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Title: First language acquisition of French: Relative clauses

Major Contributors:

Claire Foley

Lab(s) Name(s):

Boston College Program in Linguistics

Project URL:

Project Coverage:

Belgium

Languages:

French

Project Date(s):

1/10/12

GENERAL PROJECT DESCRIPTION

The project extends a growing cross-linguistic investigation of the acquisition of relative clauses.

PURPOSES OF THE PROJECT

The project seeks to shed light on the syntax of complex sentences (specifically, relative clauses) and on the development of knowledge underlying these structures.

LEADING QUESTIONS

One set of questions relates to developmental patterns: for example, are free relatives developmental precursors to lexically headed structures? A second set of questions relates to the knowledge underlying complex sentences: for example, what evidence exists that children integrate modular linguistic knowledge over the course of acquisition?

PARTICULAR STUDIES

Acquisition of free and lexically headed relative clauses in French