The development of null vs. overt subject pronoun expression in monolingual Spanish -speaking children: The influence of continuity of reference.
Item
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Title
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The development of null vs. overt subject pronoun expression in monolingual Spanish -speaking children: The influence of continuity of reference.
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Identifier
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AAI3231965
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identifier
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3231965
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Creator
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Shin, Naomi Lapidus.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Helen Smith Cairns
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Date
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2006
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Language, Linguistics | Psychology, Developmental
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Abstract
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In Spanish, Continuity of Reference is a powerful predictor of the alternation between null and overt subject personal pronouns. Overt pronouns are favored when reference is changed, null pronouns when reference is maintained. To investigate sensitivity to Continuity of Reference, 181 children and 30 adults were tested in Mexico. Participants were told the Spanish equivalent of stories like (1). (1a) Maria and Jose sing songs. (1b) Maria sings a ranchera. (1c) Later, X sings a children's song. The subject of the (1c) sentences was expressed as an overt or null subject pronoun. Two referential contexts were constructed: Maintain Reference: the referent of the relevant grammatical subject is the same as the referent of the previous grammatical subject, e.g., in (1) X refers to Maria. Change Reference: the referent of the relevant grammatical subject is different from the referent of the previous grammatical subject, e.g., in (1) X refers to Jose. Participants' preferences for overt or null pronouns were elicited in both referential contexts.;Results showed that adults preferred null pronouns in Maintain Reference contexts and overt pronouns in Change Reference contexts. Only the oldest group of child participants significantly preferred null pronouns in Maintain Reference contexts. This suggests that children tend to include redundant information in discourse, a finding that is corroborated by studies of communication skills (Ford & Olson, 1975; Sonnenschein, 1985; Whitehurst, 1976).;With respect to Change Reference contexts, many of the youngest children preferred null pronouns. At around age 9 the preference for overt pronouns in Change Reference contexts became significant. Around age 14 the preference rates matched those of adults. Since our experimental items were created so that null pronouns in Change Reference contexts were ambiguous, such a preference exposes difficulty with establishing clear referents for pronouns. Narratives elicited from participants in Queretaro suggest that the preference patterns are related to the production of ambiguous pronouns. Sensitivity to Change Reference contexts, as well as the production of pronouns with clear referents, requires both awareness of interlocutors' information needs and dexterity with intersentential anaphoric reference.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
