Wh-word acquisition in Czech: Exploring the growing trees hypothesis

Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F68081740%3A_____%2F25%3A00597796" target="_blank" >RIV/68081740:_____/25:00597796 - isvavai.cz</a>
Alternative codes found
RIV/00216208:11210/25:10503206
Result on the web
<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10489223.2024.2366804" target="_blank" >https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10489223.2024.2366804</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10489223.2024.2366804" target="_blank" >10.1080/10489223.2024.2366804</a>

Result language
angličtina
Original language name
Wh-word acquisition in Czech: Exploring the growing trees hypothesis
Original language description
We investigate the acquisition of different functions of wh-words in Czech (Slavic) - a language where wh-words are highly polyfunctional. Our working hypothesis is that the acquisition proceeds in accordance with the growth of the syntactic tree (aka the growing trees hypothesis, Friedman et al. 2021), which in turn is matched by the growth of the semantic representation. More specifically, children are expected to first acquire wh-interrogatives, then conditionals, correlatives, and free relatives, and finally (light-)headed relatives. The working hypothesis is set against the background of what could be considered the null hypothesis, namely that children’s production matches the adult input. We have examined the Czech CHILDES corpus (Chromá et al. 2024, 6 children 1,07-3,09), tagging all wh-occurrences (nearly 11 thousand tokens) for the construction they appear in. Using both descriptive and inferential statistical methods, we have found evidence either supporting or being compatible with our hypothesis. At the same time, our results are not consistent with a simple input-based account. We also discuss some limitations of a corpus-based approach for addressing our research question. The most significant hurdle is the overall low frequency of non-interrogative wh-words.
Czech name
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Czech description
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Type
J<sub>imp</sub> - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database
CEP classification
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OECD FORD branch
50101 - Psychology (including human - machine relations)

Project
<a href="/en/project/GC21-31488J" target="_blank" >GC21-31488J: Modelling the question-statement opposition in Slavic languages</a><br>
Continuities
I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year
2025
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

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