The knowledge of binding principles in early child grammar: Experimental evidence from 30-month-old toddlers

We investigated toddlers' understanding of the hierarchical syntactic configurations that constrain the referential meanings of reflexives and pronouns. In particular, reflexives must co-refer with the c-commanding antecedent within the local domain (Principle A) (e.g., Hei washes himselfi. Johni knows that Billj likes himselfj.), and pronoun reference must be disjoint from its local c-commanding antecedent (Principle B) (e.g., Hei washes himj. Johni knows that Billj likes himi.). French-learning 30-month-olds participated in an eye-tracker task. In Experiment 1 each trial presented a simple sentence containing a reflexive or a pronoun and a target verb (e.g., Ili sei/lej lave. "hei washes himselfi/himj"), while displaying side-by-side pictures depicting self- directed versus other-directed actions of the target verb. Experiment 2 tested the locality conditions of the principles using complex sentences, with the target verb and the reflexive/pronoun appearing in the embedded clause (e.g., Le bébéi voit que le papaj sej/lei lave. "The babyi sees that the dadj washes himselfj/himi"); the pictures were those of Experiment 1, with the patient of the verb being the local antecedent in the embedded clause versus the non-local antecedent in the matrix-clause. Experiment 3 tested the c-commanding requirements of the principles with sentences containing a complex subject, a reflexive/pronoun and a target verb (e.g., Le bébéi du papaj sei/lej lave. "The babyi of the dadj washes himselfi/himj"). In the pictures the patient was the linearly farther versus closer antecedent. Eye-gazes to action images showed adult-like interpretations across sentential structures, demonstrating that binding principles are in child grammar during age two.