Bucharest Working Papers in Linguistics (May 2016)
The subject – object asymmetry in the acquisition of wh-questions in Romanian
Abstract
The literature on the acquisition of subject and object wh-questions reports different results with respect to how children acquire these two types of questions. According to several studies, there is an asymmetry between the acquisition of subject and object wh-questions. Although children acquire the syntax of wh-questions very early, object questions are significantly more difficult than subject questions (O’Grady 1997 for an overview, Guasti 2002, a.o.). Stromswold (1995), on the other hand, provides longitudinal data showing that children acquire subject and object questions concurrently. The aim of this paper is to investigate early subject and object wh-questions in child Romanian with a view to identifying whether the asymmetry reported for other languages is also attested in Romanian. The longitudinal data investigated reveal that subject and direct object wh-questions emerge concurrently. There is, however, a clear difference between subject who questions and subject what questions, with an obvious preference for the former. With what, one notices a clear preference for direct object questions.
