De Cat, C (2012) Explaining children’s over-use of definites in partitive contexts. First Language, 32 (1-2). 137 - 150. ISSN 0142-7237
Abstract
Partitive contexts are those in which a set of similar individuals has been introduced, and the speaker needs to refer to one of them. If that referent has not yet been individualized in the context, the only adult-like option is to refer to it with an indefinite. But in such contexts, children have been shown to often produce (illicit) definites. In comprehension, if children are made to identify a referent in a partitive context, they do not always interpret correctly the definiteness clues in the input, and tend to interpret definites as if they were indefinite. This article reviews production and comprehension studies in light of new experimental data, and argues that children’s errors in this type of context are due to processing limitations.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Editors: |
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Keywords: | definiteness; discourse; partitive; processing; uniqueness |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > School of Languages Cultures & Societies (Leeds) > Linguistics & Phonetics (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 01 Oct 2015 09:56 |
Last Modified: | 02 Oct 2015 12:17 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0142723711403884 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | SAGE Publications |
Identification Number: | 10.1177/0142723711403884 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:82219 |