Abstracts
Abstract
This paper presents an experimental study of the acquisition of root wh-questions in French, in which wh-movement is optional. Thirty-two wh-questions were elicited from 33 French-speaking children and 22 adults to allow for a quantitative and qualitative comparison with respect to the various word orders. A comparison reveals the following findings: 1° Children produce more wh-in-situ structures; 2° Children produce no subject-verb inversion structures while adults use them often; 3° The choice of question-structure is related to the wh-word that is used, for all subjects; 4° Children are aware of adults’ preferences but do not imitate them; 5° They acquire the various structures for each wh-element separately; 6° The acquisition of optional rules reflects an interaction of external factors (the input) and internal factors (economy).
Résumé
Cet article présente une étude expérimentale sur l’acquisition des questions wh racines en français, dont le mouvement wh est optionnel. 33 enfants et 22 adultes ont été soumis à un test visant à éliciter 32 questions wh. Les résultats se résument comme suit : 1° Les enfants produisent un plus grand nombre de questions à wh in situ; 2° Ils ne produisent pas de questions wh à inversion du sujet, au contraire des adultes; 3° Le choix de la structure est lié au choix du mot wh, chez tous; 4° Les enfants se rendent compte des préférences des adultes, mais ils ne les imitent pas; 5° Ils acquièrent les différentes structures une par une; 6° L’acquisition de règles de mouvement optionnelles reflète l’interaction de facteurs externes (l’input) et de facteurs internes (l’économie du système).
Appendices
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