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Un effet du principe C chez l’enfant francophone

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2016

Helen Goodluck  and
Lawrence Solan
Helen Goodluck
Affiliation:
Université d’Ottawa
Lawrence Solan
Affiliation:
Brooklyn Law School
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Abstract

We report a study that tests children’s knowledge of an effect of Principle C of the binding theory: In the adult grammar of English and French, coreference between a main clause object pronoun and a non-pronominal subject of a sentence-final temporal clause is permitted, whereas coreference between a subject pronoun and the subject of a temporal clause is blocked. In an act-out task, both French-speaking adults and children aged 3–7 were found to be sensitive to the position of a main clause pronoun (subject vs object) in selecting a referent for the subject of a temporal clause, permitting coreference more frequently when the pronoun was in object position. This result replicates earlier work done on English. A sentence judgement task produced clear results only for adults. Results from the act-out suggest that children are relatively inept at integrating non-mentioned participants into their interpretation of sentences. We suggest that children’s knowledge of the principle C effect we tested constitutes a “poverty of the stimulus” argument for innateness.

Résumé

Résumé

Notre article évalue la connaissance par l’enfant d’un effet du principe C de la théorie du liage. Dans la grammaire adulte de l’anglais et du français, un pronom objet d’une proposition principale peut coréférer avec le sujet non-pronominal d’une proposition subordonnée circonstancielle de temps. Par contre, la coréférence entre un pronom sujet de la proposition principale et le sujet d’une subordonnée circonstancielle de temps n’est pas permise. En utilisant un test de mise en scène, nous avons constaté que les adultes francophones et les enfants francophones âgés de 4 à 7 ans sont influencés par la position (sujet vs objet) du pronom de la proposition principale: ils admettent plus souvent la coréférence du pronom avec le sujet de la subordonnée dans le cas où le pronom est en position objet. Ce résultat correspond à ceux obtenus lors d’expériences menées auprès d’anglophones. Un test de jugement de grammaticalité effectué au cours de notre étude n’a produit des résultats concluants qu’avec les participants adultes. Quelques résultats du test de mise en scène indiquent que les enfants ont de la difficulté à intégrer des participants non-mentionnés dans leurs interprétations. Enfin, le fait que les enfants reconnaissent l’effet du principe C que nous avons testé renforce, selon nous, l’argument d’insuffisance du stimulus en faveur d’un composant inné de connaissances linguistiques.

Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique , Volume 45 , Special Issue 1-2: Syntaxe et acquisition du francais langue maternelle , June 2000 , pp. 49 - 62
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Linguistic Association 2000

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