The role of the Topic feature in the comprehension of nominal ellipsis by Italian preschool children

This dissertation explores the role of the Topic feature in the comprehension of NP-ellipsis by L1-Italian children between 3 and 5 years old. A novel-picture supported Truth Value Judgement Task was employed. Two variables were manipulated: (i) the Identity between the elided NP and its antecedent (Identity vs. Non-identity); (ii) the Position of the remnant (in situ vs. CLLD). Our findings show that the Topic feature has an amelioration effect at age 5, whereas it does not appear to enhance the comprehension of object NP ellipsis among younger children. The results suggest that only the 5-year-olds are sensitive to the Topic feature. Our interpretation of the lack of an amelioration effect in 3- and 4- year-olds is that younger children are not yet sensitive to the discourse feature [Topic] and they are, instead, sensitive to the syntax. In particular, they face difficulties with the word order of CLLDs, which is OVS.