Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-01T03:43:13.306Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The use of reflexive constructions by Spanish-speaking children:Differences across functions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Raquel T. Anderson
Raquel T. Anderson*
Affiliation:
Indiana University
*
Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The present study sought to obtain initial data on children's use of the clitic pronoun se in Romance (e.g., Se cayó ‘He/she fell’) and regular (e.g., Se peinó ‘He/she combed himself/herself’) reflexive constructions. A total of 40 monolingual Spanish-speaking children between the ages of 2 and 4 years were given two structured tasks that assessed the contrastive use of se for coding these functions. In addition, spontaneous speech data were obtained on the children's use of this clitic pronoun. To establish expected adult-like performance on the Romance reflexive task, responses from 20 Spanish-speaking adults were obtained. The results suggest that there is a differential order of acquisition of the clitic se, whereby children initially contrast regular reflexive with nonreflexive clitic constructions and later contrast between Romance and non-Romance reflexive verb pairs. Possible reasons for this difference in use are presented as these relate to issues of lexical development and the language's marking of transitivity.

Type
Articles
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 19 , Issue 3 , July 1998 , pp. 489 - 512
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bowerman, M. (1988). The child's expression of meaning: Expanding relationships among lexicon, syntax, and morphology. In Franklin, M. B. & Barten, C. S. (Eds.), Child language: A reader (pp. 106–117). New York: Oxford University PressGoogle Scholar
Byrnes, J., & Gelman, S. A. (1991). Perspectives on thought and language: Traditional and contemporary views. In Gelman, S. A. & Byrnes, J. P. (Eds.), Perspectives on language and thought: Interrelations in development (pp. 3–23). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, E. V. (1991). Acquisitional principles in lexical development. In Gelman, S. A. & Byrnes, J. P. (Eds.), Perspectives on language and thought: Interrelations in development (pp. 31–71). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, E. V. (1993). The lexicon in acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clements, J. C. (1994). Notes on topicalization and object drop in Spanish. In Mazzola, M. L. (Ed.), Issues and theory in romance linguistics (pp. 219–238). Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Dale, P. S. (1991). The validity of a parent report measure of vocabulary and syntax at 24 months. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 34, 565–571.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dale, P. S., Bates, E., Reznick, J. S., & Morriset, C. (1989). The validity of a parent report instrument of child language at 20 months. Journal of Child Language, 16, 239–249.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finnegan, E. (1994). Language: Its structure and use. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace.Google Scholar
García, E. (1975). The role of theory in linguistic analysis: The Spanish pronoun system. New York: North Holland.Google Scholar
García-Miguel, J. M. (1985). La voz media en espaol: Las construcciones verbales con verbos transitivos [The middle voice in Spanish: Verbal constructions with transitive verbs]. Verba, 12, 307–343.Google Scholar
Gathercole, V. C. (1990). Multifunctional se: Course of development in Spanish children. Papers and Reports on Child Language Development, 29, 46–53.Google Scholar
Gomes, B. (1986). Inference in child language: The Spanish pronoun system. Paper presented at the meeting of the Linguistics Society of America, Seattle, WA.Google Scholar
González, G. (1978). The acquisition of Spanish grammar by native Spanish-speaking children. Rosslyn, VA: National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education.Google Scholar
Hochberg, J. G. (1986). Children's judgments of transitivity errors. Journal of Child Language, 13 317–334.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hopper, P. J., & Thompson, S. A. (1980). Transitivity in grammar and discourse. Language, 56, 251–299.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Linares, N. (1983). Management of communicatively handicapped Hispanic children. In Omark, D. R. & Erickson, J. G. (Eds.), The bilingual exceptional child (pp. 145–162). San Diego, CA: College-Hill.Google Scholar
Omori, H. (1988). The reflexive use of clitics in Spanish. Sophia Linguistica, 23–24, 139–147.Google Scholar
Rescorla, L., & Schwartz, E. (1989). The Language Development Survey: A screening tool for delayed language toddlers. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 54, 587–599.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schum, G., Conde, A., & Diaz, C. (1992). Pautas de adquisición y uso del pronombre personal en la lengua espaola: Un estudio longitudinal [Acquisition and use of personal pronouns in Spanish: A longitudinal study]. Estudios de Psicología, 48, 67–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Slobin, D. I., & Bever, T. G. (1982). Children use canonical sentence schemas: A crosslinguistic study of word order and inflections. Cognition, 12, 229–265.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Solé, Y., & Solé, C. (1977). Modern Spanish syntax: A study in contrast. Lexington, MA: Heath.Google Scholar
Toronto, A. L. (1972). A developmental Spanish language analysis procedure for Spanish-speaking children. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.Google Scholar