Arts and Humanities Commons^™

A Touchy Subject: Optimality And Coreference, Jill De Villiers, Jacqueline Cahillane, Emily Altreuter

Philosophy: Faculty Publications

Four studies are reported that compare production and comprehension of structures involving Principle A and B with 68 English speaking children. The stimuli included simple and complex sentences combined with simple and quantified NPs, each with reflexives and pronouns. A novel technique using a laptop proved successful for eliciting stimulus descriptions as well as truth value judgment. The results test a recent Optimality account of binding by Hendriks and Spenader (2004), but it is argued that more constraints are needed. Although the data can be fit well by the constraints, questions remain about whether it is theoretically satisfactory.

Children's Sensitivity To Prosody And Ostension In Answers To Wh-Questions, Bethany Stoddard, Jill De Villiers

Philosophy: Faculty Publications

This paper examines the effects of two often overlooked factors in children’s answers to wh-questions: the prosodic contour of the question and the complexity of the visual stimuli. There are two potential effects on the interpretation of a question in English: whether it is moved, and what kind of prosody it has.

Assessing Dual Language Learners Of Spanish And English: Development Of The Quils: Es, Jill De Villiers, Aquiles Iglesias, Roberta Golinkoff, Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Mary Sweig Wilson, Ratna Nandakumar

Philosophy: Faculty Publications

Introduction and objectives

Developing a language screener for Dual Language Learners presents numerous challenges. We discuss possible solutions for theoretical and methodological problems often encountered in the development of such a test and illustrate possible solutions using a newly developed language screener for Dual Language Learners.

Materials and methods

The process for developing, validating and norming the screener is also offered as a potential model for the development of other assessments for Dual Language Learners throughout the world. The twelve types of subtests are in three categories: Vocabulary, Syntax, and Process.

Results and conclusions

Results from the Tryout and Norming …