Abstract
Italian speaking children optionally omit third singular direct object clitics (3DO) until at least age four years. In a set of two studies, we investigated whether omissions and errors depend on intervention phenomena. We discussed a model of syntactic intervention in which the subject of a sentence intervenes when the clitic moves from its initial merging position to a higher position above the subject. We argued that omissions and errors arise when retrieving from memory the clitic to achieve an agreement operation in a context of syntactic intervention. We argued that working memory limitations impact on the clitic retrieving operation cued by lexical and representational features. In Study 1, we elicited the production of 3DO clitics in sentences with a full lexical subject. The 3rd singular subject and the 3DO clitic were matched or not in gender. Results of Study 1 showed that when there is a gender mismatch between the subject and the clitic children with limited memory resources optionally make clitic gender errors or even replace the 3DO clitic with a postverbal full DP. We explained these results in an intervention model in which the external verb lexical argument (the lexical subject) is erroneously retrieved for achieving the agreement operation involving the movement of the clitic to its surface position. In Study 2 we investigated whether the problems found in Study 1 depend on phonological priming or structural intervention. We elicited the production of 3DO clitics in sentences with a null subject. in conditions of gender matching and mismatching. Results showed that in sentences with a gender mismatch children with limited memory resourches tend to produce a clitic with the incorrect gender or to optionally replace it with a full lexical postverbal DP. This suggests that a null subject intervenes in the same way a lexical subject does. Overall results indicate that the interference errors are not dependent on phonological attraction but have a structural nature and are modulated by short-term memory resources.
Highlights
The production of third person direct object clitic pronouns (3DO clitics) is challenging for young Italian speaking typically developing children
FOR STUDY 1 In Study 1 we investigated whether a lexical subject intervenes in 3DO clitic production and whether executive functions modulate the achievement of complex morphosyntactic operations needed for 3DO clitic derivation
FOR STUDY 2 In Study 2 we investigated whether the problems in 3DO clitic production found in Study 1 depended on phonological priming or on structural intervention
Summary
The production of third person direct object clitic pronouns (3DO clitics) is challenging for young Italian speaking typically developing children. Young children’s problems with 3DO clitic production have been attested cross-linguistically, rates of omissions and substitutions differ in different languages (for an overview see Varlokosta et al, 2016). We will argue that these explanations are problematic and that problems in 3DO clitics production depend on challenging syntactic operations of 3DO clitic derivation. We will claim that young children have problems with 3DO clitic production because the derivation of sentences with 3DO clitics is generated through a number of intermediate abstract syntactic representations by the application of syntactic agreement operations that are prone to interference phenomena. We will argue that interference phenomena elicit errors and omissions in children’s limited working memory system, still under development
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