Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T09:50:51.421Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Conjunction reduction in child language*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Barbara Lust
Barbara Lust
Affiliation:
Cornell University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Coordinate conjunction was evaluated in early child language with regard to its structural properties. In a series of four studies, 60 two- and three-year-olds grouped by MLU were studied in an elicited imitation task where in the linguistic form of sentences was varied according to conjunction structure (whether sentential or phrasal) and according to pattern of redundancy deletion in conjunction reduction (whether forward or backward in directionality). Both factors were found to affect children's imitation. The results suggested specific constraints on the structure of coordination in child language.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 4 , Issue 2 , June 1977 , pp. 257 - 287
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1977

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

This paper is based on a Ph.D. dissertation submitted to the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. The research was supervised by Professors H. Beilin, V. Valian and D. T. Langendoen. Professors J. Glick, H. Cairns and S. Carey provided helpful comments. Professor H. Sinclair significantly aided the interpretive analysis. To all of the above the author expresses her gratitude. The author also thanks Constantine Kaniklidis for essential support, Georgette Ioup and Larry Jordan for insightful advice; and New York's Temple Shaaray Tefila, the Lathrop Learning Center and the CUNY Day Care Center as well as paediatricians Dr V. Pomeranz and Dr E. Watkins and numerous mothers and fathers, for sharing their children. Preparation of this paper was supported in part by NIH fellowship 1 F22 HDO1226-01.

References

REFERENCES

Beilin, H. & Lust, B. (1975). A study of the development of logical and linguistic connectives: linguistic data. In Beilin, H. (ed.), Studies in the cognitive basis of language development. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Brown, R. (1970). Psycholinguistics. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Brown, R. (1973). A first language. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burt, M. (1971). From deep to surface structure. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspects of the theory of syntax. Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T.Google Scholar
Chomsky, N. (1971). Deep structure, surface structure and semantic interpretation. In Steinberg, D. D. & Jakobovits, L. A. (eds), Semantics. London: C.U.P. Google Scholar
Chomsky, N. (1975). Questions of form and interpretation. Linguistic Analysis 1. 75–109.Google Scholar
Chomsky, N. & Katz, J. (1974). What the linguist is talking about. The Journal of Philosophy 71. 347–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dik, S. (1972). Coordination. Amsterdam: North-Holland.Google Scholar
Dougherty, R. (1970). A grammar of coordinate conjoined structures: I. Lg 46. 850–98.Google Scholar
Dougherty, R. (1971). A grammar of coordinate conjoined structures: II. Lg 47. 298–339.Google Scholar
Hankamer, J. (1971). Constraints on deletion in syntax. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Yale University.Google Scholar
Harries, H. (1973). Coordination reduction. Stanford University Working Papers on Language Universals 11. 139–209.Google Scholar
Hsu, T. & Feldt, L. (1969). The effect of limitations on the number of criterion score values on the significance level of the F-test . American Educational Research Journal 6 515–27.Google Scholar
Kuno, S. (1972). Natural explanations for some syntactic universals. Unpublished paper, Harvard University.Google Scholar
Langendoen, D. T. (1973). Review of M. Burt, From deep to surface structure . Lg 49. 714–25.Google Scholar
Langendoen, D. T. (1975 a). The relation of competence to performance. In Aaronson, D. & Reiber, R. (eds), Developmental psycholinguistics and communication disorders. New York: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.Google Scholar
Langendoen, D. T. (1975 b). Acceptable conclusions from unacceptable ambiguity. In Cohen, J. & Wirth, D. (eds), Testing linguistic hypotheses. Washington, D.C.: Hemisphere Press.Google Scholar
Langendoen, D. T. (1975 c). Properties of infinite but finitely schematizable grammars. Unpublished paper, City University of New York Graduate Center.Google Scholar
Limber, J. (1973). The genesis of complex sentences. In Moore, T. E. (ed.), Cognitive development and the acquisition of language. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Maling, J. (1972). On gapping and the order of constituents. LI 3. 101–8.Google Scholar
Menyuk, P. (1964). Syntactic rules used by children from preschool through first grade. ChDev. 35. 533–46.Google ScholarPubMed
Menyuk, P. (1969). Sentences children use. Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T.Google Scholar
Menyuk, P. (1971). The acquisition and development of language. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Miller, J. (1973). Sentence imitation in preschool children. L&S 16. 1–14.Google Scholar
Piaget, J. (1970). L'epistemologie génétique. France: Presses Universitaires.Google Scholar
Piaget, J., Grize, J.-B., Szeminska, A. & Vinh, Bang (1968). Epistemologie et psychologie de la fonction. France: Presses Universitaires.Google Scholar
Ross, J. (1970). Gapping and the order of constituents. In Bierwisch, M. & Heidolph, K. (eds), Progress in linguistics. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Sanders, G. (1970). Invariant ordering. Unpublished paper, Indiana University Linguistics Club.Google Scholar
Slobin, D. (1967). A field manual for cross-cultural study of the acquisition of communicative competence. Berkeley: University of California.Google Scholar
Slobin, D. (1971). Developmental psycholinguistics. In Dingwall, W. O. (ed.), A survey of linguistic science. College Park, Maryland: University of Maryland Linguistics Program.Google Scholar
Slobin, D. & Welsh, C. (1973). Elicited imitation as a research tool in developmental psycholinguistics. In Ferguson, C. & Slobin, D. (eds), Studies of child language development. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar
Smith, C. (1970). An experimental approach to children's linguistic competence. In Hayes, J. (ed.), Cognition and the development of language. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Stockwell, P., Schachter, P. & Partee, B. (1973). The major syntactic structures of English. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar