ABSTRACT

The two possible positions for wh-words (i.e., in situ or preposed) represent a long-standing area of research in French. The present study reports on statistical analyses of a new seminaturalistic corpus of child L1 French. The distribution of the wh-words is examined in relation to a new verb tripartition: Free be forms, the Fixed be form c’est ‘it is’, and Other Verbs. Results indicate that a discriminating variable is verb form (i.e., Free vs. Fixed), regardless of verb type (i.e., be vs. Other Verbs), and that there is a correlation between the wh-in-situ position and the Fixed be form. The Fixed be form is thus identified as the component that leads to wh-in-situ utterances, in contrast to other languages such as English. Overuse of the Fixed be form in child speech could also account for the predominance of wh-in-situ in child object questions compared to adjunct questions and child wh-questions in general compared to adult questions.

摘要

对于两个可能的位置WH-字（即，原位或前置）代表的研究在法国的长期区域。本研究报告了对儿童L1 French的一种新的半自然语料库的统计分析。的分布WH-字有关检查到一个新的动词三分法：免费是形式，固定BE表格小仔“是”，和其他动词。结果表明，一个判别变量是动词形式（即，与免固定），而不管动词型的（即，是与其他动词），并且存在之间的相关性WH-原位位置和固定BE形成。该固定BE因而形式被鉴定为导致该组件WH-原位话语，而相比之下，其他语言如英语。过度使用的固定BE形式在儿童语音也可以解释的优势WH-原位的子对象的问题相比，兼职问题和儿童WH-一般问题相比，成年人的问题。