LSLT: Adam Liter (LING)

Non-actional passives can be comprehended by 4-year olds

Abstract: Children as old as 4 are reported to have difficulty comprehending passive sentences such as "Lamb was chased by Horse"; moreover, children as old as 5 or 6 are reported to have further difficulty comprehending passive sentences with non-actional verbs such as "Dolphin was liked by Walrus". Many have posited that the reason for these two findings is that children lack knowledge of the syntax of the passive. We show that 4-year olds can comprehend non-actional passives, given an appropriate discourse, suggesting that children do have knowledge of the syntax of the passive.