Minimal Answers: Ellipsis, Syntax and Discourse in the Acquisition of European Portuguese: 48 - Rilegato

Santos, Ana Lucia

 
9789027253095: Minimal Answers: Ellipsis, Syntax and Discourse in the Acquisition of European Portuguese: 48

Sinossi

This book offers a new contribution to the debate concerning the acquisition of the syntax-discourse interface. It provides evidence that children acquiring European Portuguese have a very early ability to spontaneously produce VP ellipsis as answers to yes-no questions. It is also argued that the distribution of VP ellipsis in European Portuguese (including its co-existence with Null Complement Anaphora) supports the hypothesis that the identification condition on ellipsis is derivable from some innate knowledge of the syntax-discourse interface. Answers to yes-no questions also provide evidence concerning children’s interpretation of questions containing a cleft or the operator ‘only’. The analysis of spontaneous production is complemented by a comprehension experiment, showing that children have two problems in the interpretation of these questions: (i) they do not understand that the cleft and introduce a presupposition and (ii) they start with a default focus assignment strategy and may not access other focus interpretations.

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Product Description

SANTOS, A. L. MINIMAL ANSWERS. ELLIPSIS, SYNTAX AND DISCOURSE IN THE ACQUISITION OF EUROPEAN PORTUGUESE. AMSTERDAM, 2009, xv 296 p.,. Encuadernacion original. Nuevo.

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