generally. These include (1) choosing an age-appropriate task that makes communicative sense (2) motivating children to co-operate, (3) choosing a between-/within-subjects design, (4) the use of novel items (e.g., novel verbs), (5) fillers, (6) blocked, counterbalanced and random presentation, (7) the appropriate number of trials and participants, (8) drop-out rates (9) the importance of control conditions, (10) choosing a sensitive dependent measure (11) classification of responses, and (12) using an appropriate statistical test.

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The Binding Theory Module: Evidence from First Language Acquisition for Principle C

Cited by 21 publications

References 12 publications

Chinese pronominals in universal grammar: A study of linear precedence and command in Chinese and English children's first language acquisition

Chinese pronominals in universal grammar: A study of linear precedence and command in Chinese and English children's first language acquisition

Backward Versus Forward Anaphora: Reconstruction in Child Grammar

Experimental methods in studying child language acquisition

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