Comparing different accounts of inversion errors in children's non-subject wh-questions: 'What experimental data can tell us?'.
This study investigated different accounts of children's acquisition of non-subject wh-questions. Questions using each of 4 wh-words (what, who, how and why), and 3 auxiliaries (BE, DO and CAN) in 3sg and 3pl form were elicited from 28 children aged 3;6-4;6. Rates of noninversion error (Who she is hitting?) were found not to differ by wh-word, auxiliary or number alone, but by lexical auxiliary subtype and by wh-word+lexical auxiliary combination. This finding counts against simple rule-based accounts of question acquisition that include no role for the lexical subtype of the auxiliary, and suggests that children may initially acquire wh-word + lexical auxiliary combinations from the input. For DO questions, auxiliary-doubling errors (What does she does like?) were also observed, although previous research has found that such errors are virtually non-existent for positive questions. Possible reasons for this discrepancy are discussed.
Ambridge
Ben
B
Department of Psychology, University of Liverpool, UK. Ben.Ambridge@Liverpool.ac.uk
Rowland
Caroline F
CF
Theakston
Anna L
AL
Tomasello
Michael
M
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008037:Linguistics; D008297:Male; D014705:Verbal Behavior