Acquisition of Relativization and Economy

Abstract

This study focuses on the acquisition of relativization strategies in Brazilian Portuguese (BP), based on corpora investigated by Lessa-de-Oliveira (2008). Assuming Hornstein’s (2007) Economy notion to movement, I propose that the standard relativization strategy is acquired before the non-standard strategy in the case of the non-prepositional relatives because it relies on the more economical option. Moreover, using Roeper’s (2003) Economy notion and Kato’s (1993) and Kato and Nunes’s (2009) proposal to structures of non-standard relatives in BP, I argue that the difficulty in the acquisition of pied-piping relatives is due to the inherent complexity of the pied-piping operation.KEYWORD: Language Acquisition.. Economy (Syntax). Appositive Relatives. Non-Standard Relative. Restrictive Relatives.Este estudo focaliza a aquisição das estratégias relativas em português brasileiro (PB), com base em corpora naturalísticos-longitudinais investigados por Lessa-de-Oliveira (2008). Assumindo a noção Economia de Hornstein (2007) para movimento, proponho que a relativa padrão é adquirida antes da não-padrão, no caso das relativas não-preposicionais, porque esta é a opção mais econômica. E, com base na noção de Economia de Roeper (2003) e nas propostas de Kato (1993) e Kato e Nunes (2009) para as estruturas de relativas não-padrão em PB, argumento que a dificuldade na aquisição das relativas com pied-piping se deve a uma complexidade inerente à operação de pied-piping.PALAVRAS-CHAVES: Aquisição da Linguagem. Economia (Sintaxe). Relativas Apositivas. Relativas Não-Padrão. Relativas Restritivas. ABSTRACT This study focuses on the acquisition of relativization strategies in Brazilian Portuguese (BP), based on corpora investigated by Lessa-de-Oliveira (2008). Assuming Hornstein’s (2007) Economy notion to movement, I propose that the standard relativization strategy is acquired before the non-standard strategy in the case of the non-prepositional relatives because it relies on the more economical option. Moreover, using Roeper’s (2003) Economy notion and Kato’s (1993) and Kato and Nunes’s (2009) proposal to structures of non-standard relatives in BP, I argue that the difficulty in the acquisition of pied-piping relatives is due to the inherent complexity of the pied-piping operation.KEYWORD: Language Acquisition.. Economy (Syntax). Appositive Relatives. Non-Standard Relative. Restrictive Relatives