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Learning to construct sentences in Spanish: a replication of the Weird Word Order technique

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2019

Javier AGUADO-OREA Open the ORCID record for Javier AGUADO-OREA [Opens in a new window] ,
Hannah WITHERSTONE ,
Lisa BOURGEOIS  and
Ana BASELGA
Javier AGUADO-OREA*
Affiliation:
Sheffield Hallam University, UK
Hannah WITHERSTONE
Affiliation:
Sheffield Hallam University, UK
Lisa BOURGEOIS
Affiliation:
Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain
Ana BASELGA
Affiliation:
Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain
*
*Corresponding author: E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

In the present study, children's early ability to organise words into sentences was investigated using the Weird Word Order procedure with Spanish-speaking children. Spanish is a language that allows for more flexibility in the positions of subjects and objects, with respect to verbs, than other previously studied languages (English, French, and Japanese). As in prior studies (Abbot-Smith et al., 2001; Chang et al., 2009; Franck et al., 2011; Matthews et al., 2005, 2007), we manipulated the relative frequency of verbs in training sessions with two age groups (three- and four-year-old children). Results supported earlier findings with regard to frequency: children produced atypical word orders significantly more often with infrequent verbs than with frequent verbs. The findings from the present study support probabilistic learning models which allow higher levels of flexibility and, in turn, oppose hypotheses that defend early access to advanced grammatical knowledge.

Keywords

Weird Word OrderSpanish syntaxexperimental methods
Type
Brief Research Reports
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 46 , Issue 6 , November 2019 , pp. 1249 - 1259
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

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