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In:The Acquisition of Reference
Edited by Ludovica Serratrice and Shanley E.M. Allen
[Trends in Language Acquisition Research 15] 2015
► pp. 181–211

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From early to late mastery of reference

Multifunctionality and linguistic diversity

Published online: 25 November 2015
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https://doi.org/10.1075/tilar.15.08hic
Developmental studies report either early or late mastery of reference during first language acquisition. This overview focuses on two dimensions that may account for this gap: the multifunctional nature of referring expressions that simultaneously contribute to linguistic organization at sentence and discourse levels, and the language-specific properties that present children with different problems to solve. Illustrations from available research indicate that children are highly sensitive to many discourse-pragmatic features of reference from early on. However, they gradually learn to mark the full range of discourse-internal relations that are necessary to communicate in extended discourse, and variable linguistic factors influence this process throughout development. The discussion highlights multiple determinants of how children come to master multifunctionality during the acquisition of reference across languages.
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2019. Gender Cue Effects in Children’s Pronoun Processing: A Longitudinal Eye Tracking Study. Scientific Studies of Reading 23:6 ► pp. 509 ff. DOI logo
Fichman, Sveta & Carmit Altman
2019. Referential Cohesion in the Narratives of Bilingual and Monolingual Children With Typically Developing Language and With Specific Language Impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 62:1 ► pp. 123 ff. DOI logo
Dimroth, Christine, Sarah Schimke & Giuseppina Turco
2018. Focusing Functional Elements: Affirmative Particles and Verum Focus in First Language Acquisition of German. Language Acquisition 25:3 ► pp. 268 ff. DOI logo
Watorek, Marzena
2018. Development of discourse competence. In Sources of variation in first language acquisition [Trends in Language Acquisition Research, 22], ► pp. 243 ff. DOI logo
Elbro, Carsten, Jane Oakhill, Hakima Megherbi & Alix Seigneuric
2017. Aspects of pronominal resolution as markers of reading comprehension: the role of antecedent variability. Reading and Writing 30:4 ► pp. 813 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 6 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

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