TY  - GEN
A1  - Höhle, Barbara
A1  - Hörnig, Robin
A1  - Weskott, Thomas
A1  - Knauf, Selene
A1  - Krüger, Agnes
T1  - Effects of focus and definiteness on children's word order
BT  - evidence from German five-year-olds' reproductions of double object constructions
T2  - Postprints der Universität Potsdam Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe
N2  - Two experiments tested how faithfully German children aged 4; 5 to 5; 6 reproduce ditransitive sentences that are unmarked or marked with respect to word order and focus (Exp1) or definiteness (Exp2). Adopting an optimality theory (OT) approach, it is assumed that in the German adult grammar word order is ranked lower than focus and definiteness. Faithfulness of children's reproductions decreased as markedness of inputs increased; unmarked structures were reproduced most faithfully and unfaithful outputs had most often an unmarked form. Consistent with the OT proposal, children were more tolerant against inputs marked for word order than for focus; in conflict with the proposal, children were less tolerant against inputs marked for word order than for definiteness. Our results suggest that the linearization of objects in German double object constructions is affected by focus and definiteness, but that prosodic principles may have an impact on the position of a focused constituent.
T3  - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 511 
KW  - indefinite articles
KW  - preschool-children
KW  - information
KW  - animacy
KW  - acquisition
KW  - constraints
KW  - sentences
KW  - language
KW  - grammar
KW  - stress
Y1  - 2019
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-415695
SN  - 1866-8364
IS  - 511
ER  - 
TY  - GEN
A1  - Franselow, Gisbert
A1  - Schlesewsky, Matthias
A1  - Vogel, Ralf
A1  - Weskott, Thomas
T1  - Animacy effects on crossing wh-movement in German
N2  - This article presents several acceptability rating experiments concerned with crossing wh-movement in German multiple questions. Our results show that there is no general superiority effect in German, thus refuting claims to the contrary by Featherston (2005). However, acceptability is reduced when a whphrase crosses a wh-subject with which it agrees in animacy. We explain this finding in terms of the availability of different sorting keys for the answers to the multiple questions.
T3  - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 299 
Y1  - 2011
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-93630
SP  - 657
EP  - 683
ER  -