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

Kód výsledku v 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>

Nalezeny alternativní kódy

RIV/00216208:11210/25:10503206

Výsledek na webu

<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>

Jazyk výsledku

angličtina

Název v původním jazyce

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

Popis výsledku v původním jazyce

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.

Název v anglickém jazyce

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

Popis výsledku anglicky

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.

Druh

J_imp - Článek v periodiku v databázi Web of Science

CEP obor

—

OECD FORD obor

50101 - Psychology (including human - machine relations)

Projekt

<a href="/cs/project/GC21-31488J" target="_blank" >GC21-31488J: Modelování opozice otázka-sdělení ve slovanských jazycích</a><br>

Návaznosti

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Rok uplatnění

2025

Kód důvěrnosti údajů

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Název periodika

Language Acquisition

ISSN

1048-9223

e-ISSN

1532-7817

Svazek periodika

32

Číslo periodika v rámci svazku

4

Stát vydavatele periodika

US - Spojené státy americké

Počet stran výsledku

29

Strana od-do

545-573

Kód UT WoS článku

001294237500001

EID výsledku v databázi Scopus

2-s2.0-85201559177