According to usage-based and constructivist approaches to language development, linguistic categories and structures have semantic content and a communicative function. Relative clauses (RCs) serve a variety of functions in spoken discourse. Depending on their function, RCs occur in different discourse and linguistic contexts and are marked by different formal, semantic, and lexical features. This has largely been ignored in studies that investigated children’s processing of these complex structures. I will summarize cross-linguistic corpus studies that analyzed the form and function of RC constructions in children’s and adults’ speech. Furthermore, I will summarize findings from recent cross-linguistic experiments that suggest that children’s processing of RC constructions is constrained by the form and function of RCs as they are used in social interactions as well as by the form and function of other related, more frequent constructions. Most of the corpus and experimental data come from children learning English, German, Japanese, or Cantonese because there are comparable studies, but I will also indicate when there is data from other languages.
Hao, Yuxin, Xuan Xu, Xuelin Wang, Yanni Lin & Haitao Liu
2023. Typological characteristics of interlanguage: Across L2 modalities and proficiency levels. Frontiers in Psychology 13
Jach, Daniel
2018. A Usage‐Based Approach to Preposition Placement in English as a Second Language. Language Learning 68:1 ► pp. 271 ff.
Malkin, Louise, Kirsten Abbot-Smith & David Williams
2018. Is verbal reference impaired in autism spectrum disorder? A systematic review. Autism & Developmental Language Impairments 3 ► pp. 239694151876316 ff.
2016. How children aged 2;6 tailor verbal expressions to interlocutor informational needs. Journal of Child Language 43:6 ► pp. 1277 ff.
SARILAR, AYŞE, DANIELLE MATTHEWS & AYLIN C. KÜNTAY
2015. Hearing relative clauses boosts relative clause usage (and referential clarity) in young Turkish language learners. Applied Psycholinguistics 36:2 ► pp. 175 ff.
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