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Cognitive principles underlying children's errors in pronominal case-marking*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Christine Tanz
Affiliation:
University of Illinois

Abstract

Data on children's errors in marking pronominal case are surveyed and the pattern of errors described: children substitute objective forms for nominative ones but do not commit substitution errors in the opposite direction. It is proposed that two general cognitive principles underlying language acquisition might explain the uniformities in the data: avoid exceptions, and pay attention to the ends of words. It is further suggested that the last of these should be extended in scope, to cover short-term processing of larger constituents.

Type
Notes and Discussion
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1974

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References

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