The problem of pseudoclefts in French: intersection configurations and intervention in language acquisition

• Carla Soares-Jesel ^{[1] [4]} ; Maria Lobo ^[2] ; Ana Lúcia Santos ^[3]
  1. [1] Université Denis Diderot

     Université Denis Diderot

     París, Francia

     
  2. [2] Universidade Nova de Lisboa

     Universidade Nova de Lisboa

     Socorro, Portugal

     
  3. [3] Universidade de Lisboa

     Universidade de Lisboa

     Socorro, Portugal

     
  4. [4] Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

     Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

     París, Francia

     

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• Localización: Isogloss: Open Journal of Romance Linguistics, ISSN-e 2385-4138, Vol. 8, Vol. 5 (Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory (RLLT) 19), 2022 (Ejemplar dedicado a: RLLT19, Selected papers from Going Romance Amsterdam)
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Intervention effects have been explored in the domain of language acquisition, suggesting that feature similarity between a moved element and an intervening constituent determines the occurrence of processing difficulties. A graded differentiation scale hierarchizing the different possible relations between feature sets defining the moved and the intervening constituents was suggested: disjunction>intersection>inclusion>identity (Belletti, Friedmann, Brunato & Rizzi 2012; Durrleman & Bentea 2021). It is a well-known fact that young children, unlike adults, have difficulties dealing with inclusion relations. In this article, we compare the comprehension of standard clefts and pseudoclefts by French monolingual children and argue that object pseudoclefts in French give rise to an intersection configuration, which we claim to be at the origin of milder difficulties for children. The paper provides additional empirical evidence in favour of the feature-based intervention theory of locality.