Russian Children and Their Relatives
What Can a Free Word Order Language Reveal About the Subject/Object Asymmetry
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21746366 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Julia Edeleva (0000-0003-0053-0151, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e. V. (DLR), corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 21 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 118-141 |
| Publication date | 2025-04-03 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Language Learning and Development (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1547-3341 • E-ISSN: 1547-5441 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/15475441.2024.2372247 |
| OpenAlex | W4400688753 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 55 |
The present study revisits the well-attested phenomenon of Subject/Object Asymmetry in relative clause comprehension by monolingual Russian pre-school children. Additionally, it examines the NP-V and the V-NP word order types when the embedded NP precedes or follows the verb. Both the word orders are grammatical for Russian subject and object relative clauses alike. Object relative clause comprehension difficulty was evidenced across all the age groups. Word order alternation (V-NP vs NP-V) did not significantly affect the accuracy rates. Besides the efficacy of the agent-first strategy, growing morphological knowledge compels children to update their ongoing structural analysis, which results in embedded NP errors. Yet, even at 6 years of age, children do not display word order preferences to go with a particular relative clause type that are found in Russian-speaking adults. Restricted exposure to written texts at pre-school age as well as low validity of word order as a cue to thematic role assignment are discussed as possible reasons for children’s insensitivity to word order manipulation in Russian relative clauses
Asymmetry · Linguistics · Natural language processing · Word order · World Wide Web · Categorization, perception, and language · Computer Science · Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism · Philosophy · Psychology · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation · Artificial Intelligence
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Children use canonical sentence schemas
The role of discourse context in the processing of a flexible word-order language
The kindergarten-path effect
Processing of relative clauses is made easier by frequency of occurrence
The role of parallel function in the acquisition of relative clauses in English
Frequency of basic English grammatical structures
Filler driven parsing
The influence of referential processing on sentence complexity
Cue validity and sentence interpretation in English, German, and Italian
Individual differences in syntactic processing
Linguistic complexity
German Children’s Comprehension of Word Order and Case Marking in Causative Sentences
OpenSesame
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Continuity in the Adult and Children's Comprehension of Subject and Object Relative Clauses in French and Italian
Syntactic Features in Reanalysis
Children's comprehension of relative clauses
An alternative assessment of children's comprehension of relative clauses
Frequency effects in language acquisition, language use, and diachronic change
Processing of a Free Word Order Language
Relativized relatives
Grammatical feature dissimilarities make relative clauses easier
Does gender make a difference? Comparing the effect of gender on children's comprehension of relative clauses in Hebrew and Italian
Development of Executive Control and Language Processing
Cross-linguistic differences and similarities in the acquisition of relative clauses
Relativized minimality
A New Look at the Acquisition of Relative Clauses
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |