A discourse-pragmatic explanation for the subject-object asymmetry in early null arguments

• Main Author: Allen, S.
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: 1998
• Subjects: Greenfield; inuktitut
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0002-B5C7-1; http://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0002-B5C9-F

The present paper assesses discourse-pragmatic factors as a potential explanation for the subject-object assymetry in early child language. It identifies a set of factors which characterize typical situations of informativeness (Greenfield & Smith, 1976), and uses these factors to identify infor...