Testing language acquisition models: null and overt topics in Mandarin

Content Provider	Scilit
Author	Zhu, Jingtao Gavarró, Anna
Copyright Year	2019
Description	Parameter setting is either precipitous (Gibson & Wexler, 1994) or it is gradual in response to input frequency (Yang, 2002, 2004). In this study, we compare these models against the empirical domain of subject and (direct) object drop in Mandarin. We conducted a corpus-based study of the speech of 47 Mandarin-speaking children aged 1;2–6;5, and their caregivers, from the CHILDES database. The results show that before age 1;8 all the children used null subjects and null objects in a target-like fashion, which reveals that the parameter that governs null topics is set from very early on, even if the presence of disambiguating evidence for [+Null Topic] patterns is low. Besides, children'sbaconstructions, which require an overt object, reliably included this object from the first occurrence although its frequency was scarce in the input. Our results indicate that the setting of certain parameters occurred early independently of the input.
Related Links	https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/D47CE61FB3F645368645575372050E8D/S0305000919000114a.pdf/div-class-title-testing-language-acquisition-models-null-and-overt-topics-in-mandarin-div.pdf
Ending Page	732
Page Count	26
Starting Page	707
ISSN	03050009
e-ISSN	14697602
DOI	10.1017/s0305000919000114
Journal	Journal of Child Language
Issue Number	04
Volume Number	46
Language	English
Publisher	Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Publisher Date	2019-04-02
Access Restriction	Open
Subject Keyword	Journal of Child Language Null Topics
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Experimental and Cognitive Psychology Developmental and Educational Psychology Linguistics and Language