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Case assignment in English-speaking children: a paired priming paradigm

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2016

LISA WISMAN WEIL  and
LAURENCE B. LEONARD
LISA WISMAN WEIL*
Affiliation:
Boston University
LAURENCE B. LEONARD
Affiliation:
Purdue University
*
Address for correspondence: Lisa Wisman Weil, Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Boston University, 64 Cummington Mall, Boston, MA 02215. e-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

This study employed a paired priming paradigm to ask whether input features influence a child's propensity to use non-nominative versus nominative case in subject position, and to use non-nominative forms even when verbs are marked for agreement. Thirty English-speaking children (ages 2;6 to 3;7) heard sentences with pronouns that had non-contrasting case forms (e.g. Dad hugs it and it hugs Tigger) and it was hypothesized that these forms would lead to more errors (e.g. Himhugs Barney) in an elicited phrase more often than if the children heard contrasting case forms (e.g. Dad hugs us and we hug the doggie). Tense/agreement features were also examined in children's elicited productions. The findings were consistent with predictions, and supported the input ambiguity hypothesis of Pelham (2011). Implications for current accounts of the optional infinitive stage are discussed.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 44 , Issue 4 , July 2017 , pp. 943 - 967
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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Footnotes

[*]

The authors would like to thank the children and families who participated. Thanks also to the research assistants who helped with data scoring: Alyssa Dienhart, Erin Redmaster, and Anyea Livers. Portions of this work were supported by research grant R01 DC009574 from the National Institutes of Health, USA.

References

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