Minimal Answers: Ellipsis, syntax and discourse in the acquisition of European Portuguese

Ana Lúcia Santos

ISBN 10: 9027253099 / ISBN 13: 9789027253095

Verlag: John Benjamins Publishing Company, U.S.A., 2009

Beschreibung

Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 033149

Bibliografische Details

• Titel: Minimal Answers: Ellipsis, syntax and discourse in the acquisition of European Portuguese
• Verlag: John Benjamins Publishing Company, U.S.A.
• Erscheinungsjahr: 2009
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN-10: 9027253099
• ISBN-13: 9789027253095
• Einband: Hardcover
• Zustand: Very Good
• Zustand des Schutzumschlags: No Jacket
• Verkäuferkataloge:
  • Language

Über diesen Titel

Inhaltsangabe

This book offers a new contribution to the debate concerning the acquisition of the syntax-discourse interface. It provides evidence that children acquiring European Portuguese have a very early ability to spontaneously produce VP ellipsis as answers to yes-no questions. It is also argued that the distribution of VP ellipsis in European Portuguese (including its co-existence with Null Complement Anaphora) supports the hypothesis that the identification condition on ellipsis is derivable from some innate knowledge of the syntax-discourse interface. Answers to yes-no questions also provide evidence concerning children’s interpretation of questions containing a cleft or the operator só ‘only’. The analysis of spontaneous production is complemented by a comprehension experiment, showing that children have two problems in the interpretation of these questions: (i) they do not understand that the cleft and só introduce a presupposition and (ii) they start with a default focus assignment strategy and may not access other focus interpretations.