Is the Dutch Delay of Principle B Effect dependent on verb type?

Dutch children interpret reflexives correctly from age 4 on, but frequently misinterpret object pronouns as coreferring with the local subject until age 6. We investigated whether this so-called Delay of Principle B Effect (DPBE) differs by verb type. We tested 47 children between 4 and 6 years old with regular transitive verbs (e.g., to hit ) and grooming verbs (e.g., to wash ), verbs that often refer to self-directed actions. In general, children displaying the DPBE performed equally well on both verb types. In contrast, children who performed poorly on pronouns and reflexives made significa... Mehr ...