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This dissertation, "The Acquisition of Relative Clauses by Cantonese Children: an Experimental Approach" by Elaine, Lau, 劉綺雯, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract: Abstract of thesis entitled "The Acquisition of Relative Clauses by Cantonese Children: an experimental approach" Submitted by Elaine Lau for the degree of Master of Philosophy at The University of Hong Kong in June 2006 Chinese, as an head-initial language with prenominal relative clauses, is of particular interest to theories of processing and acquisition. Contrary to the subject advantage found in other languages, several theories predict an advantage (for both acquisition and processing) for object-extracted relative clauses (RCs) over subject-extracted RCs in Chinese. On the other hand, some accounts maintain a universal subject advantage across languages. Two experiments were conducted to examine the production and comprehension of relative clauses by Cantonese monolingual children aged 4 to 6. In addition to adopting the prototypical test sentences as used in research on relative clauses, this study incorporates relative clauses in copular constructions, with the intention of lowering the processing demands as suggested by Diessel and Tomasello (2005). Results from both tasks showed the best performance with subject-relatives, followed by agent- and patient-relatives, forming a hierarchy with significant differences, while performance on indirect object-, oblique- and genitive-relatives varied markedly between tasks. This accords with the developmental predictions derived from Keenan and Comrie's (1977) Noun Phrase Accessibility Hierarchy, thus reinforcing its universality. Children's erroneous responses suggest that canonical word order is not so much a cue used by children to process RCs, but rather misleads them to interpret them as main clauses (MCs). Relative clauses in copular constructions are found to be less demanding than relative clauses in main clause constructions, giving support to Diessel and Tomasello (2005)'s claims. A developmental trend is observed, with elder children aged 5;0-6;1 having better performance than young children aged 4;0-4;11. The discrepancy in performance between comprehension and production demonstrates the dissimilarity of the two processes. However, the combined role of the two processes in revealing the breadth of linguistic knowledge and proficiency in linguistic skills of children is maintained. DOI: 10.5353/th_b3723334 Subjects: Cantonese dialects - Relative clauses Language acquisition Preschool children - China - Hong Kong - Language
Explaining the acquisition and processing of relative clauses has long challenged psycholinguistics researchers. The current volume presents a collection of chapters that consider the acquisition of relative clauses with a particular focus on function, typology, and language processing. A diverse range of theoretical approaches and languages are bought to bear on the acquisition of this construction type, making the volume unique in its coverage. The volume will appeal to students and scholars whose interest lies in the acquisition and processing of syntax with a particular focus on complex sentences in crosslinguistic and functionalist perspective.
Explaining the acquisition and processing of relative clauses has long challenged psycholinguistics researchers. The current volume presents a collection of chapters that consider the acquisition of relative clauses with a particular focus on function, typology, and language processing. A diverse range of theoretical approaches and languages are bought to bear on the acquisition of this construction type, making the volume unique in its coverage. The volume will appeal to students and scholars whose interest lies in the acquisition and processing of syntax with a particular focus on complex sentences in crosslinguistic and functionalist perspective.
How does a child become bilingual? The answer to this intriguing question remains largely a mystery, not least because it has been far less extensively researched than the process of mastering a first language. Drawing on new studies of children exposed to two languages from birth (English and Cantonese), this book demonstrates how childhood bilingualism develops naturally in response to the two languages in the children's environment. While each bilingual child's profile is unique, the children studied are shown to develop quite differently from monolingual children. The authors demonstrate significant interactions between the children's developing grammars, as well as the important role played by language dominance in their bilingual development. Based on original research and using findings from the largest available multimedia bilingual corpus, the book will be welcomed by students and scholars working in child language acquisition, bilingualism and language contact.
This book presents a comprehensive study of how children acquire complex sentences. Drawing on observational data from English-speaking children aged 2 to 5, Holger Diessel investigates the acquisition of infinitival and participial complement clauses, finite complement clauses, finite and nonfinite relative clauses, adverbial clauses, and coordinate clauses. His investigation shows that the development of complex sentences originates from simple non-embedded sentences and that two different developmental pathways can be distinguished: complex sentences including complement and relative clauses evolve from simple sentences that are gradually expanded to multiple-clause constructions, and complex sentences including adverbial and coordinate clauses develop from simple sentences that are integrated in a specific biclausal unit. He argues that the acquisition process is determined by a variety of factors: the frequency of the various complex sentences in the ambient language, the semantic and syntactic complexity of the emerging constructions, the communicative functions of complex sentences, and the social-cognitive development of the child.
This two-volume set includes talks and posters from the 43rd annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, held November 2-4, 2018. The proceedings opens with the BUCLD 43 keynote by Ann Senghas and the BUCLD 43 plenary by Johanne Paradis.
This book presents a cross-section of recent generative research into the syntax of relative clauses constructions. Most of the papers collected here react in some way to Kayne’s (1994) proposal to handle relative clauses in terms of determiner complementation and raising of the relativized nominal. The editors provide a thorough introduction of these proposals, their background and motivations, arguments for and against. There are detailed studies in the syntax and the semantics of relative clauses constructions in Latin, Ancient Greek, Romanian, Hindi, (Old) English, Old High German, (dialects of) Dutch, Turkish, Swedish, and Japanese. The book should be of interest to any linguist working within generative syntax.