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Null subject comprehension and production revisited: a look at English and Italian.

This study will investigate how children acquire the option to drop the subject of a sentence, or null subjects (e.g. "Tickles me" instead of "He tickles me"). In languages that do not permit null subjects, children produce sentences with null subjects from 1 to 3 years of age. This non-adultlike pr...

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Published in:Journal of Child Language Vol. 53; no. 2; pp. 1 - 27
Format: pictorial protocol tables/charts Journal Article
Published: Cambridge University Press Mar2026
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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        03050009
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      jtl: Journal of Child Language
      issn: 03050009
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    pubinfo:
      dt: Mar2026
      vid: 53
      iid: 2
      pid: 15979
      pub: Cambridge University Press
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        192433103
        192433103
        192433103
        10.1017/S0305000924000588
        192433103
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      ppct: 26
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        atl: Null subject comprehension and production revisited: a look at English and Italian.
      aug:
      sug:
        subj:
          English Language
          Language Development Evaluation
          Linguistics Evaluation
          Speech Production Measurement
          Cognition Evaluation
          Task Performance and Analysis
          Italians
          Experimental Studies
          Infant
          Child, Preschool
          Comparative Studies
          Infant: 1-23 months
          Child, Preschool: 2-5 years
      ab: This study will investigate how children acquire the option to drop the subject of a sentence, or null subjects (e.g. "Tickles me" instead of "He tickles me"). In languages that do not permit null subjects, children produce sentences with null subjects from 1 to 3 years of age. This non-adultlike production has been explained by two main accounts: first, the null subject sentences may accurately reflect the children's linguistic knowledge, that is, a competence account. Alternatively, they may result from immature processing resources, therefore underestimating children's competence, that is, a performance account. We will test the predictions of these accounts by using a central fixation preference procedure and elicited imitation to measure children's comprehension and production, respectively, in monolingual 19- to 28-month-olds acquiring English (a non-null subject language) and Italian (a null subject language). The results will shed light on acquisition across languages, and the features that provide evidence to a learner.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype:
        pictorial
        protocol
        tables/charts
        Journal Article
      ougenre: Article
    language: English
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