On the acquisition of Spanish psych predicates
Spanish psych verbs like gustar ('like'/'please') have a non-agreeing dative experiencer that asymmetrically c-commands the agreeing nominative theme (e.g., Cuervo 2003). Intervention accounts (Friedmann et al. 2009) thus predict children will experience difficulties with constru...
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| Format: | article |
| Publication Date: | 2022 |
| Country: | España |
| Institution: | Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona |
| Repository: | Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB |
| Language: | English |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ddd.uab.cat:267102 |
| Online Access: | https://ddd.uab.cat/record/267102 https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.5565/rev/isogloss.160 |
| Access Level: | Open access |
| Keyword: | Wh-questions Psych verbs Intervention Acquisition Spanish |
| Summary: | Spanish psych verbs like gustar ('like'/'please') have a non-agreeing dative experiencer that asymmetrically c-commands the agreeing nominative theme (e.g., Cuervo 2003). Intervention accounts (Friedmann et al. 2009) thus predict children will experience difficulties with constructions that involve movement of the nominative-bearing argument past the dative DP. In this study we evaluate this prediction with a corpus study and an experimental study. Results from the corpus study show that children under the age of 7 underuse the DPnom-V-DPdat order (Theme-Verb-Experiencer) with gustar compared to adults, in line with our predictions. In a picture-matching task we tested 4-6-year-olds on d-linked wh-questions with actional and psych verbs. Results reveal that while children display the expected Nom > Dat wh-phrase extraction asymmetry with actional verbs, they show a Dat > Nom asymmetry with psych verbs. Moreover, children perform worse when the two arguments match in number features (i.e., sg-sg) compared to when they mismatch (i.e., sg-pl), but crucially, only in wh-questions that involve intervention. Our results cannot be fully explained under input-based accounts and are most in line with a structural account such as featural Relativized Minimality (Rizzi 2004). |
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