The fascination of silence or how a child acquires empty categories? : under the comprehension of primary- linguistic data from the corpus "CHILDES"
- The article is concerned with the acquisition of empty categories within the Principles-and-Parameters framework (Chomsky 1995; 1998; 2000; 2001ab; 2004). The ealy null subject is one of the most studied topics in the acquisition of syntax. Scholars have taken two basic positions on this phenomenon. One holds that the early null subject reflects an aspect of children's competence. The other tackles the problem by appealing to limitations on children's performance. This article is organized as follows: section 1 presents and evaluates the logical aspect of language acquisition under the P&P approach and gives insights into word order phenomena and the structure of early sentences. Section 2 is concerned with the null subject (pro-drop)-parameter and attributes this phenomenon to an incorrect setting of the parameters governing the lexical expression of subjects across languages. One theory assimilates the early null subject to null subjects in Slavic languages and Italian, and the other assimilates it to null subjects in Chinese
Author details: | Peter KostaORCiDGND |
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Publication type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Year of first publication: | 2005 |
Publication year: | 2005 |
Release date: | 2017/03/24 |
Source: | Zeitschrift für Slawistik. - 50 (2005), 4, S. 417 - 443 |
Organizational units: | Philosophische Fakultät / Institut für Slavistik |
Peer review: | Referiert |