Abstract
This study’s main objective is to see how children native speakers of European
Portuguese acquire exhaustivity.
This study compiles results previously obtained in Vaz (2010a, b) with a new study for
universal quantification structures. For each test, 60 children were tested divided in three
age groups (3, 4 and 5 years) and 20 adults as the control group.
The results indicated that there is a significant difference between 4 and 5 year olds
and that exhaustivity is associated with syntactic structure, even though it interacts with
pragmatic factors. We concluded that exhaustivity is acquired at a different rate across
structures (simple wh-questions > universal quantification > clefts > multiple whquestions), which we attribute to the varying complexity each display. Our results are in
accordance with results found in other languages.
Original language | Portuguese |
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Title of host publication | Textos Selecionados, |
Subtitle of host publication | XXVIII Encontro Nacional da Associação Portuguesa de Linguística |
Editors | Maria de Fátima Henriques da Silva, Isabel Falé, Isabel Pereira |
Place of Publication | Coimbra |
Publisher | APL - Associação Portuguesa de Linguística |
Pages | 637-654 |
Number of pages | 17 |
ISBN (Print) | 978-989-97440-2-8 |
Publication status | Published - 2012 |
Event | XXIX Encontro Nacional da Associação Portuguesa de Linguística - Coimbra, Portugal Duration: 23 Oct 2013 → 25 Oct 2013 |
Conference
Conference | XXIX Encontro Nacional da Associação Portuguesa de Linguística |
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Country/Territory | Portugal |
City | Coimbra |
Period | 23/10/13 → 25/10/13 |
Keywords
- acquisition
- exhaustivity
- questions
- clefts
- universal quantification
- aquisição
- exaustividade
- interrogativas
- clivadas
- quantificação universal