Abstract

PAVLOU, Natalia  and  PAPADOPOULOU, Elena. (Ab)normalities in the Acquisition of Cypriot Greek. Diacrítica [online]. 2012, vol.26, n.1, pp.148-171. ISSN 0807-8967.

This paper discusses syntactic errors identified in child speech, which contribute to our understanding of the linguistic development in the first years of our lives. The focus lies on children’s ungrammatical and non-target utterances appearing to violate the Pied-piping condition in D-linked wh-questions as found in two different elicitation experiments. The violation of grammatical constraints, such as the one discussed, supports fundamental notions in language such as Economy and points out the importance of the experimental design for the limitation of these errors. The study more generally concentrates on the understanding of structures that involve Movement as an attempt to understand the specificities in the linguistic development of Greek Cypriot children as well as the stages in the acquisition course involved cross-linguistically. The children’s errors found in both experiments using priming in different degrees strengthen the importance of innately-motivated patterns in language.

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