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Preschool children's sentence comprehension: strategies with respect to animacy*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Henrietta Lempert
Henrietta Lempert
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
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Abstract

In a between-subjects design, 105 children aged 2; 5–5; 5 enacted their interpretation of passive and inverted cleft (IC) sentences in which animacy was systematically varied. Two agent strategies were found at 3;0: dynamic agent and word order. For ICs, the word order strategy persisted at 4;0, but the dynamic agent approach was replaced by an animate agent strategy. For passives, 4-year-olds mostly used structural relations, either regardless of agent and patient animacy (50 % of children), or only for animate patients (30% of children). The latter finding is discussed in terms of topicalization priorities.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , February 1985 , pp. 79 - 93
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

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