How Pragmatics and Syntax Make Principle B Acquirable 1 1Editorial note: William Snyder served as editor-in-chief for this Brief Article in place of our regular team of Brief Article editors, as it was originally submitted as a full-length article. View all notes

摘要

We argue that the debate over the delay of Principle B effects needs to include an additional class of contexts: Evans-style or Exceptional Coreference contexts (ECCs) (e.g., “It's not true that no one voted for John. John₁ voted for him₁”). Our experiment compares acquisition of regular Principle B contexts (B-contexts) and ECCs by English-speaking children. Thornton and Wexler (1999)19. Thornton, Rosalind and Wexler., Kenneth. 1999. Principle B, VP ellipsis and interpretation in child grammars. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. View all references predict that there will be no age at which the acceptance of the disjoint reference reading is significantly higher in ECCs than in B-contexts, while Reinhart (in press), in contrast, predicts gradual trends towards more adult-like performance in each condition; we tested each of these predictions. Our experimental results are incompatible with Thornton and Wexler (1999)19. Thornton, Rosalind and Wexler., Kenneth. 1999. Principle B, VP ellipsis and interpretation in child grammars. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. View all references and are compatible with Reinhart (in press). Our results are also compatible with our own account on which ECCs pose additional pragmatic challenges compared to B-contexts.View full textDownload full textRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10489221003620987