TY - JOUR
T1 - How do 5-year-olds understand questions? Differences in languages across Europe
AU - Sauerland, Uli
AU - Grohmann, Kleanthes K.
AU - Guasti, Maria Teresa
AU - Andelković, Darinka
AU - Argus, Reili
AU - Armon-Lotem, Sharon
AU - Arosio, Fabrizio
AU - Avram, Larisa
AU - Costa, João
AU - Dabašinskiene, Ineta
AU - De López, Kristine
AU - Gatt, Daniela
AU - Grech, Helen
AU - Haman, Ewa
AU - Van Hout, Angeliek
AU - Hrzica, Gordana
AU - Kainhofer, Judith
AU - Kamandulyte-Merfeldiene, Laura
AU - Kunnari, Sari
AU - Kovačević, Melita
AU - Kuvac Kraljević, Jelena
AU - Lipowska, Katarzyna
AU - Mejias, Sandrine
AU - Popović, Maša
AU - Ruzaite, Jurate
AU - Savić, Maja
AU - Sevcenco, Anca
AU - Varlokosta, Spyridoula
AU - Varnava, Marina
AU - Yatsushiro, Kazuko
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2016.
PY - 2016/6/1
Y1 - 2016/6/1
N2 - The comprehension of constituent questions is an important topic for language acquisition research and for applications in the diagnosis of language impairment. This article presents the results of a study investigating the comprehension of different types of questions by 5-year-old, typically developing children across 19 European countries, 18 different languages, and 7 language (sub-)families. The study investigated the effects of two factors on question formation: (a) whether the question contains a simple interrogative word like 'who' or a complex one like 'which princess', and (b) whether the question word was related to the sentential subject or object position of the verb. The findings show that there is considerable variation among languages, but the two factors mentioned consistently affect children's performance. The cross-linguistic variation shows that three linguistic factors facilitate children's understanding of questions: having overt case morphology, having a single lexical item for both 'who' and 'which', and the use of synthetic verbal forms.
AB - The comprehension of constituent questions is an important topic for language acquisition research and for applications in the diagnosis of language impairment. This article presents the results of a study investigating the comprehension of different types of questions by 5-year-old, typically developing children across 19 European countries, 18 different languages, and 7 language (sub-)families. The study investigated the effects of two factors on question formation: (a) whether the question contains a simple interrogative word like 'who' or a complex one like 'which princess', and (b) whether the question word was related to the sentential subject or object position of the verb. The findings show that there is considerable variation among languages, but the two factors mentioned consistently affect children's performance. The cross-linguistic variation shows that three linguistic factors facilitate children's understanding of questions: having overt case morphology, having a single lexical item for both 'who' and 'which', and the use of synthetic verbal forms.
KW - Agreement
KW - Case
KW - Comprehension
KW - Cross-linguistic
KW - Questions
KW - Syntax
KW - Wh-phrases
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84974800837&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0142723716640236
DO - 10.1177/0142723716640236
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SN - 0142-7237
VL - 36
SP - 169
EP - 202
JO - First Language
JF - First Language
IS - 3
ER -