Ana Lucia Santos

Minimal Answers (eBook, PDF)

Ellipsis, syntax and discourse in the acquisition of European Portuguese

• Format: PDF

Produktbeschreibung

This book offers a new contribution to the debate concerning the acquisition of the syntax-discourse interface. It provides evidence that children acquiring European Portuguese have a very early ability to spontaneously produce VP ellipsis as answers to yes-no questions. It is also argued that the distribution of VP ellipsis in European Portuguese (including its co-existence with Null Complement Anaphora) supports the hypothesis that the identification condition on ellipsis is derivable from some innate knowledge of the syntax-discourse interface. Answers to yes-no questions also provide evidence concerning children's interpretation of questions containing a cleft or the operator so 'only'. The analysis of spontaneous production is complemented by a comprehension experiment, showing that children have two problems in the interpretation of these questions: (i) they do not understand that the cleft and so introduce a presupposition and (ii) they start with a default focus assignment strategy and may not access other focus interpretations.

---

Dieser Download kann aus rechtlichen Gründen nur mit Rechnungsadresse in A, B, BG, CY, CZ, D, DK, EW, E, FIN, F, GR, HR, H, IRL, I, LT, L, LR, M, NL, PL, P, R, S, SLO, SK ausgeliefert werden.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: John Benjamins Publishing Company
• Seitenzahl: 314
• Erscheinungstermin: 11. März 2009
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9789027289766
• Artikelnr.: 42829412