relative clauses. construction grammar form meaning form meaning form meaning form meaning form...
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Relative clauses
Construction grammar
Form
Meaning
Form
Meaning
Form
MeaningForm
Meaning
Form
Meaning
Get doggy .
Get milk.
Get him .
Get Billy.
Get something to eat.
Lexically-specific constructions
Emergence of schematic constructions
Get doggy Get milk Get him Get Billy
Get __
VERB __
Think-clauses
I think I'm go in here. 3;1
And I think... we need dishes. 3;2
Think some toys over here too. 3;3
I think I play jingle bells… with the record player. 3;5
I think he's gone. 3;5
Oh... I think it's a ball. 3;5
It's a crazy bone... I think. 3;5
I think it's in here. 3;5
I think it's in here… Mommy. 2;7
Emergence of schematic constructions
I think __ Remember __
Emergence of schematic constructions
I think __ Remember __
Emergence of schematic constructions
He thinks __ I am thinking __
NP think __
NP VERB __
I think __ Remember __
Experimental test items
(1) The dog [that jumps over the pig] bumps into the lion.
(2) The lion [that the horse bumps into] jumps over the giraffe.
(3) The pig bumps into the horse [that jumps over the giraffe].
(4) The dog stands on the horse [that the giraffe jumps over].
Children’s spontaneous relative clauses
(1) That’s the rabbit that fall off. [Nina 2;7]
(2) Look at dat train Ursula bought. [Adam 2;10]
(3) This is the sugar that goes in there. [Nina 3;0]
(4) That’s a picture I made. [Adam 3;0]
(5) Here’s a tiger that’s gonna scare him. [Nina 3;1]
(6) It’s a song that we dance to. [Nina 3;2]
Semantic complexity
(1) Here’s the tiger that’s gonna scare him.
> The tiger is gonna scare him.
(2) This is the sugar that goes in there.
> The sugar goes in there.
(3) It’s a song that we dance to.
> We dance to a song.
Data
Age range Finite Nonfinite
AdamSarahNinaPeterNaomi
2;3-4;102;3-5;11;11-3;41;9-3;21;8-3;3
1783262258
12036714416
1;9-5;1 305 287
Head of the relative clause
(1) The man who we saw was reading a book. SUBJ
(2) He noticed the man who was reading a book. OBJ
(3) He saw to the man who was reading a book. OBL
(4) The man who was reading a book. NP
(5) That’s the man who was reading a book. PN
Head of relative clause (total)
48,5
23,821,5
5,6
0,70
10
20
30
40
50
60
PN NP OBJ OBL SUBJ
prop
orti
ons
Head of relative clause (earliest)
80
2,57,5
10
00
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
PN NP OBJ OBL SUBJ
prop
orti
on
Head of relative clause (development)
PN
OBJ
NP
OBL
OBL
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
3;0 4;0 5;0
age
pro
po
rtio
n
PN
OBJ
NP
OBL
SUBJ
Motivating factors
• Semantic complexity. • Input frequency. • Information structure.• Pragmtic function.
Conclusion
PN-relatives are the earliest relative clauses that
children learn because:
(1) they suit the communicative needs of
young children
(2) they are semantically similar to simple
sentences.
Syntactic amalgams
(1) That’s doggy turn around. [Nina 1;11]
(2) That’s a turtle swim. [Nina 2;2]
(3) Here’s a mouse go sleep. [Nina 2;3]
(4) That’s the roof go on that home. [Nina 2;4]
(5) That’s the rabbit fall off. [Nina 2;4]
Relativizsed syntactic role
(1) The man who met the woman. subj
(2) The man who the woman met. obj
(3) The man who the woman talked to. obl
(4) The man who the girl gave the book to.io
(5) The man whose dog bit the woman. gen
Relativized syntactic role (total)
57,3
37
5,7
0 00
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
subj obj obl io gen
pro
po
rtio
n
Relativized syntactic role (development)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
>3;0 3;0-4;0 4;0-5;0
age
pro
po
rtio
n obj
subj
obl
Experimental study
Das ist der Mann, der mich gestern gesehen hat.Das ist der Mann, den ich gestern gesehen habe.Das ist der Mann, dem ich das Buch gegeben habe.Das ist der Mann, mit dem ich gesprochen habe.Das ist der Mann, dessen Hund mich gebissen hat.
subjdoiooblgen
This is the girl who __ saw Peter on the bus this morning.This is the girl who the boy teased __ at school yesterday.This is the girl who Peter borrowed a football from __ .This is the girl who Peter played with __ in the garden.This is the girl whose horse Peter heard on the farm.
subjdoiooblgen
Results
71,1
40,5
31 31,5
2,40
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
subj do io obl gen
subj vs. do p =. 001
do vs. io p = .173
Do vs. obl p = .169
68,5
32,8
21,4
12
0,50
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
subj do io obl gen
subj vs. do p =. 001
do vs. io p = .061
io vs. obl p = .001
English German
Subj-relatives
English
ITEM: This is the girl who the boy teased at school.
CHILD: This is the girl that teased … the boy … at school.
German
ITEM: Da ist der Mann, den das Mädchen im Stall gesehen hat.
CHILD: Da ist der Mann, der das Mädchen im Stall gesehen hat.
Subj-relatives
English(1) This is the girl who bor/ Peter borrowed a football from.
German
(2) Da ist der Junge, der/ dem Paul … die Mütze weggenommen hat.
Questions
Why are children inconsistent in their responses?
What explains the frequent occurrence of repairs?
What determines the ease of activation?
Frequency and ease of activation
The more frequently a grammatical construction occurs, the more deeply entrenched it is in mental grammar, and the easier it is to activate in language use.
Input frequency
35,6
53,8
7,7
0 00
10
20
30
40
50
60
SUBJ OBJ OBL IO GEN
(Diessel 2004)
Order of thematic roles
(1) The boy kissed the girl.
(2) This is the boy who kissed the girl.
(3) This is the boy who the girl kissed.
Order of thematic roles
AGENT VERB PATIENT. Simple clause
PRO is AGENT rel VERB PATIENT. Subj relative
PRO is PATIENT rel AGENT VERB. Other relatives
Question
Why did the English-speaking children basically produce the same amount of errors in response to obj- and obl-relatives?
DO, IO, OBL-relatives
(1) The boy who kissed the girl. SUBJ
(2) The boy who the girl kissed. DO
(3) The boy who the girl talked to. OBL
(4) The boy who the girl gave the letter to. IO
(5) The boy whose brother kissed the girl. GEN
Word order in English relative clauses
NP [V …] subj
NP [NP V …] do
NP [NP V …] io
NP [NP V …] obl
NP [[GEN N] V …] gen
Relative pronouns in German relative clauses
Der Mann, der … subj
Der Mann, den … do
Der Mann, dem … io
Der Mann, mit/von dem … obl
Der Mann, dessen N gen
Question
Why were genitive relatives almost always incorrect?
Gen- and io-relatives
Both gen- and io-relatives are basically absent from the
ambient language.
Io-relatives caused fewer errors than gen-relatives
because they are similar to do-relatives.
Summary
Important is the similarity between constructions:
• Subj-relatives caused few problems because they are similar to simple sentences.
• English do-, io-, and obl-relatives caused basically the same amount of problems because they have the same word order.
• Io-relatives caused relatively few problems because they are similar to direct do-relatives.
• Gen-relatives and German obl-relatives caused great problems because they are dissimilar to other relative clauses.
Why does similarity matter?
Relative clauses are constructions (i.e. form-function pairings) that are related to each other in a network like lexical expressions.
Children acquire this network in a piecemeal, bottom-up fashion by relating new relative clause constructions to constructions they already know.
A network of relative constructions
Simple Sentences
That is N [subj-relative]
…-relatives
…-relatives
…-relatives
… [gen-relative]