Simple vs. complex transitive constructions in the acquisition of English structures

  1. Silvia Sánchez Calderón Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia 1
  1. 1 Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia
    info

    Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia

    Madrid, España

    ROR https://ror.org/02msb5n36

Revista:
Círculo de lingüística aplicada a la comunicación

ISSN: 1576-4737

Año de publicación: 2021

Número: 85

Páginas: 127-140

Tipo: Artículo

DOI: 10.5209/CLAC.73544 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openAcceso abierto editor

Otras publicaciones en: Círculo de lingüística aplicada a la comunicación

Resumen

This study examines the acquisition of English simple monotransitive and complex dative alternation (DA) structures (double object constructions (DOC) and to/for-datives) in the longitudinal spontaneous production of monolingual children. In order to address these issues, we analyzed data from twelve English monolingual children and from adults’ child-directed speech, as available in CHILDES (MacWhinney, 2000). The findings revealed that simple monotransitive constructions started being produced earlier and showed a higher incidence when compared to complex DA constructions, which suggests that the degree of syntactic complexity has had an effect on the acquisition of transitives. However, the two complex DA constructions emerged at an approximately similar age, which could be explained by the Case assigning related properties. Furthermore, the chronological progression and the difference regarding the incidence of the three constructions (monotransitives > DOCs > to/for-datives) could be attributed to the amount of exposure to these structures in the adult input.

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Información de financiación

This research was funded by the Castile and León Regional Government, ORDEN EDU/1083/2013, 27 December, co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the University of Valladolid; by the Castile and León Regional Government and ERDF (Ref. VA009P17), and by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities and ERDF (PGC2018-097693-B-IOO).

Financiadores

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