LING 321 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Television Jamaica, Null-Subject Language, English Language In England
18 Dec 2017
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Children"s grammar of null subjects: evidence from comprehension (orfitelli & hyams) They know that children produce sentences without subjects up until a certain age in languages where normally the subject is included. (fact) Sentences with the omitted subject is a null subject sentence. This is not what they are being exposed to normally . Sometimes in informal language like texting or diaries. Maybe they hear imperatives and assume it can be used elsewhere. Kids language also starts with tons of imperatives (go there, eat cookie, etc. ) Kids grammar says that null- subjects are fine, adults grammar does not. Performance issue: maybe the underlying grammar is correct but the resources they have for production are limited (mean length of utterance). They need to drop something because maybe their limited memory can"t hold the entire sentence. Logically, the subject makes the most sense to drop because we don"t really need it and we can get by without it.
