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The Relativized Minimality approach to A'-dependencies (Friedmann et al., 2009) predicts that headed object relative clauses (RCs) and which questions are the most difficult, due to the presence of a lexical restriction on both the subject and the object DP which creates intervention. We investigated comprehension of center-embedded headed object RCs with Italian children, where Number and Gender feature values on subject and object DPs are manipulated. We found that. Number conditions are always more accurate than Gender ones, showing that intervention is sensitive to DP-internal structure. We propose a finer definition of the lexical restriction where external and syntactically active features (such as Number) reduce intervention whereas internal and (possibly) lexicalized features (such as Gender) do so to a lesser extent. Our results are also compatible with a memory interference approach in which the human parser is sensitive to highly specific properties of the linguistic input, such as the cue-based model (Van Dyke, 2007).
Two recent studies (Johnson et al., 2005; Perez-Leroux, 2006) found that English- and Spanish-learning children do not show the ability to use verb inflection as a cue to subject number before the age of 5 to 6 years. These findings suggest an asymmetric development as verb inflections are usually correctly produced before this age. In the present study we investigated whether German 3- to 4-year-olds take advantage of the information provided by the verb inflection in sentence comprehension. In a first study, children's looking behavior at two pictures was measured after presentation of a sentence in which the subject number was coded only by the verb inflection. The results from this study suggest that children's looks reflect correct interpretation of the sentences and thus show their ability to make use of verb inflection. In a second experiment, preferential looking was combined with an additional task in which the children had to point to the matching picture. in this case children did not perform above chance level. Our results underline the relevance that specific task demands have on the performance of children in comprehension testing. These have to be accounted for when interpreting findings on production and comprehension asymmetries in language acquisition.
Eine Grammatik, die nicht nur als Nachschlagegrammatik, sondern auch zum systematischen Selbstlernen angelegt ist. Sie zeichnet sich aus durch
- kleinschrittige, lernerfreundliche Darstellung der grammatischen Erscheinungen (Gliederung nach Wortarten);
- besondere Hilfestellungen für Selbstlerner;
- leicht verständliche Erklärungen;
- eine Vielzahl von authentischen Beispielen;
- Tests zur Überprüfung des Lernfortschritts;
- eine klare optische Gestaltung zur leichteren Orientierung beim Lernen sowie beim Nachschlagen in Zweifelsfällen.
Für Lerner mit sprachlichen Grundkenntnissen sowie für Fortgeschrittene als vielseitiges, umfassendes Arbeitsinstrument gleichermaßen geeignet.