Animacy Features Research Articles

L2 Spanish clitics among Brazilian Portuguese-speaking learners: the predictive role of lexical knowledge

We examined the acquisition of third-person accusative clitics (e.g., lo, la, los, las) in L2 Spanish among Brazilian Portuguese (BP) speakers. In BP, the animacy of the referent is the main feature constraining accusative pronoun use while, in Spanish, animacy does not affect clitic realization. We tested Lardiere’s (2008; 2009) Feature Reassembly Hypothesis (FRH), Schwartz & Sprouse’s (1996) Full Transfer/Full Access hypothesis (FT/FA), and the suitability of productive vocabulary knowledge as a proxy for overall proficiency and its predictive power for the acquisition of clitics. 74 BP-speaking L2 Spanish learners and a comparison group of 23 native Spanish speakers completed a language background questionnaire, a vocabulary test (Prueba Léxica de Español y Portugués/Prova Léxica de Espanhol e Português, PLEP), an elicited production task, and an acceptability judgment task. Only the L2 Spanish participants completed the tasks in both languages. Our findings are consistent with the FRH, showing that the participants successfully disassemble animacy features from their L1 when acquiring the non-animacy-driven clitics in Spanish. However, animacy effects were found in the L2 production data but not in their receptive grammatical knowledge. Furthermore, animacy effects were not dependent on proficiency as no interactions between these factors were found, thus rejecting the existence of a full transfer stage.

The interpretation and grammatical representation of animacy

Abstract: We are used to thinking about person, number, and gender as features to which the grammar is sensitive. But the place of animacy is less familiar, despite its robust syntactic activity in many languages. I investigate the pronominal system of Southeastern Sierra Zapotec, identifying an interpretive parallel between animacy and person. Third-person plural pronouns, which encode a four-way animacy distinction in the language, exhibit associativity, a cluster of interpretive properties that have been argued also to characterize first-and second-person plural pronouns. Building on Kratzer’s (2009) and Harbour’s (2016) theories of person, I propose a plurality-based semantics for animacy that captures their shared properties. The compositional mechanism underlying this semantics ties person and animacy features to a single syntactic position inside the noun phrase. This enables an understanding of these features’ shared relevance to syntactic operations, including those underlying pronoun cliticization. In these Zapotec varieties, it is constrained both by person (in the well-known person-case constraint) and by animacy.

Empty or non-empty site? Evidence from the acquisition of Najdi Arabic sluicing

Abstract Sluicing—a clausal ellipsis in which the only pronounced part of a question is the wh-phrase—has been controversial since its emergence (Ross, 1969). I address herein the existence and nature of the ellipsis site’s content with an experimental argument from the field of first language acquisition. Using intervention effects as a diagnostic of movement, this study examines whether Najdi Arabic (NA)-speaking children show a subject advantage in sluicing and whether a mismatch in animacy features aids their interpretation of object sluices. A yes/no question task was conducted with 48 NA-speaking children. The results revealed that NA-speaking children exhibit a statistically significant subject advantage, although economy considerations constrain when this subject advantage emerges. Yet, no effect of mismatching animacy was found. Regardless, the results argue in favour of the structural-movement analysis of sluicing. This study contributes to the persistent debate on ellipsis site content by providing an experimental argument that relies on data from the acquisition of sluicing in NA.

On Brazilian Portuguese 3rd person object full pronouns

It has been observed that certain overt 3rd person object pronouns, such as ‘it’ in paycheck sentences, propositional clitics in Portuguese and English, 3rd person non-propositional clitics in Catalan, Spanish, Slovenian and Serbian/Croatian may allow sloppy readings. Additionally, it is well-known that Brazilian Portuguese (BP) has lost 3rd person object clitics, which were replaced either by [-animate] null objects or by [± animate] full pronouns. The latter, differently from personal 3rd person clitics in certain languages, do not allow strict/sloppy readings, regardless of their animacy feature specification. Nevertheless, animacy is relevant for the use of 3rd person object full pronouns in BP since only the [+animate] ones can be focused. I propose that the BP does not fit in the tripartite division of pronouns into ‘strong/weak/clitic’. I assume that full pronouns in Romance underwent a reanalysis from demonstratives, and that BP full pronouns have a structure that precludes them from licensing strict/sloppy readings. As for the animacy distinction in focalization contexts, I assume that [+animate] full pronouns in BP are specified for [Person] and must move out of VP to check that feature. Thus, they escape the relevant vP phase and become available for checking [focus] by a low Focus head.

Animacy in the acquisition of differential object marking by Romanian monolingual children

Differential object marking (DOM) has been shown, in an impressive number of production studies, to be acquired by monolingual children at around age 3. The picture which emerges from comprehension data, however, reveals that DOM is an area of vulnerability in L1 acquisition. This study investigates the acquisition of DOM by monolingual Romanian children using a preference judgment task. 80 monolingual Romanian children (aged 4;04-11;04) and a control group of 10 Romanian adults took part in the study. Results show that DOM is vulnerable and trace this vulnerability to the animacy feature. Romanian children incorrectly overgeneralize DOM to inanimate proper names and inanimate descriptive DPs until age 9. The vulnerability of animacy is predicted by its variable behaviour with respect to object marking as well as by the current increase in the use of clitic doubling, a DOM marker less sensitive to animacy. On the learnability side, we account for the findings in terms of Biberauer & Roberts’ (2015, 2017) Maximize Minimal Means model. We suggest that, in accordance with the Feature Economy bias, Romanian children first identify only the role of referential stability (which has more robust cues in the input) and consider the possibility of animacy as a relevant feature later. In line with the Input Generalization bias, children maximize the role of referential stability which results in overgeneralization of DOM to inanimate objects, especially to inanimate proper names.

Predicting coarse-grained semantic features in language comprehension: evidence from ERP representational similarity analysis and Chinese classifier.

Existing studies demonstrate that comprehenders can predict semantic information during language comprehension. Most evidence comes from a highly constraining context, in which a specific word is likely to be predicted. One question that has been investigated less is whether prediction can occur when prior context is less constraining for predicting specific words. Here, we aim to address this issue by examining the prediction of animacy features in low-constraining context, using electroencephalography (EEG), in combination with representational similarity analysis (RSA). In Chinese, a classifier follows a numeral and precedes a noun, and classifiers constrain animacy features of upcoming nouns. In the task, native Chinese Mandarin speakers were presented with either animate-constraining or inanimate-constraining classifiers followed by congruent or incongruent nouns. EEG amplitude analysis revealed an N400 effect for incongruent conditions, reflecting the difficulty of semantic integration when an incompatible noun is encountered. Critically, we quantified the similarity between patterns of neural activity following the classifiers. RSA results revealed that the similarity between patterns of neural activity following animate-constraining classifiers was greater than following inanimate-constraining classifiers, before the presentation of the nouns, reflecting pre-activation of animacy features of nouns. These findings provide evidence for the prediction of coarse-grained semantic feature of upcoming words.

Human-robot creative interactions: Exploring creativity in artificial agents using a storytelling game.

Creativity in social robots requires further attention in the interdisciplinary field of human–robot interaction (HRI). This study investigates the hypothesized connection between the perceived creative agency and the animacy of social robots. The goal of this work is to assess the relevance of robot movements in the attribution of creativity to robots. The results of this work inform the design of future human–robot creative interactions (HRCI). The study uses a storytelling game based on visual imagery inspired by the game “Story Cubes” to explore the perceived creative agency of social robots. This game is used to tell a classic story for children with an alternative ending. A 2 × 2 experiment was designed to compare two conditions: the robot telling the original version of the story and the robot plot twisting the end of the story. A Robotis Mini humanoid robot was used for the experiment, and we adapted the Short Scale of Creative Self (SSCS) to measure perceived creative agency in robots. We also used the Godspeed scale to explore different attributes of social robots in this setting. We did not obtain significant main effects of the robot movements or the story in the participants’ scores. However, we identified significant main effects of the robot movements in features of animacy, likeability, and perceived safety. This initial work encourages further studies experimenting with different robot embodiment and movements to evaluate the perceived creative agency in robots and inform the design of future robots that participate in creative interactions.

Standardized database of 400 complex abstract fractals.

In experimental settings, characteristics of presented stimuli influence cognitive processes. Knowledge about stimulus features is important to manipulate or control the influence of stimuli. To date, there are a lack of standardized data incorporating such information for complex abstract stimuli. Thus, we provide norms for a database of 400 abstract and complex stimuli. Grey-scaled fractals were rated by 512 participants on the stimulus features of abstractness, animacy, verbalizability, complexity, familiarity, favorableness, and memorability. Moreover, 111 participants labeled the fractals, enabling us to calculate indices of naming agreement and modal names. Overall, the results confirmed high abstractness and low verbalizability of the provided stimuli. To establish external validation for selected stimulus features, we evaluated (a) classifier probability of a deep neural network labeling the fractals, negatively correlated with ratings of abstractness and positively with verbalizability and naming agreement; (b) data compression rate of fractal image files, positively correlated with the rating of complexity; and (c) performance of 212 participants in a recognition-memory task, positively correlated with the rating of memorability. The present work fills the gap of a standardized database for abstract stimuli and provides a database with valid norms for abstract and complex stimuli based on ratings and external validation measures. This database can be used to control and manipulate these stimulus features in experimental settings using abstract stimuli. Such a database is essential in experimental research using abstract stimuli for instance to control for verbal influence and strategy or to control for novelty and familiarity.

(a-)Topics and animacy

The aim of this paper is twofold: first, we intend to contribute to the debate on the identification of the features to which syntactic locality expressed in terms of the featural Relativized Minimality/ fRM principle appears to be sensitive (Rizzi 2004; Friedmann, Belletti & Rizzi 2009); second, we aim at providing a better characterization of the distributional and interpretive properties of the process of a-marking in the Topic position of the Italian left periphery identified by syntactic cartography, in relation to (in)animacy (Belletti & Manetti 2019).To these ends, we examined the role of animacy in a production experiment eliciting left dislocated topics with 5-year-old Italian-speaking children. To the extent that a-marking is related to a kind of affectedness of object topics (Belletti 2018a), we examined whether an inanimate left dislocated object could constitute a felicitous a-Topic. Furthermore, the question is directly addressed whether complexity effects in fRM configurations can be modulated in the animacy mismatch condition, with an inanimate left dislocated object and an intervening (animate) lexical subject in ClLDs. Our results show that, in the tested animacy mismatch condition, children seldom a-marked the pre-posed object. Instead, they appeared to creatively explore other solutions to overcome the production of the hard intervention structure, mainly using null subjects. As children are not ready to compute the intervention configuration with a lexical preverbal subject, but could not naturally adjust it through a-marking of the inanimate topic, they ended up opting for different types of productions in which intervention was eliminated. If the animacy feature seems to be implicated in the process of a-marking to some extent, it is not a feature to which the fRM principle is sensitive in building the object A’-dependency in ClLD: we conclude, in line with previous work, that animacy is not among the features implicated in triggering syntactic movement (in Italian).

Verb classes in Horpa

Abstract Based on argument indexation properties, this paper offers a model of four verb classes for Geshiza and Stau, two closely related and endangered Horpa lects spoken in Sichuan. Despite increased awareness and interest in Horpa, no exhaustive classification of verbs from the viewpoint of argument indexation has been offered. Even though argument indexation itself has been discussed in previous scholarship, the striking diversity of argument indexation patterns has not been addressed. It is shown that both Geshiza and Stau, the two lects chosen as the sample for this study, share the same verb classes, even though the class assignment of individual cognate verbs occasionally varies. The paper also describes how semantic and animacy features inherent in verbs, most prominently compatibility with human S and P arguments resulting in compatibility with speech act participants, play a crucial role in verb class assignment. Establishing a framework for Horpa verb classes helps in the ongoing descriptive work of these languages. In addition, it offers new material for typological studies of argument indexation.

Structural intervention effects in the acquisition of sluicing

ABSTRACT Experimental studies show that children have greater difficulty with wh-extraction from object position than subject position, arguably an intervention effect (e.g., Relativized Minimality). In this study we provide additional evidence of a S/O asymmetry in A’-dependencies from a novel source—sluicing. The results of our first comprehension study show that English-speaking 3–6-year-olds obey the “identity condition” on sluicing—that is, they disallow interpretations in which the elided verb or arguments are distinct from their antecedent. Importantly, our results also show a subject > object asymmetry and thereby support syntactic theories of sluicing that posit a fully articulated (but unpronounced) TP at the ellipsis site from which the wh-phrase has been extracted, e.g., Someone wrote this paper, but I don’t know who <_ wrote this paper>, as opposed to certain semantic/pragmatic theories that posit no such structure. Our second comprehension study investigates the role of animacy. We find that children’s comprehension of object sluices, but not subject sluices, improves significantly when there is a mismatch in animacy features. Our results are incompatible with models that are solely frequency based but rather provide evidence for structure-based intervention effects. We conclude that subject > object asymmetries can be found even in instances in which the intervener is not overt, such as sluicing, and that [animacy] may be a feature involved in the computation of intervention.

Neural Evidence for the Prediction of Animacy Features during Language Comprehension: Evidence from MEG and EEG Representational Similarity Analysis.

It has been proposed that people can generate probabilistic predictions at multiple levels of representation during language comprehension. We used magnetoencephalography (MEG) and electroencephalography (EEG), in combination with representational similarity analysis, to seek neural evidence for the prediction of animacy features. In two studies, MEG and EEG activity was measured as human participants (both sexes) read three-sentence scenarios. Verbs in the final sentences constrained for either animate or inanimate semantic features of upcoming nouns, and the broader discourse context constrained for either a specific noun or for multiple nouns belonging to the same animacy category. We quantified the similarity between spatial patterns of brain activity following the verbs until just before the presentation of the nouns. The MEG and EEG datasets revealed converging evidence that the similarity between spatial patterns of neural activity following animate-constraining verbs was greater than following inanimate-constraining verbs. This effect could not be explained by lexical-semantic processing of the verbs themselves. We therefore suggest that it reflected the inherent difference in the semantic similarity structure of the predicted animate and inanimate nouns. Moreover, the effect was present regardless of whether a specific word could be predicted, providing strong evidence for the prediction of coarse-grained semantic features that goes beyond the prediction of individual words.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Language inputs unfold very quickly during real-time communication. By predicting ahead, we can give our brains a "head start," so that language comprehension is faster and more efficient. Although most contexts do not constrain strongly for a specific word, they do allow us to predict some upcoming information. For example, following the context of "they cautioned the…," we can predict that the next word will be animate rather than inanimate (we can caution a person, but not an object). Here, we used EEG and MEG techniques to show that the brain is able to use these contextual constraints to predict the animacy of upcoming words during sentence comprehension, and that these predictions are associated with specific spatial patterns of neural activity.

Syntactic representation is independent of semantics in Mandarin: evidence from syntactic priming

ABSTRACTTheories of language processing generally assume that speakers construct independent representations for syntactic and semantic information, based largely on evidence from English and related languages. But it is not clear whether the assumption of autonomous syntactic representations extends to other languages with different typological characteristics. We therefore conducted two structural priming studies investigating production of dative sentences in Mandarin, a language whose interpretation appears to be more reliant on non-relational (intrinsic) semantics (e.g. animacy features). We examined whether participants’ tendency to repeat syntax was affected by whether the theme and recipient arguments matched or mismatched in animacy across prime and target. Participants repeated syntax to the same extent irrespective of whether prime and target arguments had matched or mismatched animacy. These findings provide evidence that the separation of syntactic and semantic representations occurs in Mandarin and therefore may occur across languages.

Humans, Animals, Things and Animacy

AbstractAnimacy influences the patterns of subject-verb agreement marking in many languages, including Persian and Inari Saami. In Persian, animate plural subjects trigger plural agreement on the verb, whereas inanimate subjects may or may not trigger agreement. The variation is governed by factors such as personification, agency and distributivity. In Inari Saami, verbs fully agree with human subjects and verbs partially agree with inanimate subjects. Verbs may or may not agree with subjects referring to animals. We argue that the intricate interaction between biological animacy and grammatical agreement in these two languages warrants careful consideration of the tripartite distinction between biological animacy in the world, our conceptualization of animacy and formal animacy features in the grammar.

Dispositional causation

There are a number of phenomena where an apparent animacy requirement exceptionally admits some inanimate causers as felicitous. In this paper I argue that these should be explained not by a syntactically visible animacy feature but rather by a “what-can-cause-what” approach. In this kind of approach, judgments of felicity occur exactly when, conceptually speaking, the causing eventuality is able to cause the effect eventuality. I show how a what-can-cause-what approach for futurates and have causatives explains their felicitous inanimate causer exceptions, as well as other behavior such as interactions with aspect, using a novel notion of “dispositional causation”. The dispositions in question include both intentions of animate entities and physical tendencies. Dispositions, as well as the holders of dispositions and the causal relation, can either be represented explicitly in the syntactic structure, or can be merely implicitly available, through the accommodation of a conceptual model of dispositional structure.

Efeitos de animacidade do antecedente na resolução de pronomes sujeito

We report two experiments, a self-paced reading task and an off-line questionnaire, that tested if the overt subject pronoun in European Portuguese was sensitive to the animacy (animate vs. inanimate) of the antecedent in object position. We found higher reading times when the overt pronoun was forced to retrieve an inanimate antecedent compared to retrieving an animate one (Experiment 1) and less object choices with inanimate antecedents (compared to animate ones). Our findings show that several factors are taken into account during the resolution of pronominal forms, including animacy features, favouring thus a multifactorial approach to pronoun retrieval (Kaiser &amp; Trueswell, 2008). We propose that there is a hierarchy that considers both syntactic and semantic information in pronoun resolution and that within the syntactic information the prominence of entities varies according to their animacy features. Our results are neither explained by processing theories that only consider syntactic factors (Carminati, 2005), nor by theoretical accounts that associate strong pronouns with animacy features (Cardinaletti &amp; Starke, 1999).

Animacidade na sintaxe: uma abordagem formal

Uma observação recorrente no estudo da realização do objeto direto em algumas línguas românicas reside no fato de que traços de animacidade parecem determinar a forma que o objeto toma. Neste trabalho, investigo fenômenos que envolvem o traço animacidade e que foram observados separadamente na literatura sobre as línguas românicas: Marcação Diferencial do Objeto, leísmo e a Restrição Caso-Pessoa. O objetivo foi analisar esses fenômenos em comparação com o objeto nulo do português brasileiro, com a finalidade de determinar o papel que a animacidade tem na sintaxe. Os resultados da pesquisa demonstram que, de fato, a animacidade é relevante para a sintaxe. A partir desses resultados, avanço uma proposta que pretende dar conta dos fenômenos investigados e dá suporte a uma abordagem formal para as hierarquias de referencialidade encontradas na literatura não-formalista.

Does the animacy of the antecedent play a role in the production of relative clauses?

In previous studies that included elicited production and comprehension tasks (Costa, Lobo and Silva 2011), it has been shown that there is a high discrepancy between the rates of production of subject relative clauses vs. object relative clauses both in children and adults, but the two groups differed qualitatively. In the comprehension task, adults performed very well, unlike children, who had trouble with object relative clauses. This points to a specific difficulty with structures that involve intervention (Friedmann, Belletti and Rizzi 2009). In the present study, we investigated the role of animacy features of the antecedent in the production of object relative clauses, and specifically whether the production of object relatives would be higher with inanimate antecedents. Previous studies have mentioned the animacy features of the arguments as relevant (Correa 1994; Goodluck 2005; Kidd et al. 2007; Durrleman, Bentea and Guasti 2016). We explore the relevance of the findings for the discussion on the nature of the asymmetry between subject and object relative clauses. We analyze data from a spontaneous production corpus of a young European Portuguese speaking child that confirm that object relatives often have inanimate antecedents. We also conducted an elicited production task, inspired on Novogrodsky and Friedmann 2006, which elicited relative clauses manipulating the animacy of the antecedent. 42 European Portuguese children aged 4 to 6 participated in this task, as well as a control group of 20 adults. Results from the elicited production task show a higher production of object relatives with inanimate antecedents in both groups, although the difference was only significant for the adults. We conclude that the animacy of the antecedent is a feature that may play a role in the production of relatives. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A ANIMACIDADE DO ANTECEDENTE DESEMPENHA UM PAPEL NA PRODUCAO DE ORACOES RELATIVAS? Em estudos anteriores que incluiram tarefas de compreensao e de producao induzida (Costa, Lobo and Silva 2011), mostrou-se que ha uma assimetria consideravel entre as taxas de producao de oracoes relativas de sujeito e de objeto, quer nas criancas, quer nos adultos, mas os dois grupos apresentaram diferencas qualitativas. Na tarefa de compreensao, os adultos tiveram um desempenho muito bom, ao contrario das criancas, que tiveram dificuldade com oracoes relativas de objeto. Estes resultados suportam a hipotese de que ha uma dificuldade especifica com estruturas que envolvem intervencao (Fried mann, Belletti and Rizzi 2009). No presente trabalho, investigamos o papel de tracos de animacidade do antecedente na producao de relativas de objeto, mais especificamente, investigamos se a producao de oracoes relativas de objeto aumenta com antecedentes nao animados. Trabalhos anteriores mencionaram a relevância dos tracos de animacidade dos argumentos (Correa 1994; Goodluck 2005; Kidd et al. 2007; Durrleman, Bentea and Guasti 2016). Exploramos a relevância destes resultados para a discussao sobre a natureza da assimetria entre oracoes relativas de sujeito e de objeto. Analisamos dados de producao espontânea de uma crianca falante de portugues europeu que confirmam que a maioria das oracoes relativas de objeto produzidas pela crianca tem antecedentes nao animados. Aplicamos ainda uma tarefa de producao induzida, inspirada em Novogrodsky and Friedmann 2006, que induzia a producao de oracoes relativas manipulando a animacidade do antecedente. Participaram na tarefa 42 criancas falantes de portugues europeu com idades entre os 4 e os 6 anos e um grupo de controlo de 20 adultos. Os resultados mostram que existe uma producao de relativas de objeto mais elevada com antecedentes nao animados, ainda que a diferenca tenha sido significativa apenas no grupo dos adultos. Concluimos que a animacidade do antecedente e um fator que desempenha um papel na producao de relativas. --- Artigo em ingles. --- DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.12957/matraga.2017.28710

An Error Analysis of Chinese “Bei” (被) Passives from the Perspectives of Animacy and Semantic Feature Constraint

Comparing with Ancient Chinese, passive sentences in Modern Chinese have been increasingly used, and patient subjects in them are not limited to noun phrases with a high animacy and the binding force for the sentential meaning of “suffering” and “misfortune” has largely loosened as well. As the commonest pattern in passive sentences, the same case for “Bei” (被) Passives. It is well known that “Bei” (被) Passives is a sort of difficult syntax pattern in teaching Chinese as a foreign language, and errors often occur in the use of “Bei” (被) Passives for a large number of second language learners who take Chinese as their target language. We admit that the usage of “Bei” (被) Passives has a certain connection with the linguistic animacy, while the reason for errors occur in this Chinese sentence “Wo (我) zai (在) dianti (电梯) kou (口) bei (被) ren (人) xiao (笑) le (了) xiao (笑)” is the semantic feature constraint.

Delay in the acquisition of Differential Object Marking by Spanish monolingual and bilingual teenagers

Aims and Objectives/Purpose/Research Questions: This study investigated the acquisition of Spanish Differential Object Marking (DOM) by bilingual and monolingual Spanish teenagers, evaluating to which extent their knowledge of DOM can be explained by different theories of acquisition. Design/Methodology/Approach: Two experiments with bilingual and monolingual Spanish teenagers (ages 10 to 15) were conducted. The experiments included an Elicited Production Completion Task, in which a space was to either be filled with an object marker or left blank, and a Context-Matching Acceptability Judgment Task. Data and Analysis: 54 subjects (44 bilinguals and 10 monolinguals) were tested. For both tasks, there were 6 conditions testing different syntactic–semantic features that trigger DOM (test items n = 42 in each task). The data were analysed with linear regressions and repeated measures analyses of variance. Findings/Conclusions: This study’s results show that bilingual teenagers do not demonstrate significant differences from age-matched monolinguals in their competence regarding the syntactic–semantic properties of DOM. Both groups are below ceiling in showing evidence of knowledge about all the syntactic–semantic features involved in DOM, indicating the possibility of a significant delay beyond childhood in their acquisition. Originality: There are few previous studies on the acquisition of DOM, and none which consider the full range of features and specific population considered here. Work by Montrul focuses on the animacy feature, while Guijarro-Fuentes considers the full range of features, but for adult L2 learners of Spanish. Significance/Implications: This study shows that the Interface Vulnerability Hypothesis, the Feature Reassembly Hypothesis, the Full Access/Full Transfer Hypothesis and the Interpretability Hypothesis have limitations in explaining its results. Instead, a feature-based approach is proposed in which the specification of features beyond animacy raises difficulties for the acquisition of DOM until late childhood.