The role of case and animacy in bi-and monolingual children’s sentence interpretation in German: a developmental perspective
German-speaking children appear to have a strong N1-bias when interpreting non-canonical OVSsentences. During sentence interpretation, especially unambiguous accusative and dative case markers (den ‘the-ACC’ and dem ‘the-DAT’) weaken the N1-bias and help building up sentence interpretation strategie...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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De Gruyter
2019-04-01
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| Series: | Open Linguistics |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1515/opli-2019-0001 |
| _version_ | 1818581869269090304 |
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| author | Gamper Jana |
| author_facet | Gamper Jana |
| author_sort | Gamper Jana |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | German-speaking children appear to have a strong N1-bias when interpreting non-canonical OVSsentences. During sentence interpretation, especially unambiguous accusative and dative case markers (den ‘the-ACC’ and dem ‘the-DAT’) weaken the N1-bias and help building up sentence interpretation strategies on the basis of morphological cues. Still, the N1-bias prevails beyond the age of five (Brandt et al. 2016, Cristante 2016, Dittmar et al. 2008) and remains until puberty (Lidzba et al. 2013). This paper investigates whether prototypical case-animacy coalitions (denACC + NINANIMATE and demDAT + NANIMATE ) strengthen a morphologically based sentence interpretation strategy in German. The experiment discussed in this paper tests for effects of such case-animacy coalitions in mono- and bilingual primary school children. 20 German monolinguals, 12 Dutch-German and 17 Russian-German bilinguals with a mean age of 9;6 were tested in a forced-choice off-line experiment. Results indicate that case-animacy coalitions weaken the N1-bias in OVS-conditions in German monolinguals and Dutch-German bilinguals, while no effects were found for Russian-German bilinguals. Together with an analysis of individual differences, these group-specific effects are discussed in terms of a developmental approach that represents a gradual cue strength adjustment process in mono- and bilingual children. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-16T07:40:20Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-1b1a401f947e4c0da12a2843b19097b1 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2300-9969 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-16T07:40:20Z |
| publishDate | 2019-04-01 |
| publisher | De Gruyter |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Open Linguistics |
| spelling | doaj.art-1b1a401f947e4c0da12a2843b19097b12022-12-21T22:39:05ZengDe GruyterOpen Linguistics2300-99692019-04-015112410.1515/opli-2019-0001opli-2019-0001The role of case and animacy in bi-and monolingual children’s sentence interpretation in German: a developmental perspectiveGamper Jana0German Department, German as a Foreign and Second Language, University of Potsdam, Am Neuen Palais 10, 14469Potsdam, GermanyGerman-speaking children appear to have a strong N1-bias when interpreting non-canonical OVSsentences. During sentence interpretation, especially unambiguous accusative and dative case markers (den ‘the-ACC’ and dem ‘the-DAT’) weaken the N1-bias and help building up sentence interpretation strategies on the basis of morphological cues. Still, the N1-bias prevails beyond the age of five (Brandt et al. 2016, Cristante 2016, Dittmar et al. 2008) and remains until puberty (Lidzba et al. 2013). This paper investigates whether prototypical case-animacy coalitions (denACC + NINANIMATE and demDAT + NANIMATE ) strengthen a morphologically based sentence interpretation strategy in German. The experiment discussed in this paper tests for effects of such case-animacy coalitions in mono- and bilingual primary school children. 20 German monolinguals, 12 Dutch-German and 17 Russian-German bilinguals with a mean age of 9;6 were tested in a forced-choice off-line experiment. Results indicate that case-animacy coalitions weaken the N1-bias in OVS-conditions in German monolinguals and Dutch-German bilinguals, while no effects were found for Russian-German bilinguals. Together with an analysis of individual differences, these group-specific effects are discussed in terms of a developmental approach that represents a gradual cue strength adjustment process in mono- and bilingual children.https://doi.org/10.1515/opli-2019-0001sentence interpretationl2 germancase-animacy |
| spellingShingle | Gamper Jana The role of case and animacy in bi-and monolingual children’s sentence interpretation in German: a developmental perspective Open Linguistics sentence interpretation l2 german case-animacy |
| title | The role of case and animacy in bi-and monolingual children’s sentence interpretation in German: a developmental perspective |
| title_full | The role of case and animacy in bi-and monolingual children’s sentence interpretation in German: a developmental perspective |
| title_fullStr | The role of case and animacy in bi-and monolingual children’s sentence interpretation in German: a developmental perspective |
| title_full_unstemmed | The role of case and animacy in bi-and monolingual children’s sentence interpretation in German: a developmental perspective |
| title_short | The role of case and animacy in bi-and monolingual children’s sentence interpretation in German: a developmental perspective |
| title_sort | role of case and animacy in bi and monolingual children s sentence interpretation in german a developmental perspective |
| topic | sentence interpretation l2 german case-animacy |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1515/opli-2019-0001 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT gamperjana theroleofcaseandanimacyinbiandmonolingualchildrenssentenceinterpretationingermanadevelopmentalperspective AT gamperjana roleofcaseandanimacyinbiandmonolingualchildrenssentenceinterpretationingermanadevelopmentalperspective |