Wh -in-situ in child French: Deictic triggers at the syntax-semantics interface
This article investigates the development of wh -in-situ questions in French by examining a three-year kindergarten dataset of spontaneous productions with 16 children between 2;5 and 5;11. The distribution of the wh -phrases is statistically examined in relation to age, verb form (Fixed be form c’e...
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| Vydané v: | Journal of French language studies Ročník 33; číslo 3; s. 273 - 298 |
|---|---|
| Hlavní autori: | , , |
| Médium: | Journal Article |
| Jazyk: | English |
| Vydavateľské údaje: |
Cambridge
Cambridge University Press
01.11.2023
Cambridge University Press (CUP) |
| Predmet: | |
| ISSN: | 0959-2695, 1474-0079 |
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| Shrnutí: | This article investigates the development of
wh
-in-situ questions in French by examining a three-year kindergarten dataset of spontaneous productions with 16 children between 2;5 and 5;11. The distribution of the
wh
-phrases is statistically examined in relation to age, verb form (Fixed
be
form
c’est
‘it is’ vs. Free
be
forms vs. Free lexical verbs), and grammatical category of the
wh
-word (Pronoun vs. Adverb). Results show that
wh
-in-situ remains prevalent throughout the period despite a steady increase in
wh
-ex-situ. Verb form (Fixed vs. All free forms) is a discriminating variable for the
wh
-position in all three years, and it interacts with the category of the
wh
-word. The Fixed
be
form
c’est
favours in-situ
wh
-pronouns (
c’est qui Taz ?
), whereas the Free forms favour
wh
-ex-situ questions, and massively co-occur with
wh
-adverbs (
combien ça coûte ?
). The emergence of the ex-situ
qu’est-ce que
‘what is it that’, as opposed to the in-situ
quoi
‘what’, is identified as a factor accounting for the gradual increase in
wh
-ex-situ. Finally, most outliers (
wh
-in-situ with Free forms) are shown to belong to the same paradigm as
c’est
in-situ questions: non-presuppositional questions, which are visible from the frequent use of
là
‘there’, like
c’est
, a deictic item. |
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| Bibliografia: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 14 |
| ISSN: | 0959-2695 1474-0079 |
| DOI: | 10.1017/S0959269523000030 |