Nyelvtudományi Közlemények 90. kötet (1989)

Tanulmányok - Pléh Csaba: A mondatmegértés és a nyelvi szerkezet összefüggései a magyarban [Relationships between sentence understanding and lingusitic structure in Hungarian] 1

tation of simple sentences is characterized by the following basic parameters: (i) case markers are the dominant factors of interpretation from a very early age on; (ii) at the same time, there is a strong effect of word order, with the expectation of a canonic SVO order in sentences with a definite object, and an SOV pattern with indefinite objects ; (iii) the order based strategy is especially clear when the accusative is unmarked for grammatical reasons and when the accusative is difficult to detect for perceptual reasons ; (iv) some data indicate that with brain maturation children rely more and more on case marking morphology rather than on order. The paper ends with some speculations regarding the typological differences in language processing. It is argued that in Hungarian a more localistic processing strategy is used than in English. However, some signs of order based strategies colour this picture.