Information structure development: Evidence from the acquisition of word order in Russian and English
The present paper aims at shedding some light onto the nature of the early child grammar. It is claimed that children do not operate with pure syntactic structures but also have access to pragmatics. On the basis of word order acquisition in Russian and English it is shown that from early on childre...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Septentrio Academic Publishing
2005-02-01
|
| Series: | Nordlyd: Tromsø University Working Papers on Language & Linguistics |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/nordlyd/article/view/60 |
| _version_ | 1818023225230098432 |
|---|---|
| author | Marina Dyakonova |
| author_facet | Marina Dyakonova |
| author_sort | Marina Dyakonova |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The present paper aims at shedding some light onto the nature of the early child grammar. It is claimed that children do not operate with pure syntactic structures but also have access to pragmatics. On the basis of word order acquisition in Russian and English it is shown that from early on children resort to various strategies to encode information structure. Children acquiring Russian, a language that allows for structural encoding of Topic and Focus, make wide use of pragmatically marked word orders. Speakers of English, a highly configurational language, find other ways to mark information status of constituents, e.g. by means of Topic drop.
The results of the study suggest that different grammatical modules, syntax and pragmatics in the particular case, are acquired in a parallel rather than consecutive fashion. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-10T03:40:56Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-81754e211d554bc986fa69d0275173e7 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1503-8599 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-10T03:40:56Z |
| publishDate | 2005-02-01 |
| publisher | Septentrio Academic Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Nordlyd: Tromsø University Working Papers on Language & Linguistics |
| spelling | doaj.art-81754e211d554bc986fa69d0275173e72022-12-22T02:03:34ZengSeptentrio Academic PublishingNordlyd: Tromsø University Working Papers on Language & Linguistics1503-85992005-02-0132110.7557/12.6058Information structure development: Evidence from the acquisition of word order in Russian and EnglishMarina Dyakonova0Department of Theoretical Linguistics, ACLC, University of AmsterdamThe present paper aims at shedding some light onto the nature of the early child grammar. It is claimed that children do not operate with pure syntactic structures but also have access to pragmatics. On the basis of word order acquisition in Russian and English it is shown that from early on children resort to various strategies to encode information structure. Children acquiring Russian, a language that allows for structural encoding of Topic and Focus, make wide use of pragmatically marked word orders. Speakers of English, a highly configurational language, find other ways to mark information status of constituents, e.g. by means of Topic drop. The results of the study suggest that different grammatical modules, syntax and pragmatics in the particular case, are acquired in a parallel rather than consecutive fashion.https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/nordlyd/article/view/60information structureword orderspecificitylanguage acquisitionRussian languageEnglish language |
| spellingShingle | Marina Dyakonova Information structure development: Evidence from the acquisition of word order in Russian and English Nordlyd: Tromsø University Working Papers on Language & Linguistics information structure word order specificity language acquisition Russian language English language |
| title | Information structure development: Evidence from the acquisition of word order in Russian and English |
| title_full | Information structure development: Evidence from the acquisition of word order in Russian and English |
| title_fullStr | Information structure development: Evidence from the acquisition of word order in Russian and English |
| title_full_unstemmed | Information structure development: Evidence from the acquisition of word order in Russian and English |
| title_short | Information structure development: Evidence from the acquisition of word order in Russian and English |
| title_sort | information structure development evidence from the acquisition of word order in russian and english |
| topic | information structure word order specificity language acquisition Russian language English language |
| url | https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/nordlyd/article/view/60 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT marinadyakonova informationstructuredevelopmentevidencefromtheacquisitionofwordorderinrussianandenglish |