Topicalisation et thématisation dans le rappel de phrases (étude chez l'adulte et chez l'enfant)

Abstract

Summary Two factors influencing retrieval from active and passive sentences were studied in experiments with adults and children (8 years 6 months ; 9 years 7 months old). a) The theme provided by the context containing the target sentence (thematization of either the logical subject, the logical object or both) ; b) Topicalization in the target sentence (of the logical subject in the active and of the logical object in the passive voice). In two experiments several narrative passages were presented, each ending in a target sentence. As hypothetized, recall of the passive sentences was better in adults when the logical object was thematized in the prior context. In the younger group of children, thematization had no effect on recall; nevertheless for children aged 9 years 7 months, passive recall was better when the previous context thematized the logical subject. To account for this result it was hypothetized that children use sentence reconstruction strategies based on local information provided by the immediately preceding context (leading to a momentary foregrounding).