Detail The Acquisition of Principle B: Native English-Speaking Children's Interpretation of Pronouns in The Restrictive Relative Clause Construction Bibliografi Author: HIDAJAT, LANNY ; Dardjowidjojo, Soenjono (Advisor) Bahasa: (EN )     Penerbit: Applied English Linguistics Program Graduate School Atma Jaya Catholic University of Indonesia     Tempat Terbit: Jakarta    Tahun Terbit: 2003     Jenis: Theses - Master Thesis Fulltext: Lanny's Master Theses.pdf (6.14MB; 51 download) Ketersediaan Perpustakaan Pusat (Semanggi) Nomor Panggil: M-66 Non-tandon: tidak ada Tandon: 1  Lihat Detail Induk Perpustakaan PKBB Nomor Panggil: T 66 Non-tandon: 1 (dapat dipinjam: 0) Tandon: tidak ada     Lihat Detail Induk Abstract The present study was derived from the results of the previous experiments which indicated that the ability to interpret pronouns in the native English-speaking children emerged late because they were still in the process of acquiring the pragmatic knowledge. These experiments were conducted in the framework of the innateness theory, which viewed that the linguistic knowledge was innate. Derived from the notion of the Universal Grammar by Chomsky, the advocates of the innateness theory argue that every human is equipped with a Language Acquisition Device (LAD), which is in the form of the universal grammar. The universal grammar consists of modules, each of which contains a set of principles. The module that controls the interpretation of the noun phrases is called the Binding Theory. The principle of the binding theory that regulates the interpretation of the pronoun is called the Principle B. In accordance with the assumption that the knowledge of the binding theory is innate, it is believed that when children have understood the meaning of a pronoun, they will be able to interpret it well. On the other hand, results of various experiments showed that in the native English-speaking children the ability to interpret reflexives emerged earlier than the ability to interpret pronouns. This contradictory fact indicates that the ability to interpret pronouns is affected by the extra-linguistic factors. As mentioned above, one of the factors is the pragmatic knowledge. The purpose of the present thesis was to test whether or not the limited short-term memory also impeded the execution of Principle B, which caused the children to have difficulties in interpreting pronouns. The investigation was carried out in the framework of the Principle and Parameter Theory. To observe the role of the short-term memory, the writer tested the ability of the native English-speaking children to interpret pronouns in SS restrictive relative clauses. These sentences were chosen because the processing of these sentences overburdens the short-term memory. Based on the general assumption that the short-term memory of the children was limited (Sheldon 1974: 272), the writer hypothesized that the short term-memory affected the knowledge of principle B, if the child subjects could not interpret the pronouns in the tested relative clauses as well as the adult subjects. In the present experiment, the writer tested six child subjects and three adult subjects. The six child subjects were divided into two age groups: three child subjects, aged between four to five years old, were in the first age group and in the second age group are the other three child subjects, aged between six to seven years old. The adult subjects acted as the control group. The writer used the results of the test of the adult subjects to measure the performances of the child subjects in interpreting pronouns. Based from the assumption that the pragmatic knowledge contributed to the operation of principle B only in the process of interpreting the pronoun with a referential NP antecedent, in the experiment, the writer asked subjects to interpret two kinds of pronouns: the pronouns with the referential NP antecedents and the ones with the quantified NP antecedents. In addition to the SS restrictive relative clauses, the writer also asked the subject to interpret pronouns in the simple sentences. The purpose was to ascertain that the child subjects' failure to interpret pronouns in the SS restrictive relative clauses was merely due to the limitation of their short-term memory capacity, instead of their inadequate pragmatic knowledge. The result of the experiment showed that the abilities of the child subjects to interpret the pronouns with referential NP antecedents in both the simple sentences and the SS restrictive relative clauses were nearly the same. On the other hand, they were able to interpret the pronouns with quantified NP antecedents in the SS restrictive relative clauses better than when the same pronouns were in the simple sentences. Considering that the pragmatic knowledge does not impede the interpretation of the pronouns with quantified NP antecedents, the above result indicates that the short-term memory plays no role in the operation of principle B. In addition, the writer assumes that the child subjects could interpret the pronouns with quantified NP antecedents in the SS restrictive clauses better because the type of the instrument for testing the relative clauses enabled them to understand the concept of the quantifier better. Opini Anda Klik untuk menuliskan opini Anda tentang koleksi ini! Lihat Sejarah Pengadaan  Konversi Metadata   Kembali

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