Hearing relative clauses boosts relative clause usage (and referential clarity) in young Turkish language learners

Abstract

On account of both their functional and their morphosyntactic characteristics, relative clauses are often viewed as indicators of complexity in child language. Morphosyntactic properties of Turkish make use of particularly arduous relative clauses in spontaneous early discourse. A matching sticker selection task was used to determine whether Turkish-learning 3- and 4-year-olds can be trained to use subject relative clauses and uniquely identifying constructions. Upon their selection of the accurate sticker, the children were exposed to relative clause constructions (relative clause condition), sentences with demonstrative pronouns (demonstrative noun phrase condition), or a general approval (positive feedback condition). The number of relative clauses increased from pretest to posttest only in the relative clause condition; the rate of using adequately discriminating forms increased in all the three conditions, albeit with a steeper increase in the relative clause condition. The results are discussed in the framework of both structural and pragmatic priming.