The Prosody-Syntax Interface of Polar Questions: Evidence from German and English FirstLanguage Acquisition

P-7主要研究英语和德语极疑问句中句法和韵律的相互作用，以及这些模块在儿童S发展语法中的相互作用。在两种语言中，标准极疑问句都有疑问语调和语序的特点。以前的研究表明韵律在儿童S对疑问句的加工中起着主要作用，但对其确切的作用机制缺乏深入的了解。语序比语调轮廓需要更长的时间来习得。目前还没有研究揭示儿童S在疑问句产生式中句法复杂性的增加与理解的关系，以及句法复杂性如何受语调的制约，反之亦然。我们的目标是填补这一空白，同时考虑到对极性问题的习得的研究对于我们理解界面问题是必不可少的。韵律线索和句法规则的复杂性意味着，更好地理解儿童是如何学习这些方面的，将有助于我们讲述语义、韵律和句法之间的总体互动。通过比较结构上相关的学习者，尽管在许多方面本质上是不同的语言，将有可能发展出更深刻的知识，了解韵律和句法是如何密切相关的。主要涉及的问题是：(I)儿童何时意识到动词位置是编码极问题的线索，以及(Ii)这种新获得的知识是如何与语调线索相互作用的？研究的重点是2到4岁的单语儿童，以及他们处理有主要动词和没有情态动词的句子以及有系词的句子和没有情态动词的谓词名词的能力。除了英语的重复实验外，我们还将收集德语的数据。这使得我们可以得出关于主要动词/系词be的倒装的习得的结论，这一现象存在于两种语言中，但具有不同的地位(德语中极地疑问句的默认句法标记，在英语中更为例外，因为英语中的主要动词需要doPROPOSAL支持)。对韵律的关注将有助于更好地了解韵律-句法界面以及两个组成部分在发展过程中的相对权重。由于研究的重点是句法-韵律组合的产生和解释，这些数据也将揭示多个语法模块编码是否多余的问题。我们将根据紧密匹配的刺激材料收集生产和理解数据，以直接比较接受性和生产性的发展。刺激材料中句法结构和韵律结构的相互作用以及不同的组合选择导致了典范和非典范两种话语类型。这将为这一早期被调查的句子类型的规范和非规范意义的调查提供额外的一层。

P-7 focuses on the interaction of syntax and prosody in English and German polar questions andon the interplay of these modules in children¿s developing grammars. In both languages, canonicalpolar questions are characterized by question intonation and word order. Previous studies suggesta principal role of prosody in children¿s processing of interrogatives, but insights into the exactmechanisms at play is lacking. Word order takes longer to acquire than intonation contours. Nostudies are available yet which reveal how children¿s increase of syntactic complexity ininterrogatives in production is related to comprehension, and how syntactic complexity isconditioned by intonation or vice versa. We aim to fill this gap taking into account the considerationthat the study of the acquisition of polar questions is essential for our understanding of interfaceissues. The complexity of prosodic cues and syntactic rules marking declaratives and polarquestions means that a better understanding of how children learn these aspects will help us tounravel the interaction of semantics, prosody and syntax in general. By comparing learners fromstructurally related though in many aspects essentially different languages, it will be possible todevelop a more profound knowledge of how closely prosody and syntax are related.Main questions addressed are (i) when do children become aware of verb position as a cue forcoding polar questions and (ii) how does this newly acquired knowledge interact with the intonationcue? The focus is on monolingual children aged 2 to 4 and their capacity to deal with sentenceswith a main verb and without a modal verb and sentences with copula be plus a predicate nounwithout a modal verb.In addition to replicating experiments for English, we will collect data for German. This allowsus to draw conclusions about the acquisition of inversion of the main verb/copula be, aphenomenon that is present in both languages but which has a different status (default syntacticmarker for polar questions in German, more exceptional in English, where main verbs require doPROPOSALsupport). The focus on prosody will help to gain a better understanding of the prosody-syntaxinterface and the relative weight of the two components in the course of development. As thestudies focus on production and interpretation of syntax-prosody combinations, the data will alsoshed light on the question whether coding by multiple grammar modules is redundant or not. Wewill collect production and comprehension data based on closely matched stimulus material todirectly compare receptive and productive development. The interplay of syntactic and prosodicstructures in the stimulus material and the different options for combination result in both canonicaland non-canonical utterance types. This will provide an extra layer to the investigation forcanonical and non-canonical meanings of the sentence types under investigation for such an earlyage.