Functional categories and maturation: The prefunctional stage of language acquisition

The aim of this thesis is to provide a theory of language acquisition within the Principles and Parameters framework of Generative Grammar. In Chapter 1, I outline the syntactic theory I adopt which assumes that functional categories determine crosslinguistic variation in terms of parameterisation. In the model of the grammar presented, the set of functional categories is argued to constitute an independent module in the Language Faculty, the Functional Module. This is also referred to as the UG lexicon on the ground that it consists of categories that belong to the grammar proper. Substantive categories are assumed to be included in the Mental lexicon which is part of an independent module of the mind/brain. One of the underlying criteria which determine the difference between functional and substantive categories is the relation of each of these sets with conceptual entries in the mental lexicon. Both substantive and functional categories are argued to be morphologically realised at an interface level where processes of morphological affixation take place. The theoretical approach to language acquisition defended in this thesis is summarised as follows: Principles of UG (Universal Grammar) are always available throughout the process of language acquisition; the Functional Module is subject to maturation, hence not available at the Prefunctional stage (18-24 months). On the basis of these background assumptions, the predictions of the theory are that Prefunctional grammars are 'possible' grammars in the sense defined by UG and that parameterisation is absent. Accordingly, the theory is tested against acquisition data from a number of languages: English, French, Greek, German, Spanish and Irish. In Chapter 2 I present an account of inflectional affixation in Prefunctional grammars, the basic claim being that Aspect rather than Tense is encoded in early verbal forms. The presence of Aspect at this stage is argued to be motivated by two reasons. The first is that the process of Aspectual affixation involves a morphological rather than a syntactic derivation. On the assumption that lexical processes take place at the interface level, the presence of Aspectual features is expected. The second reason is that Aspect is an argument of the verb, thus necessarily present in early grammars, by virtue of thematic constraints on representations imposed by UG. In Chapter 3 I discuss Agreement morphology in early verbal forms. The absence of an Agreement projection in the structural representation is argued to give rise to a number of predictions as far as the status of null arguments in Prefunctional grammars is concerned. In particular, the claim put forward is that null subjects and objects are structurally realised as PRO, the underlying motivation being that the availability of this category does not depend on the presence of a functional head in the clause structure. The traditional idea that child grammars are context-bound is formulated in terms of the distinction between discourse- and sentence-oriented languages. Early grammars are thus argued to belong to the former set in that the referential status of null arguments is not syntactically but pragmatically identified. In Chapter 4 the issue of word-order in Prefunctional grammars is addressed. In the absence of functional heads in the clause structure, the order of the subject and the object is argued to be unfixed with respect to the verbal head. Moreover, according to the clause structure suggested previously, it is predicted that certain word-order patterns are not available at this stage. Thus, the VSO order is shown to be missing even in acquisition data from languages where it is available in adult speech, e.g. Irish, Greek and Spanish. The account of word-order in early grammars is thus subsumed under the general claim concerning the absence of functional categories, and, consequently, parameterisation. In Chapter 5, I discuss the interaction of negation and modality at the Prefunctional stage. These two categories are argued to exhibit certain distributional properties in early grammars which are attributed to their underlying semantic compatibility. Thus, distinctions between different categories of modality as well as between modal and non-modal sentences are argued to be expressed in the use of different negative elements in early grammars. The transition from this to the subsequent stage of development is argued to be the result of modal elements and negation emerging as syntactic categories. This account is consistent with the theoretical approach to language acquisition presented in this thesis, whereby transitional stages of development are taken to instantiate the emerging functional structure

Linguistic illusions and misconceptions: The role of language variation in language development across three varieties of American English

Prior research on the linguistic abilities of Southern English- (SE) and African-American English-speaking children (SAAE) revealed unexpectedly high rates of risk for a language disorder (Christodoulou & Tsimpli 2021; Moland & Oetting 2021). This study examines the performance of 139 SE-, 46 SAAE-, and 35 Mainstream American English-speaking children (MAE), aged 2-13, and analyzes their performance, through twelve sections, in four key linguistic domains: syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and phonology, using a standardized assessment test. Results revealed a parallel performance across the three groups in all linguistic domains. The highest means of accuracy were noted with phonology and the lowest with semantics. Analysis of the participants’ performance by age evidenced a virtually identical performance across the three groups after age 6 or 7, but considerable variations were noted with younger children. Results from the current study contradict results from previous work showing considerably high rates of risk for a language disorder for the SAAE-speaking children, as their performance is parallel to not only that of SE-speaking children but it also the performance of MAE-speaking children. Results from the current study could help guide educational policies, especially for early education programs, as well as diagnostic assessment and rehabilitation

Categorical and Dimensional Diagnoses of Dyslexia: Are They Compatible?

Dyslexia is often assessed using categorical diagnoses, and subtypes of dyslexia are also recognized in a categorical fashion. Children may meet the criteria for dyslexia, and they may more specifically meet the criteria for a subtype of it, and thus get a diagnosis. This approach to diagnosis clashes with the actual distribution of reading performance in children (which is normal and continuous), and it has received criticism. This article offers a conceptual framework for conciliating these two positions. In short, the proposal is to use a set of multicomponent continuous assessments of reading, rather than thresholds. The proposal is explained using original data obtained from a sample of 30 children (age 7 to 11), tested in the United Kingdom. Using an assessment based on categorical-thresholds, only five children in our sample qualify for extra assistance, and only one may get a diagnosis of dyslexia, while with the mixed system proposed, a few additional children in the gray area would receive attention. This approach would not discard previous categorical approaches such as those distinguishing between surface and phonological dyslexia, but it would rather see these subtypes of dyslexia as the instance of a lower score on the continuum obtained on a single component of the multicomponent assessment

Iterprétabilité des traits et acquisition des langues maternelle et seconde : clitiques et déterminants en grec

L’hypothèse que cet article vise à tester consiste à expliquer la différence entre l’acquisition de la L1 par l’enfant et d’une L2 par un adulte grâce à la distinction entre traits grammaticaux « interprétables » (sémantiques) et « ininterprétables » (formels). Selon cette hypothèse, la différence entre grammaires de première et de seconde langue serait limitée au domaine des traits ininterprétables, les seuls soumis aux contraintes de la « période critique », et inaccessibles de ce fait lors de l’acquisition d’une L2 analyseraient de manière erroné les éléments de la langue cible qui comportent des faisceaux de ces traits. En grec, les pronoms clitiques et l’article défini appartiennent à la même catégorie –celle des D(éterminants), et répondent à cette description. Les pronoms clitiques de 1er et 2 personne se distinguent de ceux de 3e personne en ce que les premiers comportent le trait interprétable [personne], trait qui n’est pas spécifié dans le cas des derniers. L’hypothèse prédit en conséquence que l’acquisition de la L2 devrait refléter cette différence par un développement distinct des clitiques possédant le trait [personne] et de ceux qui en sont dépourvus. Les données permettent d’affirmer que la primo-acquisition des clitiques et des déterminants du grec se caractérise par deux stades, un premier où ces morphèmes –ainsi, vraisemblablement, que les projections correspondantes –sont absents, et un second qui atteste de la revanche les données qui concernent un stade avancé d’acquisition de la L2 manifestent la persistance de problèmes concernant les clitiques de 3e personne et l’article défini, ce qui confirme l’hypothèse d’une hiérarchie d’accessibilité des traits interprétables et ininterprétables. Elles montrent en même temps que l’emploi des déterminants et des clitiques est limité p ar un trait de [référence / définitude] que la grammaire de L2 impose à ces éléments problématiques, leur attribuant ainsi, de façon erronée, des traits interprétables pour lutter contre le caractère erratique d’un emploi purement optionnel.The aim of this paper is to investigate a learnability hypothesis for child L1 and adult L2 acquisition formulated on the basis of the distinction between interpretable and uninterpretable grammatical features. It is argued that the difference between first and second language grammars is restricted to the domain of uninterpretable features in that these are subject to Critical Period constraints. Consequently, uninterpretable features become inaccessible in L2 acquisition and, thus, “late”L2 grammars misanalyse elements which are clusters of such features in the target language. Morphological elements of this type are pronominal clitics and the definite article in Greek which belong to the same category, namely D(eterminer). The distinction within the set of pronominal clitics between 1st and 2nd prson clit ics, on one hand, and 3rd person clitics, on the other, is also viewed as a difference between the former composition, while the latter are unspecified for this feature. As a result, the prediction is that L2 acquisition should mirror this difference in terms of a dissociation in the development of clitics with a [person] feature, and those without. On the basis of the data presented, it is argued that L1 acquisition of clitics and determiners is characterized by an earliest stage where these morphemes – and, arguably, the corresponding projections –are missing, to the second stage which shows mastery of the relevant features regardless of interpretability. On the other hand, L2 acquisition data from an advanced stage of development show persistent problems in the use of the 3rd person clitic and the definite article, thus supporting the hypothesis regarding the learnability hierarchy of interpretable and uninterpretable features and, at the same time, showing that use of determiners and clitics is restricted by a feature of [referentiality / definiteness] imposed on these problematic elements by the L2 grammar. As a result, L2 grammars are shown to “misanalyse” these elements by attributing interpretable features to them in order to constrain random optionality in their use

The role of bilingualism, age of onset of L2 acquisition & literacy in sentence repetition: The case of Albanian-Greek speaking children

The present study examines how bilingualism, age of onset (AoO) of exposure to Greek and degree of literacy affect the performance of Greek/Albanian bilingual children on a Sentence Repetition (SR) task. Sixty 8 to 10-year-old children were tested, twenty per group, i.e. monolinguals, simultaneous bilinguals and late- sequential bilinguals. The analysis showed that (a) the monolingual group outperforms the bilingual groups, (b) there is strong relationship between vocabulary development and SR performance and (c) the amount of early and current oral input in Greek affects SR performance

Anaphora resolution and reanalysis during L2 sentence processing: evidence from the visual world paradigm

In a visual world paradigm study, we manipulated gender congruence between a subject pronoun and two antecedents to investigate whether L2 learners with a null subject first language (L1) acquire and process overt subject pronouns in a non-null subject L2 in a nativelike way. We also investigated whether L2 speakers revise an initial interpretation assigned to an ambiguous pronoun when information in the visual context subsequently biased against it. Our results indicated both L1 English speakers and Greek L2 English speakers rapidly used gender information to guide pronoun resolution. Both groups also preferentially coindexed ambiguous pronouns to a sentence subject and current discourse topic, despite the fact that overt subject pronouns in the learners’ L1 index a topic shift. We also observed that L2 English speakers were less likely to revise their initial interpretation than L1 English speakers. These results indicate that L2 speakers from a null subject background can acquire the interpretive preferences of overt pronouns in a non-null subject L2. The eye-movement data indicate that anaphora processing can become qualitatively similar in native and non-native speakers in the domain of subject pronoun resolution, but indicate reanalysis may cause difficulty during L2 processing

Syntactic and Story Structure Complexity in the Narratives of High- and Low-Language Ability Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Although language impairment is commonly associated with the autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the Diagnostic Statistical Manual no longer includes language impairment as a necessary component of an ASD diagnosis (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). However, children with ASD and no comorbid intellectual disability struggle with some aspects of language whose precise nature is still outstanding. Narratives have been extensively used as a tool to examine lexical and syntactic abilities, as well as pragmatic skills in children with ASD. This study contributes to this literature by investigating the narrative skills of 30 Greek-speaking children with ASD and normal non-verbal IQ, 16 with language skills in the upper end of the normal range (ASD-HL), and 14 in the lower end of the normal range (ASD-LL). The control group consisted of 15 age-matched typically-developing (TD) children. Narrative performance was measured in terms of both microstructural and macrostructural properties. Microstructural properties included lexical and syntactic measures of complexity such as subordinate vs. coordinate clauses and types of subordinate clauses. Macrostructure was measured in terms of the diversity in the use of internal state terms (ISTs) and story structure complexity, i.e., children's ability to produce important units of information that involve the setting, characters, events, and outcomes of the story, as well as the characters' thoughts and feelings. The findings demonstrate that high language ability and syntactic complexity pattern together in ASD children's narrative performance and that language ability compensates for autistic children's pragmatic deficit associated with the production of Theory of Mind-related ISTs. Nevertheless, both groups of children with ASD (high and low language ability) scored lower than the TD controls in the production of Theory of Mind-unrelated ISTs, modifier clauses and story structure complexity

The role of morpho-phonological salience in tense marking: a comparison between Greek and Cypriot-Greek SLI children*

The current study investigates past formation in Standard Greek (SG) and Cypriot Greek (CYG) measuring the associated morphophonological salience and its effects on SLI grammars. Elicited production of real and pseudo verbs was carried out with SLI and TD groups from each variety. Results show that phonological salience of past formation affects SLI but not TD performance. Between varieties, the GR/SLI group performs better than CYG/SLI group with real verbs. We attribute this finding to the difference in the status of the augment in each variety