Reflexivization and Logophoricity: Evidence From the Acquisition of Icelandic

Abstract

In this article, we report the results of an experimental study on the interpretation of the local anaphor sjdlfan sig, the so-called long-distance anaphor sig, and pronouns by Icelandic-speaking children. We tested 55 Icelandic children between the ages of 3;3 and 6;0, and 10 adult controls on 72 sentences in the indicative, subjunctive, and infinitive moods, using both an act-out task and a modified judgment task (see Crain and McKee (1985)). We also looked at the lexical effects of two different verb classes, the raka 'shave' class of verbs, which allows sig to take either a local or a long-distance antecedent, and the gefa 'give' class of verbs, which strongly biases toward the long-distance antecedent. The results of out study support the hypothesis that children have early knowledge of Principles A and B of the Binding Theory but have difficulty with the pragmatic rule governing coreference (Avrutin and Wexler (this issue), Chien and Wexler (I988; 1990), Grodzinsky and Reinhart (1993), Montalbetti a...