Comprehension of intersentential pronouns in child German and child Bulgarian

Abstract

This article investigates the acquisition of pronominal resolution as a process instantiated at the syntax–discourse interface. Based on current psycholinguistic proposals concerning the gradual development from a more context-driven towards a linguistically constrained representation of discourse referents, we conducted an experimental study investigating the impact of the antecedent properties animacy and syntactic role on the resolution of personal and demonstrative pronouns. Participants were 3- and 5-year-old monolingual German- and Bulgarian-speaking children. Results suggest that the 3-year-olds establish one pronoun type as a default in their early anaphoric system. Five-year-olds resolve personal pronouns to the maximally salient antecedent which they determine by a joint consideration of the subject and animacy status of available referents. The resolution of demonstratives shows initial language-specific constraints.