Agreement with complex disjunction

This study investigates subject-verb agreement with singular disjuncts coordinated by the complex disjunction sau…sau ('either…or') in Romanian, focusing on both monolingual 5-year-old children and adults. While prior research has documented variability in agreement with the simple disjunc...

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Autores: Bleotu, Adina Camelia|||0000-0002-5838-2676, Bîlbîie, Gabriela|||0000-0002-4547-1645
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2025
País:España
Institución:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ddd.uab.cat:322176
Acceso en línea:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/322176
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.5565/rev/isogloss.579
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Romanian
First language acquisition
Complex disjunction
Agreement
Experimental linguistics
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spelling Agreement with complex disjunctionsyntactic and semantic strategies with singular disjuncts in child and adult RomanianBleotu, Adina Camelia|||0000-0002-5838-2676Bîlbîie, Gabriela|||0000-0002-4547-1645RomanianFirst language acquisitionComplex disjunctionAgreementExperimental linguisticsThis study investigates subject-verb agreement with singular disjuncts coordinated by the complex disjunction sau…sau ('either…or') in Romanian, focusing on both monolingual 5-year-old children and adults. While prior research has documented variability in agreement with the simple disjunction sau ('or'), it remains unclear whether similar patterns extend to sau…sau, typically linked to an exclusive interpretation. To explore the relationship between agreement and interpretation, we conducted two forced-choice tasks: a sentence selection task and a picture selection task. In sentence selection, many adults showed context sensitivity, adjusting agreement morphology based on the number of referents; others applied consistent singular or plural agreement. Children mostly selected agreement patterns matching the number of disjuncts verified by the visual context. This suggests that agreement with complex disjunction is initially context-driven in childhood and remains partly so in adulthood. In the picture selection task, adults showed a strong preference for one-disjunct interpretations, whereas children displayed more variability, consistent with an inclusive interpretation. However, adult comprehension aligns more strongly with exclusivity. Overall, our results indicate that speakers differ in how they connect syntactic agreement to interpretation, and that, while for many, complex disjunctions involve exclusivity, for some, complex disjunctions may be ambiguous between inclusive and exclusive readings. 22025-01-0120252025-01-01Articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501VoRhttp://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85info:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfhttps://ddd.uab.cat/record/322176https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.5565/rev/isogloss.579reponame:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UABinstname:Universitat Autònoma de BarcelonaInglésengopen accesshttp://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:ddd.uab.cat:3221762026-06-06T12:50:31Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Agreement with complex disjunction
syntactic and semantic strategies with singular disjuncts in child and adult Romanian
title Agreement with complex disjunction
spellingShingle Agreement with complex disjunction
Bleotu, Adina Camelia|||0000-0002-5838-2676
Romanian
First language acquisition
Complex disjunction
Agreement
Experimental linguistics
title_short Agreement with complex disjunction
title_full Agreement with complex disjunction
title_fullStr Agreement with complex disjunction
title_full_unstemmed Agreement with complex disjunction
title_sort Agreement with complex disjunction
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Bleotu, Adina Camelia|||0000-0002-5838-2676
Bîlbîie, Gabriela|||0000-0002-4547-1645
author Bleotu, Adina Camelia|||0000-0002-5838-2676
author_facet Bleotu, Adina Camelia|||0000-0002-5838-2676
Bîlbîie, Gabriela|||0000-0002-4547-1645
author_role author
author2 Bîlbîie, Gabriela|||0000-0002-4547-1645
author2_role author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Romanian
First language acquisition
Complex disjunction
Agreement
Experimental linguistics
topic Romanian
First language acquisition
Complex disjunction
Agreement
Experimental linguistics
description This study investigates subject-verb agreement with singular disjuncts coordinated by the complex disjunction sau…sau ('either…or') in Romanian, focusing on both monolingual 5-year-old children and adults. While prior research has documented variability in agreement with the simple disjunction sau ('or'), it remains unclear whether similar patterns extend to sau…sau, typically linked to an exclusive interpretation. To explore the relationship between agreement and interpretation, we conducted two forced-choice tasks: a sentence selection task and a picture selection task. In sentence selection, many adults showed context sensitivity, adjusting agreement morphology based on the number of referents; others applied consistent singular or plural agreement. Children mostly selected agreement patterns matching the number of disjuncts verified by the visual context. This suggests that agreement with complex disjunction is initially context-driven in childhood and remains partly so in adulthood. In the picture selection task, adults showed a strong preference for one-disjunct interpretations, whereas children displayed more variability, consistent with an inclusive interpretation. However, adult comprehension aligns more strongly with exclusivity. Overall, our results indicate that speakers differ in how they connect syntactic agreement to interpretation, and that, while for many, complex disjunctions involve exclusivity, for some, complex disjunctions may be ambiguous between inclusive and exclusive readings.
publishDate 2025
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2
2025-01-01
2025
2025-01-01
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv Article
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501
VoR
http://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85
dc.type.openaire.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
format article
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv https://ddd.uab.cat/record/322176
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.5565/rev/isogloss.579
url https://ddd.uab.cat/record/322176
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.5565/rev/isogloss.579
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
eng
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
language eng
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv open access
http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.rights.openaire.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv open access
http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
instname:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
instname_str Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
reponame_str Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
collection Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
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