The primary goal of this study is to examine the semantic and discourse properties of clause chains in Japanese narratives, focusing on the factors that motivate narrators to link clauses into chains and to end clause chains in progress. Qualitative analysis will be used to address the following questions: When do children begin producing clause chains in narratives, and how do their clause chains change over time? What semantic relations can be identified in the clause chains of young children and adults, and which connectives do they use in conveying those relations? Does switch-reference impact narrators' choice of the default -te clause-linking suffix vs. the semantically more specific -tara 'when,' as documented in prior research? What discourse contexts are associated with narrators' use of finite verbs to end clause chains? Once potential motivations for clause linking and chain ending have been identified through qualitative analysis, a statistical analysis will be employed to discover which ones have a significant impact on narrators' decision to link—or not link—the clauses in their stories.

The paper is organized as follows. The following section describes the methodology for the study. The section "Qualitative Analysis" presents an analysis of the narrators' clause chains, with examples illustrating their key properties. In the section "To Link or Not to Link: A Statistical Analysis," several potential predictors of clause chaining vs. chain ending are modeled in a multifactorial, mixed-effects analysis. The final section concludes the paper with a general discussion and suggestions for further research.

### METHODOLOGY

The narratives for this study were elicited using two methods: (1) having narrators tell the story of a nine-frame, handdrawn cartoon, and (2) having narrators view a short video and then recount the story from memory. The first method has been popular in developmental research, e.g., Berman and Slobin's (1994) use of a wordless picture book about a runaway frog to elicit a multi-language corpus of "frog stories." The video method was introduced by Chafe (1980a) in his Pear Story project; participants viewed a short film and then told the story to an interviewer. Both methods have the advantage of giving the analyst full access to the experience underlying the story. Since narrators are all telling the same story, common patterns are easily recognizable, while comparison of adult vs. child narratives helps identify developmental differences.

### Subjects

The participants in this study were 60 children and ten adults living in a middle-class suburb of Tokyo. The children, five girls

TABLE 1 | Cartoon and video data.

and five boys at each of the age ranges in **Table 1** were attending either a private kindergarten for 3- to 6-year-olds or the first grade of a public elementary school. The adults were undergraduate and graduate students of 21–29 years old who were attending a private university nearby.

### Materials

The cartoon used to elicit narration depicts in nine frames a story featuring two girls at a playground (see **Appendix**). During elicitation, the frames were displayed (unnumbered) in transparent covers taped horizontally from left to right. The video is a 7-min segment titled "Akachango" 'Babytalk' from the Sazaesan television series, a popular program about the everyday life of Sazaesan and her family. Since this program was being televised at the time of the study, the narrators were familiar with the characters and typical storylines. The cartoon and video stories are summarized below.

Cartoon frames: (1) An empty playground in a park. (2) Two girls, identified as Yukiko and Sachiko before the cartoon was shown, arrive at the playground, holding hands with their mothers and carrying balloons. (3) Sachiko is on a swing, holding her balloon. (4) Yukiko is on the slide, holding her balloon. (5) Yukiko is halfway down the slide, with a startled expression, as her balloon flies away. (6) Yukiko looks downcast as Sachiko approaches, holding her balloon. (7) Sachiko gives Yukiko her balloon. (8) Yukiko gives Sachiko her hat. (9) The girls leave the playground with their mothers, Yukiko holding Sachiko's balloon and Sachiko wearing Yukiko's hat.

 He tears the house apart, opening drawers and throwing the contents around, to the great annoyance of Sazaesan's younger siblings, Wakame and Katsuo. The next day, Ikura's father returns to say that the baby will be at home with his now-recovered mother; then he apologizes for Ikura's bad behavior. Sazaesan's family is mystified, since they had not complained and Ikura does not know how to talk. Later, however, Ikura's mother reports that he told her about having searched Sazaesan's house for medicine to give her. She explains that a mother can understand her baby, which she proves by successfully "translating" Ikura's babbled claim that he has seen a snail on a leaf.

**Table 1** summarizes the data for this study, including the number of cartoon and video stories available for analysis, as well as the total number of clauses they contain.

Of the 3,160 clauses in **Table 1**, 23.2% consist of singleclause sentences. The remaining 2,428 clauses occur in sentences having at least two clauses, and provide the data for the statistical analysis. The overwhelming majority of these clauses appear either in chains having only non-finite verbs in their non-final clauses (58.7%) or in chains with both non-finite and finite verbs in their non-final clauses (35%). Only 6.3% appear in chains having only finite verbs in their nonfinal clauses.

### Data Collection and Transcription

The elicitation sessions took place at the kindergarten and elementary school attended by the children. Each child met individually with two female college students, who served as elicitor and listener for the storytelling tasks. The cartoon elicitation was presented as a game in which the child sat beside the elicitor, with the cartoon spread out on a table in front of them, and told the story to the listener, who sat with her eyes covered to reduce the child's reliance on pointing. Next, the listener made an excuse to leave the room, and the child watched the Sazaesan video with the elicitor. The listener then returned and asked the child: Donna hanashi datta no? 'What was the story?' If the child fell silent during narration, the elicitor prompted: Sorede? 'And then?' or Doo shita no? 'What happened/what did s/he do?' If the child still could not proceed, the elicitor used a standard set of specific prompts for different points in the storyline. If verbal prompts failed, the child was shown a few photos depicting scenes from the video. The same procedure was followed with the adults, except that no prompts were used and the listener did not cover her eyes during the cartoon elicitation.

The narratives were transcribed drawing on the conventions in Chafe (1980a, p. xv) and elaborated in Du Bois et al. (1992, 1993): commas mark the ends of intonation units and periods represent sentence-final falling intonation, regardless of whether sentence-final syntactic closure was used. Although most intonation units are preceded by silent pauses, they are not included here, in order to facilitate the reading of examples. Japanese narrators, especially children, often end nonfinal clauses and clause-internal intonation units with the taglike particle ne and rising intonation (Clancy, 1982, pp. 61–63; Iwasaki, 1993b). In an extended turn such as a narrative, ne seeks the listener's continued cooperation in holding the floor (Cook, 1992, p. 524). Final clauses in a chain typically end with a verb inflected for past tense, the SFP no, and falling intonation.

### QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS

In this section, a qualitative analysis will be presented of the following properties of the narratives: story length and prompting, semantic relations in clauses linked by the three most common connectives in the children's stories, switch-reference in non-final clauses, reformulations that change a connective or the status of a clause as non-final/final, chain length and diversity of

#### TABLE 2 | Story length and frequency of prompting.

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linking forms, and narrative contexts associated with the end of clause chains.

### Story Length and Prompting

**Table 2** summarizes the narrators' average story length and percentage of prompted clauses at each age. The length of the children's cartoon stories is fairly constant, but beginning at 5 years of age there is a marked increase in the length of their video stories. The adults' stories, especially their video stories, are much longer on average than the children's. The greater length of the video stories suggests that the complex plot afforded a more open-ended opportunity for narration.

The children's need for prompting decreases dramatically with age, as **Table 2** shows. While 32% of the 3-year-olds' cartoon clauses and 70% of their video clauses need prompting, by 5 years of age, the children are much more capable of narrating without assistance. Overall, the video stories require more prompting; even the adults occasionally commented on their difficulty recalling the complicated storyline.

The stories of children who need extensive prompting take the form of a question-answer dialogue, similar to the heavily scaffolded conversational stories of 2-year-olds (Miller and Sperry, 1988). These dialogic narratives often consist entirely of single-clause responses, with no clause chains. The story excerpted in (6) includes 17 short sentences with 15 interviewer prompts. (The participant number and age of narrator appear in parentheses; I = interviewer, C = child).

C: gamuteepu de hat-te-**ta no**. packing.tape INSTR stick-PROG-PST SFP

While most 3-year-olds need continuous scaffolding of their video narratives, two told the story with minimal or no prompting. The video story excerpted in (7) is 34 sentences long and has only a single prompt at the start, which is ignored. Nevertheless, as in (6), the narrator relies almost exclusively on single-clause sentences.

(7) I: hajime ni dare ga i-ta no? beginning at who NOM be-PST SFP

And then, (they) were playing.

 C: '(Ikura) was bothering (Wakame and Katsuo). And then, (Ikura and Tara) were playing. And then, um (Ikura's mother) was sick. And then, (she) had a fever.

And then, (Ikura's) father came to get (him). And then, (he) was doing bad things.'

Like the narrators in (6) and (7), many 3-year-olds formulate their stories one clause at a time with almost no clause linking; this pattern essentially equates clause and sentence.

### To Link: Semantic Relations in Non-final Clauses

#### Clause Linking With -te

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Although some children under 5 years of age make minimal use of clause chains in their stories, others freely use -te 'and (then),' and sometimes more specific connectives such as -tara 'when,' to create chains of two or more clauses. The non-final clauses in these chains feature many of the semantic relations described in research on Japanese adults' clause chaining (Watanabe, 1994; Hasegawa, 1996).

Three-year-olds, for example, often use -te in cases of simultaneous or temporally overlapping relations between two linked clauses. Such clauses are typically characterized as conveying manner, i.e., the way in which the action is performed (Watanabe, 1994, p. 132; Genetti, 2005, pp. 53–54). The narrator in (8) is recounting the arrival at the playground of the two girls in the cartoon story.

'Um then, um, holding balloons, (Yukiko and Sachiko) came.'

In this example, there is potential ambiguity between a monoclausal interpretation of V-te kuru 'V-TE come,' in which mot-te kita 'carry-and came' is lexicalized as 'brought' ('they brought balloons') and a biclausal, clause-linking interpretation ('holding balloons, they came'). A number of criteria were used to differentiate between monoclausal and biclausal cases. When only a single event was involved, e.g., booshi kashi-te ageta 'lendand gave hat' (lit. 'gave the favor of lending (her) hat') or fuusen ton-de itta 'balloon fly and went' ('the balloon flew away'), a monoclausal interpretation was assigned. When a two-verb sequence could be interpreted as involving either one or two events, additional factors were taken into account. If the two verbs were articulated in separate intonation units, they were coded as comprising two clauses. A biclausal interpretation was also made if lexical material separated the two verbs; for example, in fuusen motte mama to kita 'holding balloons with their mothers they came', the phrase mama to 'with (their) mothers' intervenes between mot-te 'carry-and' and kita 'came,' ruling out a monoclausal reading of motte kita as 'brought.' In many cases, context distinguished between monoclausal vs. biclausal interpretations, making one of the interpretations implausible given the relevant events in the cartoon or video.

Using these criteria, only a handful of ambiguous cases remained, such as (8), in which both monoclausal and biclausal interpretations are plausible. Since the arrival of the main characters at the empty playground is the key event of the second frame of the cartoon and was explicitly mentioned by most narrators, (8) was coded as biclausal, although this interpretation is challengeable. When the narrator of a cartoon story had already mentioned the girls' arrival at the park, or when the focus was exclusively on the balloons, the sequence mot-te kita 'carry-and came' was analyzed as monoclausal: 'they brought balloons.'

The most common type of simultaneous or partially overlapping relation between clauses involves the use of the quotative particle tte to convey speech that is produced while performing an action, as in (9).

(9) arigatoo **tte yut-te** (29: 5;2) thank.you QT say-TE

morat-ta no. receive-PST SFP

'Saying "thank you," (Sachiko) received (Yukiko's hat).'

Since the two-verb sequence yut-te moratta 'say-and received' in (9) has the same form as a benefactive construction, the sequence in (9) could be interpreted as '(Sachiko) received the favor of (Yukiko) saying "thank you."' However, context clearly rules out this monoclausal interpretation of the eighth cartoon frame, in which Yukiko gives Sachiko her hat (see **Appendix**).

The quotative construction in (9) is frequently used without an overt verb of saying, which leaves the clause with the reported speech ending in the quotative particle tte, as in (10).

'Next, (saying) "here," (Sachiko) gave (Yukiko her balloon).'

For purposes of this paper, a clause ending in tte is treated as a non-final clause when produced with non-final intonation and as a final clause when used with sentence-final intonation.

Temporal sequence is generally regarded as the unmarked relation between clauses in a chain, whose order cannot be reversed without changing the meaning (Iwasaki, 2002, p. 261). In (11), for example, the reverse order of clauses does not make sense.

(11) oniichan no hikidashi o ne, ake**-te** (10: 3;11) older.brother GEN drawer ACC FHP open-TE

'(Ikura) opened older brother's drawers and scattered (things).'

In addition to temporal relations of simultaneity and sequentiality, clause-linking with -te frequently conveys causality, as in (12).

(12) Ikura-chan Wakame ni ne, oko-rare**-te**, (6: 3;11) Ikura-DIM Wakame by FHP get.angry-PASS-TE

Ikura-chan nai-chat-ta no. Ikura-DIM cry-CMPLT-PST SFP

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'(Lit.) Ikura was gotten angry at by Wakame and, Ikura cried.'

The sequence of events in the video that was most likely to elicit clause chaining in the youngest children's stories is the one in (13):

(13) unto ne, oniichan no ne, unto ne, (19: 4;6) um FHP older.br GEN FHP um FHP

> koohi no naka ni ne, coffee GEN middle LOC FHP

keeki ga hait-**te** ne, cake NOM enter-TE FHP

oniichan no kao ni ne, unto ne, ano older.brother GEN face LOC FHP um FHP um

ne, koohi ga ton**-de** ne, FHP coffee NOM fly-TE FHP

unto oniichan ga ne, unto ne, okot-ta. um older.brother NOM FHP um FHP get.angry-PST

'Um, the cake went into um the middle of older brother's coffee and, um um the coffee flew into older brother's face and, um older brother um got angry.'

The event sequence in (13) combines two key types of causality: physical (the cake lands in Katsuo's coffee and splashes in his face) and psychological (Katsuo's coffee splashes on him and he gets angry). A less direct type of causality involves socially appropriate motivations for action, as in (14): Sachiko gives Yukiko her balloon, so Yukiko gives Sachiko her hat.

(14) soshite ne, fuusen o ne, age-te ne, (14: 4;7) then FHP balloon ACC FHP give-TE FHP

age**-te** ne, give-TE FHP sorekara ne, to ne, booshi o ne, pinku no then FHP um FHP hat ACC FHP pink GEN

hito ni ne, age-ta no. person DAT FHP give-PST SFP

'then, (Sachiko) gave, gave (Yukiko) her balloon and, then, um, (Yukiko) gave the person in pink her hat.'

Clauses that compare two states, events, or situations are also sometimes linked by -te. The semantic relation in (15) is contrastive, while that in (16), which first appears in the 5-yearolds' stories, has been termed "additive" [Hasegawa, 1996, p. 6; cf. Longacre's "coupling" relation (Longacre, 1985, p. 241)].

mi- mot-te**-te**, FS- carry-PROG-TE

soshite un momorenjya no ne, akthen um Peach Ranger GEN FHP FS-

unto pinku no fuusen mot-te-ta no. um pink GEN balloon carry-PROG-PST SFP

'And then, (Yukiko) was already holding a red balloon and, then um (Sachiko) was holding a Peach Ranger, re- um pink balloon.'

(Momorenjya/Peach Ranger: a female anime character with pink hair and outfit)

(16) sorede ne, Yuki-chan ga ne, (29: 5;2) then FHP Yuki-DIM NOM FHP

fuusen kat**-te**, balloon buy-TE

Sat-chan mo fuusen kat-ta no ne, Sat-DIM also balloon buy-PST SFP FHP

'and then, Yukiko bought a balloon and, Sachiko bought a balloon too,'

Clause Linking With Kara 'Because' and -Tara 'When' As examples (8–16) illustrate, -te is compatible with a wide range of semantic relations. V-te is the most common connective, appearing in 77% of the children's non-final clauses and 46% of the adults'. Next most frequent for the children are -tara 'when' (7%) and kara 'because' (5%). Kara 'because' first appears in the stories of the 3-year-olds, as in (17).

(17) yoochien de asob-e-na**-i kara**, (10: 3;11) kindergarten LOC play -POT-NEG-NPST because

ouchi de ason-de-ta no. house LOC play-PROG-PST SFP

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'(They) couldn't play at kindergarten so, (they) were playing at home.'

Although -te can be used to link a reason to an action or event, it is much more common for narrators of all ages to use kara 'because', as in (18).

The suffix -tara 'when' first appears in the stories of the 4-year-olds. Since -tara can serve many of the same temporal functions as -te but is much less frequent, it breaks the monotony of -te linking, creating a tighter sense of interclausal connection.

Hasegawa (1996, pp. 208–209) includes "setting" as one of the functions of -te linking; in these stories, settings often present the arrival of new characters with -te. But using -tara, as in (19), evokes a sense of closer relation to, and expectation about, the events that are to come.

the baby throws a shoe and,'

An especially common use for -tara is to create a tight link between successive turns in reported dialogue, such as the question-answer sequence in (20).

(20) unto fuusen na-ku nat-chat-ta um balloon not.exist-ADJ become-CMPLT-PST

no tte yut**-tara** ne, (50: 6;7) SFP QT say-when FHP, Sat-chan ga soo yut-ta kara ne, Sat-DIM NOM yes say-PST because FHP

'um when (Yukiko) said, "Did (your) balloon disappear?" Sachiko said "yes" so,'

The sense of something tellable to come that -tara conveys can be used by narrators to increase the suspense at key moments in a story. In the video scene that elicited -tara most reliably, Ikura's mother declares that her babbling child has said that there is a snail on a leaf, and Wakame and Katsuo rush to discover whether this is true.

(21) ano ne, Katsuo-kun to ne, Wakame-chan (47: 6;6) um FHP Katsuo-DIM and FHP Wakame-DIM

> ga ne, it-te ne, NOM FHP go-TE FHP,

nozoi-te **mi-tara** ne, peek-TE see-when FHP

hontooni ne, katatsumuri ga i-ta no ne, really FHP snail NOM exist-PST SFP FHP

'um, Katsuo and Wakame go and, when they take a peek, there really is a snail.'

Iwasaki describes this use of -tara as comprising a voluntary action followed by the stative perception it enables (Iwasaki, 1993a, p. 71), which Watanabe characterizes as the "discovery construction" (Watanabe, 1994, p. 172).

(22) Katuso-kun to ne, Wakame-chan ne, (30: 5;2) Katsuo-DIM and FHP Wakame-DIM FHP

> hikidashi ni ne, drawer LOC FHP

teepu **hat-te-tara** ne, tape stick-PROG-when FHP

unto ne, Ikura-chan ko-na-katta no ne, um FHP Ikura-DIM come-NEG-PST SFP FHP

'(But) when Katsuo and Wakame were sticking tape on their drawers, um Ikura didn't come,'

The conjunction to 'when, if' is extremely rare in the children's stories, although the adults occasionally use to instead of -tara in the contexts in (19–22). Watanabe's "discovery" and "action in vain" analyses are based on to but are equally applicable to -tara in the present data. Presumably, the children will begin to use to for certain -tara functions at a later stage of development.

Examples (8–22) illustrate the most common semantic relations between non-final clauses in the children's stories. The statistical analysis of predictors that increase/decrease the probability of clause linking will include the following semantic relations: manner, temporal sequence (with 'dialogue' as a subtype), causality, setting, and comparative (defined as encompassing additive, contrastive, and concessive relations).

### Switch-Reference in Non-final Clauses

As noted in the Introduction, research on Japanese clause chains has found differing frequencies of switch-reference following different connectives. For example, Iwasaki reports that in his sample of spoken narratives, 89% of -tara clauses but only 19% of -te clauses were followed by switch-reference (Iwasaki, 1993a, p. 64). Myhill and Hibiya found a similar pattern (66% switchreference following to vs. 27% following -te) in a novel (Myhill and Hibiya, 1988, pp. 377, 390), and Watanabe in narratives from elementary school textbooks: 73% switch-reference after to, 17% after -te (Watanabe, 1994, p. 150). Iwasaki concludes that -te is used for continuous subjects and -tara for discontinuous subjects, while Watanabe proposes that -te is a "true Same Subject device" in clauses with human subjects, 100% of which maintained the same subject referent in the clause following -te (Watanabe, 1994, p. 152).

The cartoon and video in this study feature multiple characters engaged in action-reaction scenarios and back-andforth dialogue. The cartoon, in fact, was specifically designed to elicit switch-reference, and many cartoon stories, such as (23), have a different subject in each clause. In (23), the narrator switches the subject referent following both -te (lines 2, 5) and -tara (line 3).

ni not**-te** ne, LOC ride-TE FHP

	- yut**-te** ne, say-TE FHP
	- (5) **Yuki-chan** ga ne, booshi age**-te**, Yuki-DIM NOM FHP hat give-TE
	- (1) 'Sachiko went on the swing and,
	- (2) when Yukiko went on the slide,
	- (3) Yukiko's balloon flew away.
	- (4) Then, Sachiko said, "(I)'ll give (you mine)" and,
	- (5) Yukiko gave (Sachiko her) hat and,'

**Table 3** compares the percentage of switch-reference (DS = different subject) following -te 'and (then)' and -tara 'when' in the cartoon vs. video narratives. In the cartoon stories, as well as the video stories of children under 5 years of age, -tara is too infrequent to permit reliable conclusions. However, the expected distinction between -tara and -te is evident in the video stories of the children over 5 years old, who averaged 80% switch-reference following -tara vs. 53% following -te. The adults' video stories show a similar pattern: 81% switch-reference after tara, 46% after -te.

While these findings support the claim that -tara is more strongly associated with switch-reference than -te, the percentage of switch-reference following -te is much higher than in prior studies: combining all age groups, the children average 72% switch-reference after -te in their cartoon stories and 54% in their video stories. Even the adults' lower frequencies (33% and 46%, respectively) exceed the 17–27% rates of switch-reference following -te in previous research.

Apparently, the rate of switch-reference varies considerably depending on the storyline, and these stories call for frequent changes of subject. The narrator's degree of elaboration and point of view are also relevant. Compared to the children, the adults tend to maintain a single character's point of view in their cartoon stories and to recount the actions of each character in greater detail before switching subject, resulting in a lower percentage of switch-reference.

Given the frequency of switch-reference with -te in these narratives, which feature human subjects in most clauses, it is clear that -te is not functioning as a Same Subject device. Nevertheless, consistent with previous findings, -tara is

more likely than -te to be followed by switch-reference, setting up expectations that probably guide narrators' choice of connective and offer listeners some assistance in referent tracking.

### Reruns: Linking and Delinking Reformulations

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Narrators' process of deciding whether to link—or not link adjacent clauses is usually invisible. Such decisions are subject to monitoring, however, and occasionally are revised. In (24), the narrator introduces the setting for a new episode with -tara and then switches to -te.

(24) sorede ne, soshite mata tsugi no hi ni (48: 6;6) then FHP then again next GEN day to

> nat**-tara** ne, become-when FHP

nat**-te**, become-TE

'Then, then again when the next day came, (it) came and,

Such reruns are not always self-corrections; narrators sometimes use a rhetorical strategy of "recapitulation" (Genetti, 2005, pp. 49–50), in which the final clause of one chain is reformulated as the initial clause of the next [see Guérin and Aiton (2019) on "bridging constructions."] In (25), Wakame and Katsuo's question in line 1 is the final event of one episode; initially presented as the final clause in a chain, it is then reiterated in line 2 in shortened form as a connecting link to the first event of the next episode, which starts in line 3.

father NOM FHP return-TE come-PST SFP FHP

The recapitulation strategy reformulates a final clause as a non-final one. Alternatively, as in (26), the narrator may delink a non-final clause, reformulating it as a final clause.

Unlike the clauses in the preceding section, reformulations do not have a particular semantic relation to the preceding clause; instead, they simply repeat, elaborate, or summarize the clause they follow [cf. Longacre's "paraphrase" relation (Longacre, 1985, pp. 246–247)]. This type of interclausal connection, here termed "rerun," will be included in the statistical analysis along with the semantic relations from Section "To Link: Semantic Relations in Non-final Clauses."

### Chain Length and Diversity of Connectives in Non-final Clauses

Despite the minimal use of clause chains by many children under 5 years of age, five narrators use four- to sixclause chains, and one 3-year-old uses a single, 20-clause chain to tell the entire cartoon story. The narrative in (27) illustrates this 'story-in-one-chain' pattern. (The accent marks represent heavy stress and high pitch, a prosodic scheme sometimes used at the ends of intonation units instead of ne).

(27) Mazu ne, buranko to ne, suberidai (55: 7;3) first FHP swing and FHP slide

> ga at**-te** ne, NOM exist-TE FHP

Yukiko-chanmo daremo i-naku**-te** ne, Yukiko-DIM also nobody exist-NEG-TE FHP kondo Yukiko-chan to Sachiko-chan ga ne, now Yukiko-DIM and Sachiko-DIM NOM FHP

are fuusen o mot**-te**´, um balloon ACC hold-TE

okaasan mo tsure**-te** ne, mother also bring-TE FHP

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kondo ne, Sat-chan ga buranko ni not-**te**´, now FHP Sat-DIM NOM swing LOC ride-TE

Yukiko-san-chan ga, are suberidai yat-te ´ **-te**´, Yukiko-HON-DIM NOM um slide do-PROG-TE

sono fuusen o, tobashi-chat ´ **-te**´, that balloon ACC let.fly-CMPLT-TE

Sat-chan ga, mot-te-ru fuusen ´ o, age ´ **-te**´, Sat-DIM NOM carry-PROG-NPST balloon ACC give-TE

booshi to torikae**-te**´, hat with exchange-TE

soshite okaasan-tachi to are kaet-ta ´ then mother-PL with um return-PST

ka shir-ana**-i kedo**, Q know-NEG-NPST but

iki-mashi-ta. go-POL-PST

'At first, there's swings and a slide and, neither Yukiko nor anybody's there and, now Yukiko and Sachiko have balloons and, bring their mothers and, now Sachiko rides on the swing and, Yukiko goes on the slide and, (she) lets her balloon fly off and, Sachiko gives (Yukiko) the balloon (she)'s holding and, exchanges (it) for her hat and, then (I) don't know whether (they) go home with their mothers but, (they) leave.'

Narrating an entire story in a single clause chain seems at first glance to be the polar opposite of the one-clause-at-a-time pattern in stories with no clause chains. In a sense, though, the two patterns are similar: both create a narrative with no multiclause prosodic and grammatical unit that is more inclusive than a single- clause sentence but less inclusive than a sentence composed of the entire story. This kind of intermediate-sized, multi-clause unit is exactly what clause chains can help create within a narrative. None of the adults recount an entire narrative, not even the cartoon story, in a single clause chain.

The length of clause chains varies considerably, not only across different speakers but within a single story. Narratives with one or two extremely long chains also usually include chains of more moderate length. For example, one 6-year-old whose video story has a 25-clause chain also includes six two- to five-clause chains.

The diversity of connectives in non-final clauses also varies a great deal. Very long chains typically rely on -te, as in (27), but sometimes even young children's chains are both extremely long and internally diverse. The video story of one 4-year-old, for example, includes a 35-clause chain with 26 -te connectives, as well as -tara 'when,' kara 'because,' -tari 'and' (for representative actions), and mae(ni) 'before.'

Chain length and the diversity of connectives in nonfinal clauses (Diverse Non-final) will be included in the statistical analysis to determine whether they exhibit developmental trends and/or impact the probability of clause linking.

### . . .or Not to Link: Ending Clause Chains

Turning from non-final to final clauses, this section will consider two discourse contexts, switch-reference and the boundaries of narrative units, where narrators sometimes end their clause chains.

#### Switch-Reference in Final Clauses

Research on Japanese clause chains has identified switchreference as a site where narrators sometimes end clause chains. In his analysis of third-person subjects in adults' narratives, Iwasaki found that 77.3% of clauses end with a finite verb when the next clause has a different subject referent, as compared with only 32.5% when the subject referent is the same (Iwasaki, 1993a, p. 76).

This pattern can be seen in (28): at the end of line 3, the narrator ends the clause chain in progress with a finite verb and SFP no before changing the subject referent from Ikura to Katsuo and Wakame in line 4.

FHP study GEN place FHP

yoku dashi toka ake-te ne, well drawer and open-TE FHP

kankan okot-ta no ne. fuming get.angry-PST SFP FHP

The role of clause chains in creating episode-internal subunits is apparent in (28). By ending the first clause chain at the point of switch-reference, the narrator organizes the events of the episode into an Action (lines 1–3) – Reaction (line 4) pattern.

#### Boundaries of Narrative Units

Switch-reference creates a break in the referential continuity of a story, but usually a relatively minor one: the narrator's focus simply shifts from one story character to another, often within the same episode, as in (28). The boundaries of major discourse units, on the other hand, represent a more significant break in narrative continuity. Chafe has characterized episode boundaries as places of scalar change co-occurring along one or more dimensions including space, time, character configuration, and orientation to a new central event (Chafe, 1979, pp. 176– 180; Chafe, 1980b, pp. 40–47). The narrator typically presents such changes in the setting of a new episode; the number of changes and their degree of elaboration help create episode boundaries of varying degrees of strength. The cognitive impact of these combined changes in time, location, characters, and action is evident in the location of recall problems. In the video stories, if a narrator experiences memory failure, it is usually at an episode boundary. It makes sense, then, that a key site for ending a clause chain is at the boundary of an important narrative unit.

In (29), the narrator begins by presenting the setting for her cartoon story—the playground, arrival of characters, and key props (balloons)—in lines 1–3. She ends her first clause chain at the end of the setting in line 3, with a finite verb and the SFP no. Then lines 4–6 present the events of the first episode, in which the girls play and Yukiko's balloon flies away.

(29) (1) ano ne, buranko to suberidai ni (28: 5;1) um FHP swing and slide LOC

> daremo not-te-na-katta noni nobody ride-TE-NEG-PST although

(2) da- de ne, unto ne, Yuki-chan to ne, Sat-chan FS- and FHP um FHP Yuki-DIM and FHP Sat-DIM

ga ne, fuusen mot-te NOM FHP balloon hold-TE

ni not-te ne, LOC ride-TE FHP

(5) Yuki-chan wa ne, fu- ano ne, Yuki-DIM TOP FHP FS- um FHP

> suberidai ochi-te ne, slide go.down-TE FHP

(6) de ne, soshitara ne, fuusen ga ne, and FHP then FHP balloon NOM FHP

> ton-de it-chat**-ta no**. fly-TE go-CMPLT-PST SFP

After ending her second clause chain in line 6, the narrator proceeds to the next episode. Thus the ends of clause chains in (29) not only reflect changes in story content but help create boundaries between narrative units.

Another type of boundary involves a shift in the narrator's point of view. The Sazaesan video, in which the story characters have differing amounts of information from one another—and from the narrator—often elicited this type of shift, as in (30). In lines 1–3, the narrator is recounting the episode during which Wakame and Katsuo discover the snail on a leaf [see example (21)]; at the end of line 3, she concludes a 23-clause chain with this discovery. Then, instead of explaining from the characters' perspective how Sazaesan's family finds out about Ikura's motivation, she simply shifts in line 4 to "omniscient" voice and presents the explanation herself.

$$\begin{array}{cccc} \text{(30) (1) ano} & \text{ne,} & \text{Katsuo-kun} & \text{to} & \text{ne,} \\ & \text{um} & \text{FHP} & \text{Katsuo-DIM} & \text{and} & \text{FHP} \\\\ & & & \text{Wakame-chan ga} & \text{ne,} & \text{it-te} & \text{ne,} \\ & & \text{Wakame-DIM} & \text{NOM} & \text{FHP go-TE} & \text{FHP,} \\\\ & & & & \text{(2) nozo-te} & \text{mi-tara} & \text{ne,} \end{array}$$

peek-TE see-when FHP

ne, asoko no hikidashi FHP there GEN drawer

ake-te-ta ka tte yu-u to ne, open-PROG-PST Q QT say-NPST if FHP

As with the referential breaks created by switch-reference, the boundaries of the narrative units in (29–30) are highlighted and strengthened by iconic breaks in the ongoing clause chain.

### TO LINK OR NOT TO LINK: A STATISTICAL ANALYSIS

The preceding qualitative analysis has identified potential motivations for linking clauses (particular semantic relations) as well as for ending clause chains (switch-reference and the boundaries of narrative units). Yet these motivations do not mandate clause linking or chain ending: narrators are free to end a chain between two clauses with a close semantic relation or to continue chaining through the end of an episode. Statistical analysis can help clarify the impact of semantic relations, switchreference, and the boundaries of narrative units on the probability that narrators will link one clause to the next or end the clause chain in progress.

### A Mixed-Effects Model

To explore the factors that may be motivating narrators to continue or end clause chains, a mixed-effects analysis has been performed, using R (Fox and Weisberg, 2019; R Core Team, 2019), Ime4 (Bates et al., 2015) and rms (Harrell, 2019). Mixed-effect models are ideal for observational, corpus-based data, which are not well balanced and very "noisy" compared with experimental data (Gries, 2015, p. 97). For the present study, a mixed-effects model is required, since each narrator in the sample contributed more than one data point, i.e., clause. This lack of independence in the data is handled in a mixedeffects model by separating out the effects of the individual differences between narrators, i.e., "random effects," thereby permitting a more accurate assessment of the "fixed effects," i.e., the relationship between the predictor (independent) variables and the (dependent) variable of interest (Gries, 2015).

The dependent variable in the model is clause type: nonfinal or final. The fixed effects predicting clause type include: (1) Semantic Relation, (2) Switch-Reference, (3) Unit Boundary, (4) Task, (5) Age, (6) Chain Length, (7) Chain Use (percentage of chained clauses in a story), and (8) Diverse Non-final (diversity of clause-linking connectives). The random effects are varying intercepts for the speakers. The data for the analysis are the 2,428 chained clauses in the stories: 1,630 for the children and 798 for the adults.

The first three variables—Semantic Relation, Switch-Reference, and Unit Boundary—are motivated by prior research, as described in Sections "To Link: Semantic Relations in Nonfinal Clauses," "Switch-Reference in Non-final Clauses," and "Boundaries of Narrative Units," respectively. It was anticipated that the relatively "tight" Manner and Causal semantic relations would increase the probability of non-final clauses, i.e., clause linking, while switch-reference and narrative unit boundaries would increase the probability of final clauses, i.e., ending clause chains. The effects of Semantic Relation, Switch-Reference, and Unit Boundary on clause linking vs. ending were predicted to vary by Task and Age. Since the cartoon task was simpler than the video task, the effects of Semantic Relation, Switch-Reference, and Unit Boundary were expected to be stronger in the cartoon stories. The effects of these three variables were also expected to be stronger with increasing age, as the children's familiarity with the factors motivating clause linking and chain ending increased.

The fixed effects Chain Use, Chain Length, and Diverse Nonfinal were included in the model because it was anticipated that they would increase the probability of non-final clauses and interact with Age. Thus it seemed likely that with increasing age, narrators would link a higher percentage of the clauses in their stories into chains (Chain Use), include a greater number of clauses in their chains (Chain Length), and use a more diverse repertoire of clause-linking connectives in non-final clauses (Diverse Non-final). In addition to interacting with Age—and consequently with any other variable that interacted with age these three variables were also expected to have an effect on the dependent variable of non-final vs. final clause type. That is, since Chain Use, Chain Length, and Diverse Non-final all involve linking clauses into chains, it was predicted that increases in these three variables would increase the probability of nonfinal clauses.

### Coding

### Clause Type (Non-final, Final)

Clause type was coded on the basis of verb form: clauses with linking verb suffixes or finite verbs followed by connectives were coded as "non-final," while clauses with finite verbs not followed by conjunctions were coded as "final." Given the flexibility of word order in Japanese, non-final clauses were sometimes

produced at the ends of sentences, after the "final" clause to which they were semantically linked; such clauses were coded as "non-final." Following colloquial usage, clauses with non-final connectives but sentence-final intonation were coded as "final"; there were 20 such clauses (0.8%) in the data.

### Semantic Relation (Causal, Comparative, Dialog, Manner, Rerun, Setting, Temporal)

Each clause was coded for its relation to the next clause, as follows:

Causal: physical cause, psychological motivation, or reason for next clause

Comparative: additive, contrastive, or concessive relation to next clause

Dialog: reported speech responded to in next clause

Manner: speech, thoughts, emotions, or actions in partial overlap or simultaneous with next clause

Rerun: clause is reformulated, corrected, or repeated in next clause

Setting: time, place, arrival of characters, or ongoing activities that set the scene for next clause(s)

Temporal: actions, events, states that precede those in next clause

The Temporal relation was coded only if more specific temporal relations—typically Causal, Dialog, or Setting—were not relevant. The last clause in a story as well as the last clause before the narrator left the storyline to address the interviewer were not coded for semantic relation.

#### Switch-Reference (SameSubj, DiffSubj)

Each clause was coded as having a subject referent that was the same or different from that of the following clause. Many children overused subject ellipsis but the predicate—in conjunction with the cartoon or video—usually clarified the intended subject. The last clause in a story was not coded for switch-reference.

### Unit Boundaries (ContUnit, EndUnit)

A clause was coded "EndUnit" if it was the final clause in a setting, episode, or story; abstract or coda; or particular narrator perspective. All other clauses were coded "ContinueUnit" (ContUnit) since they belong to the same narrative unit as the following clause.

Episode boundaries were identified on the basis of shifts in time, place, characters, and ongoing activity in the input story. The Sazaesan video was analyzed as having 11 potential episode boundaries—of which most narrators recounted a subset—and the cartoon stories as having three: frames 1–2 (setting), frames 3–5 (episode 1: play on swings and slide, loss of balloon), and frames 6-9 (episode 2: exchange of balloon for hat, departure).

Following Labov (1972, pp. 363–365), abstracts were defined as introductory summaries of story characters and/or plot, while codas were defined as the narrator's concluding commentary, minimally sorede owari 'and then (it was) the end.' In stories with codas, both the last clause of the final episode and the last clause of the coda were coded "EndUnit."

#### Speaker

Each clause was assigned a number from 1 to 70 representing narrator; 68 narrators who produced at least one story with at least one clause chain were included in the analysis.

#### Task (Cartoon, Video)

Each clause was coded for narrative task.

#### Age

Each clause was coded for the narrator's age group (see **Table 1**).

#### Chain Length

Each chain in a narrative was assigned a number corresponding to its order within a story. To measure Chain Length, each clause was given two numerical codings: its chain number and its sequential position within the chain. For example, one 5-year-old started his narrative with a two-clause chain: Buranko to suberidai ga atte ne, Yukichan to Satchan ga asobi ni kita no. 'There were swings and a slide and, Yukiko and Sachiko came to play.' The clause chain number was coded as "1" for both clauses, since this was the first clause chain in the story. In a separate coding, the first clause was coded "1" and the second "2" as the first and second clauses, respectively, within that first chain. Using these two codings, the number of clauses within each chain in the sample was calculated.

#### Chain Use (Percentage of Chained Clauses)

Chain Use was calculated as the number of clauses in a story that were linked into chains (including the final clauses of chains) divided by the total number of clauses in the story.

#### Diverse Non-final

This variable represents the diversity of clause-linking devices in the non-final clauses of a story. In the cartoon and video stories, a total of 43 clause-linking devices were used, including particular clause-linking verb suffixes, conjunctions following inflected verbs, and a few instances of gapped or ellipted verbs and of the stem (renyookei) form of the verb. Using the equation for Shannon entropy, H was calculated for every story and the value assigned to each clause in the story. The cartoon and/or video stories of 26 children have a Diverse Non-final value of 0, since every non-final clause in the story has the same clause-linking form, usually -te. The value of H increases as the number of different clause-linking devices in the story increases and as they become more equiprobable. Thus a story with 23 connectives, 22 of which are -te, has a score of 0.258, while a story with nine connectives—seven -te, one -tara, and one tte—has a score of 0.986. The values of H range from 0 to 3.09.

### Results

A multifactorial, mixed-effects model was fit, following the stepwise model selection procedure in Zuur et al. (2009) and Gries (2015): variables that are not significant or do not participate in any significant higher-order interactions are eliminated. The final model, summarized in **Table 4**, is significant: LR = 262.33, df = 12, p < 0.0000001. Each of the

#### TABLE 4 | Results of model (predicted level of Clause Type = 'Non-final').

#### Random effects:

fpsyg-10-03008 February 6, 2020 Time: 16:34 # 15

Signif. Codes: 0 '\*\*\*' 0.001, '\*\*' 0.01, '\*' 0.05, '.' 0.1, ' ' 1.

three main fixed effects—Semantic Relation, Switch-Reference, and Unit Boundary—has a significant effect on Clause Type in the predicted direction. The semantic relation Manner strongly increases the probability of non-final clause type, i.e., clause linking, but counter to expectation, the Causal relation does not have a similarly powerful impact. Unit Boundary and, much less strongly, Switch-Reference increase the probability of final clause type, i.e., chain ending. Task interacts significantly with Unit Boundary: there is a higher probability of ending clause chains at the boundaries of narrative units in the cartoon stories. As Chain Use (the percent of linked clauses in a story) increases, so does the probability of non-final clauses (necessarily), but the expected increase with Age was not found. Contrary to prediction, as the diversity of clause-linking devices (Diverse Non-final) increases, the probability of non-final clauses decreases. Chain Length and—most surprisingly—Age did not have significant effects on Clause Type or participate in any higher-order interactions in the best-fitting model.

Although significant, the model has a relatively low degree of discriminatory power: C = 0.76. The fixed effects account for only 26% of the variance in the data (R <sup>2</sup>marginal = 0.26), to which the random effect, Speaker, does not add much (R 2 conditional = 0.27).

**Figure 1** shows the significant effect of narrative unit boundaries (UnitBound) on the use of non-final vs. final clause type. In both cartoon and video stories, the probability that narrators will use a non-final clause decreases—i.e., their probability of using a final clause increases—when they reach the end of a narrative unit such as a setting, episode, or shift in narrator perspective.

Of the predictor variables, UnitBound is the only one to interact significantly with Task. The effect of narrative unit

boundaries is stronger in the cartoon task: the end of a narrative unit reduces the probability of continuing a clause chain by more than 30% in the cartoon stories, but only by about 15% in

units (EndUnit). The effect of narrative unit boundaries is stronger in the

cartoon task than in the video task.

the video stories. **Figure 2** shows the significant effect of semantic relations (SemRel) on the probability of clause linking (ClauseType = 'Non-final'). The Comparative relation, which encompasses additive, contrastive, and concessive relations between clauses, is associated with a slight increase in clause linking, as (to a lesser extent) is Dialog, the relation between successive turns in reported dialogue. But it is the Manner relation that stands out as strikingly different from the others, strongly increasing the probability that the narrator will link the

current clause to the following. **Figure 3** shows the small, though significant, effect of switchreference (SwitchRef) on clause type (ClauseType = 'Nonfinal'). As predicted, switching to a different subject lowers the probability that the narrator will link the current clause to the following, while maintaining the same subject increases the probability of clause linking.

**Figure 4** shows the effect of Chain Use (the percentage of clauses linked into chains) on clause type (ClauseType = 'Nonfinal'). As the percentage of chained clauses in a story increases, the probability of non-final clauses (necessarily) increases. The densest concentration of stories is found at the high end of the scale, where about 74% or more of the clauses in a story are chained and non-final clauses are highly predictable.

increases the probability of clause linking (ClauseType = 'Non-final').

As with Chain Use, it was anticipated that a greater diversity of linking forms (DvrsNfinal) would increase the probability of non-final forms. However, as **Figure 5** shows, very high levels

of diversity in clause-linking forms are actually associated with a decreased probability of clause linking.

stories is at the high end of the scale: 74–100% chained clauses.

The highest percentages of non-final clauses are found in stories with little or no diversity of non-final forms; this typically occurs when the narrator relies very heavily or exclusively on the default connective -te. As the diversity of clause-linking forms increases, the percentage of clause-linking decreases; the lowest rates of clause-linking are found in stories with the highest levels of non-final diversity. As the ticks along the x-axis indicate, this pattern is comparatively rare: most stories have a high percentage (80–90%) of linked clauses and a moderate diversity (0.25 – 1.75) of non-final forms.

### Discussion

The statistical analysis in this study is, to my knowledge, the first attempt to model the functional motivations underlying clause chaining in narrative discourse. As such, it has a dual goal: to discover which potential semantic and discourse predictors play a significant role in clause linking/chain ending and to demonstrate that a statistical approach—in particular, mixed-effect modeling of corpus data—can shed light on the semantic and discourse functions of clause chaining.

The significant fixed effects in the model—Semantic Relation, Switch-Reference, Unit Boundary, Chain Use, and Diverse Nonfinal—give insight into the forces that motivate speakers to link clauses into chains and to end chains in progress. The semantic relation of Manner, which typically links characters' thoughts, feelings, and speech to their actions, is a strong motivator of clause chaining, but the Causal relation lacks comparable impact.

When narrators switch the subject referent or reach the end of a major narrative unit, the probability increases that they will end their current clause chain. The probability of non-final clauses necessarily increases as narrators' percentage of linked clauses (Chain Use) increases, but decreases with the diversity of their connectives. The relatively weak predictive power of the model implies, not surprisingly, that these are not the only factors responsible for continuing and ending clause chains during narration.

For this analysis, only the boundaries of the highestlevel narrative units were coded: between setting and episode, between episodes, and between different narrator perspectives. Including episode-internal shifts might have strengthened the effect of Unit Boundary on chain ending. In these stories there is no one hierarchical level at which even a single narrator will consistently end clause chains: narrators often ignore an episode boundary only to end the clause chain at a minor, episode-internal shift. This kind of inconsistency, both across and within narrators, means that the ends of clause chains will never correspond exclusively to the highest-level narrative units.

The interaction of Task with Unit Boundary probably reflects the different cognitive demands posed by narrating from the cartoon vs. the video. Telling the video story was much more challenging, requiring narrators to constantly retrieve material from memory, whereas the cartoon stories were told while viewing the pictures. Boundary cues such as changes in location and characters are depicted simply and clearly in the cartoon but presented dynamically in the video, where they must be processed quickly to keep up with the storyline. The relative simplicity of the cartoon task may have allowed narrators to devote more attention to marking the ends of narrative units by ending clause chains.

Although temporal sequence is generally regarded as the hallmark of clause chains (Iwasaki, 2002, p. 261), the semantic relation with the strongest impact on clause linking, Manner, involves simultaneity or temporal overlap rather than strict sequentiality. Against the backdrop of primarily temporal/causal sequential relations in their stories, the narrators apparently felt the closest connection between simultaneous interclausal relations.

Unexpectedly, causal relations did not elicit a higher probability of clause linking than temporal ones, perhaps because the internal composition of both relations, as coded for this analysis, is rather heterogeneous. Causal relations included very tight bonds of physical causality between events, more loosely related psychological causality (emotional responses to events that could have been different), and reasons for events that are separate in time and place (e.g., Ikura's mother became ill, so he was cared for at Sazaesan's house). Similarly, the Temporal relation encompassed tightly related enabling actions that initiate—but do not cause—event sequences as well as what Chafe (1979, p. 178) calls "temporal elasticity" at episode boundaries. A more fine-grained coding of semantic relations might have yielded a stronger effect of this variable on clause type, increasing the predictive power of the model.

With respect to referential continuity, the two-protagonist cartoon and multi-character video elicited an unusually high rate of switch-reference compared to previous findings. Many stories in this sample have a different subject in almost every clause, making switch-reference a much less compelling reason for these narrators to end a clause chain. While this may have contributed to the relatively weak effect of switch-reference in the model, the Same Subject status of Manner clauses most likely played a role in the strength of that semantic relation as a predictor of clause linking.

An unexpected outcome is that the diversity of the connectives in non-final clauses (Diverse Non-final), which was predicted to increase clause linking, is instead associated with a higher probability of chain ending. The original prediction envisioned a narrator who commands a diverse repertoire of clause-linking connectives and deploys it maximally. The negative association between the diversity of non-final forms and clause linking suggests a different profile at a high rate of diverse connectives: a narrator who is sensitive not only to the semantic nuances motivating a variety of specific connectives but also to the discourse factors motivating sentence-final forms.

The most surprising result is a negative one: age is not a significant predictor of clause linking and does not interact significantly with any of the other predictors in the model. Chain length, the percentage of chained clauses (Chain Use), and the diversity of linking forms (Diverse Non-final) do not increase with age as predicted. Nor do the effects of semantic relations, switch-reference, and episode boundaries change significantly across the age range of narrators. There may well be other

age-related differences; prior research on these narratives has found significant age differences in the frequency of encoding switch-reference subjects with overt noun phrases (Clancy, 1992). But whatever other developmental differences exist in the data, when it comes to continuing/ending clause chains, the narrators in this sample are responding in similar ways to the set of predictors in the model: both children and adults tend to link clauses with the Manner relation and to end clause chains when switching the subject referent or ending a narrative unit. Future research on younger children, especially longitudinal research on the clause chains produced by 2- and 3-year-olds in storytelling, is needed to shed light on the process by which they develop adult-like treatment of clause linking and chain ending.

### GENERAL DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

This study takes up the analysis of clause chaining at a stage of development when most Japanese children have probably had a year or two of experience using clause-linking and chainending forms. As documented in longitudinal research, children can link clauses with -te and inflect verbs for past tense shortly after 2 years of age (Okubo, 1967; Fujiwara, 1977; Clancy, 1985). The 3-year-olds in the present study can use -te to link clauses in their stories on the basis of semantic relations much like those in the clause chains of Turkish 3-year-olds: manner, causality, and temporal relations of sequence, overlap, and simultaneity (Aksu-Koç, 1994; Slobin, 1995). On the other hand, some of the youngest children in this sample struggle to produce a connected narrative rather than a series of single-clause responses to prompting.

The clause chains that the children did produce show a surprising lack of developmental change. Since age is not a reliable measure of linguistic development, the children in different age groups may well have had overlapping levels of narrative skill, arising from individual differences in the storytelling models they have experienced as well as in the cognitive capacities, such as attention and recall, potentially underlying particular patterns of clause chaining. Extensive variation across ages has been documented by Berman and Slobin (1994, p. 94), who found that certain adult "frog stories" in their corpus exhibit "a 'chaining' and then, and then type of style similar to that of school-age children." Thus several factors may have mitigated against the discovery of significant age differences.

An intriguing possibility is that the strongest predictors of clause linking/chain ending in the model may have a relatively natural, iconic basis, making them easy for children to acquire. Haiman (1985, p. 210) and Watanabe (1994, p. 142) have suggested that manner clauses, which significantly increased the probability of clause linking in this study, may be construed as aspects of a single action performed by the same character. This interpretation fits many of the manner clauses in these stories, e.g., saying tadaima 'I'm home' while entering the house. Episode boundaries, with their multiple dimensions of change, represent such strong breaks in discourse continuity that narrators typically pause, produce fillers such as ano ne 'uh you know,' and sometimes even forget what comes next; it makes sense, then, that they also often end clause chains at these boundaries.

From a processing perspective, research on pausing and disfluencies suggests that speakers generally plan one clause at a time (Pawley and Syder, 2000). In Japanese, as in other languages, a new clause is usually preceded by pauses and fillers potentially indicative of planning. However, Japanese speakers typically produce each clause in a series of separate intonation units (Clancy, 1982; Iwasaki, 1993b; Matsumoto, 2000), a pattern that affords a number of clause-internal opportunities for planning. Since Japanese is an SOV language and non-final clauses are grammatically distinguished from final ones only by the forms suffixed to and/or immediately following the clause-final verb, speakers do not actually have to decide whether and how to link the clause in progress to the following clause until they reach the verb. This may reduce the amount of planning required before beginning a clause in Japanese, leaving the speaker free to make decisions about clause linking before or during the clause-final intonation unit.

Certain findings of this study can be interpreted as evidence that decisions about linking/not linking clauses have a measurable cognitive cost: (1) narrators' self-correcting "reruns" of their clause-final choices (see Section "Reruns: Linking and Delinking Reformulations"), which may suggest that the ideal form was not accessed quickly enough; (2) the lower probability of ending clause chains at narrative boundaries in the more challenging video task (**Figure 1**); and (3) the high concentration of stories in the "comfort zone" of moderately diverse nonfinal forms and relatively infrequent final forms (**Figure 5**). The highly effective narrator can preplan upcoming interclausal connections, attending to both the semantic relations that warrant specific connectives and to the breaks in discourse continuity that warrant ending the current clause chain.

Various ways to simplify the cognitive challenges of clause chaining are available to narrators: narrating without clause chains, i.e., using only or primarily single-clause sentences (example 7), linking all or most non-final clauses with the default -te form (example 27), and telling all or most of the story in a single clause chain (see Section "Chain Length and Diversity of Connectives in Non-final Clauses"). Narrators who use few or no clause chains are spared allocating cognitive resources to the choice of appropriate connectives at the ends of clauses, as are narrators who rely solely or primarily on -te. Narrators who use extremely long clause chains can ignore discourse discontinuities and keep chaining right through changes in subject referent and the shifts in time, place, characters, and action at the ends of narrative units.

For a discourse-based approach to grammar, the findings of this study highlight the intimate connection between clause-level grammar and narrative structure. Identifying units in spoken discourse has been a long-standing focus of research (e.g., Chafe, 1979, 1994; Hinds, 1979); according to Longacre (1985, pp. 282– 284), clause chains can correspond to a sentence in non-chaining languages, to a spoken paragraph, or, in the case of "endless" chains, to an entire discourse. The present study continues this line of work by demonstrating how narrative units such as

episode or story are, in part, constituted by the clause chains that delimit their boundaries.

This study takes a preliminary step toward understanding the semantic and discourse functions of clause chains in Japanese, the cognitive processes underlying their production, and children's development of clause-chaining skills. As the weak predictive power of the mixed-effects model indicates, there is still much to be learned about narrators' motivations for creating/ending clause chains. Further developmental research is necessary, especially between about 2;6 years of age, where most longitudinal studies end, and just under 4;0, where this study begins. In addition to research on children's production, studies of the available models for clause chains in conversational narratives and storybooks are essential. With so much to be done, it is hoped that this study will encourage further qualitative and statistical investigation of the semantic, discourse, and cognitive factors underlying the use and acquisition of clause chaining in Japanese.

### DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

All datasets generated for this study are included in the article/**Supplementary Material**.

### ETHICS STATEMENT

Ethical review and approval was not required for the study on human participants in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements at the time the study was

### REFERENCES

carried out. Written informed consent from the participants' legal guardian/next of kin was not required to participate in this study in accordance with the national legislation and the institutional requirements at the time the study was carried out. Verbal informed consent was obtained from the principals of the schools, in accordance with national legislation and the institutional requirements at the time the study was carried out.

### AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS

The author confirms being the sole contributor of this work and has approved it for publication.

### ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am grateful to Stefan Gries for his generous help with the statistical analysis. The data for this study were collected in 1978 for my dissertation (Clancy, 1980), funded by a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship.

### SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL

The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg. 2019.03008/full#supplementary-material

DATA SHEET S1 | Appendix: Cartoon.

eds J. Haiman, and S. A. Thompson, (Amsterdam: Benjamins), 361–398.

**Conflict of Interest:** The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Copyright © 2020 Clancy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

# Clause Chaining and Discourse Continuity in Turkish Children's Narratives

#### Hale Ögel-Balaban<sup>1</sup> \* and Ayhan Aksu-Koç<sup>2</sup>

<sup>1</sup> Psychology Department, Bahçe ¸sehir University, Istanbul, Turkey, <sup>2</sup> Psychology Department, Bogaziçi University, Istanbul, ˘ Turkey

The present study examines the development of complex sentences with non-finite clause combining with particular focus on clause chaining, in narratives of 40 Turkish-speaking 4- to 11-year-olds and six adults elicited by a wordless picture book. Results show a gradual increase by age in the variety of clauses combined, the length of the complex sentences and their frequency of use. Clause chains formed with converbal clauses are the earliest and most frequent type of clause combinations, already present in 4-year-olds' complex sentences with 1-non-finite clause. Older children's and adults' 2- or 3-non-finite clause complex sentences consist of some combinations of adverbial, complement, relative and converbal clauses. Developmentally, clause chains establish first, aspectual-temporal continuity, then temporal-causal continuity. Sentence-internal and cross-sentence-boundary referential continuities are present early, from age 4 onwards. These findings are discussed in terms of the demands of narrative organization as well as the syntactic and semantic complexity of the clause combination devices in Turkish.

#### Edited by:

Hannah Sarvasy, Western Sydney University, Australia

#### Reviewed by:

Martha Shiro, Central University of Venezuela, Venezuela Bhuvana Narasimhan, University of Colorado Boulder, United States

### \*Correspondence:

Hale Ögel-Balaban<EMAIL_ADDRESS>
#### Specialty section:

This article was submitted to Language Sciences, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology

Received: 13 July 2019 Accepted: 15 January 2020 Published: 19 February 2020

#### Citation:

Ögel-Balaban H and Aksu-Koç A (2020) Clause Chaining and Discourse Continuity in Turkish Children's Narratives. Front. Psychol. 11:115. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00115 Keywords: clause chaining, clause combining, Turkish, narrative, children

### INTRODUCTION

Discourse, conversational or narrative, revolves around one or more topics. In conversation, speakers and listeners co-construct a topic in order to achieve a coherent account of what is at issue (Ervin-Tripp and Küntay, 1997). However, in narratives it is the task of the speaker to create coherence by organizing events in accordance with a goal motivated by the cognitive and affective states of the actors engaged (Labov and Waletzky, 1967; Bruner, 1990). As Givón (2017a, p. 29) puts it, ". . . coherent discourse tends to maintain, over a span of several clauses, the same topical referent, the same or contiguous time, the same or contiguous location, and sequential action." Thus, among the primary skills that children have to acquire in order to become effective conversationalists or narrators are linking the sequence of events temporally and causally and making clear reference to actors so that the listener can follow who is doing what to whom. That is, to effect connectivity in discourse, children have to master the clause combining and referent-tracking devices of their language.

Clause combining involves "the combination of a clause with some other constituent" (Gast and Diessel, 2012, p. 3). The two types of combination traditionally recognized are coordination and subordination. In coordination, "[at least] two constituents belonging to the same category are conjoined to form another constituent of that category" (Kroeger, 2005, p. 218), while in subordination one of the constituents is embedded and also dependent on the other for tense

**83**

and person marking. A third type of linkage is one where the syntactic combination is neither perfectly symmetrical as in coordination, nor does it involve embedding as in subordination (Sarvasy and Choi, forthcoming) but the sequenced clauses are dependent on the main clause. This type of linkage is characteristic of clause chaining which involves the sequencing of one or more clauses with verbal predicates that are underspecified for tense (and, often, other categories) combined with a single clause of which the predicate bears full tense, mood and subject reference marking (Sarvasy and Choi, forthcoming). The clauses in a chain are thus syntactically dependent but not embedded. The non-finite verbal predicates may indicate aspectual distinctions such as perfectivity and imperfectivity, temporal relations such as sequence and simultaneity as well as relations of cause-effect (Longacre, 2007, p. 400). The morphology of the non-finite verb forms may also indicate whether the subject of each should be interpreted as the same (SS "same subject") or different (DS "different subject") from the subject of the preceding or the following clause (Stirling, 2006; Longacre, 2007, p. 375).

Considering the relation between clause structure and referential mechanisms, Givón (2017a, p. 25) notes that "there is a correlation between referential continuity and non-finiteness" such that grammatical devices that are most finite indicate the least degree of anaphoric referential continuity, while those that are least finite mark the highest referential continuity. In an analysis of clause chaining in Japanese, Watanabe (1994, p. 141) argues that chaining devices mark "action/event continuity [that] has to do with the predictability or conceptual connectedness of action/event sequences." Two events are said to be conceptually more tightly connected when there is a larger degree of information overlap between them, which tends to be in terms of the most recurrent information in grammar, that is, referent, time, location and tense-aspect-mood (Watanabe, 1994, p. 142; Givón, 2017a). For example, two simultaneously occurring events are more likely to be perceived as a unit if the same actors (subjects) are involved, but may not be perceived so if the actors are different. Thus, it is through various combinations of their aspectual-temporal, locational and referential properties and the semantics of the verb, that chaining devices, create action/event continuity in discourse (Watanabe, 1994, p. 142).

Here, we target an analysis of the developmental trajectory of clause chaining in Turkish, a zero anaphora language. Although our focus is on (i) chains with converbs that involve dependency but not embedding (henceforth "clause chaining"), we also include in our analysis (ii) combinations with complement, relative and adverbial clauses that are both dependent and embedded (henceforth "clause combining"). For this purpose, we analyze narrative data from children and adults and trace changes in clause chaining and combining, asking whether the development of the two types of complex sentences proceeds at different paces. We also ask whether there is a change with age in the role the aspectual-temporal and referential properties of chaining devices play in discourse continuity.

The organization of the paper is as follows. We first briefly describe the reference tracking and clause linkage devices of Turkish. Then, we refer to previous studies on clause chaining and combining. After presenting our methodology and results, we offer a discussion of the findings.

### REFERENCE MARKING AND NON-FINITE CLAUSE CHAINING AND CLAUSE COMBINING IN TURKISH

### Reference Marking

Turkish is an agglutinating language with flexible SOV order which is subject to pragmatic constraints. In the canonical order, non-finite clauses precede the main clause. There is no formal article system; indefiniteness is marked by the numeral bir "one," definiteness by the accusative case and by bare nouns. There is no grammatical marking of gender or animacy either in the nominal or the pronominal systems, and the third person singular pronoun o "he/she/it" has the same form as the demonstrative pronoun o "that." Clauses may lack overt subjects since the verb is marked by a person suffix for agreement. The use of pronouns, overt or null, is determined by the discourse context, and conveys pragmatic information such as contrast, similarity, emphasis or new information (Enç, 1986; Erguvanlı Taylan, 1986; Öztürk, 2001; Göksel and Kerslake, 2005; Azar et al., 2016). Once the discourse topic is set with a noun phrase or overt pronoun, continuity requires the use of null pronouns. But when the speaker wants to mark topic change, an overt pronoun is necessary for grammaticality (Öztürk, 2001, p. 240)

In short, Turkish uses overt or null pronouns as anaphoric expressions representing coreferentiality with another noun phrase (NP). To summarize from Erguvanlı Taylan (1986, p. 214– 215, 217, 223), in simple sentences, coreference with a subject NP is expressed by zero anaphora regardless of the position of the subject. In embedded sentences, the subject is expressed with a zero representation when it is to be interpreted as coreferential with the main clause subject. In discourse, anaphoric relations extend beyond the boundaries of the sentence and the antecedent may be in the discourse context the sentence occurs in. Thus, in Turkish, it is null pronouns that go hand-in-hand with discourse continuity rather than pronouns.

### Non-finite Clause Types Functional in Clause Chaining and Clause Combining

Four types of non-finite clauses stand out as participants in clause chaining and clause combining in Turkish. Ordered in terms of a cline of dependency and embedding, these are relative and complement clauses, adverbial clauses and converbal clauses. Among these, only converbal constructions are functional in clause chaining.

Turkish makes use of participial suffixes (-En, -DIK, - EcEk, -mI¸s and -Ir) to form relative clauses, and nominalizing

**Abbreviations:** 1, First person; 2, Second person; 3, Third person; ABL, Ablative; ACC, Accusative; ADV, Adverbial clause; AOR, Aorist; CAUS, Causative; CM, Compound marker; COMP, Complement clause; CVB, Converb; DAT, Dative; DIM, Dimunitive; FUT, Future; GEN, Genitive; IPFV, Imperfective; LOC, Locative; NARR.PST, Narrative past; NEG, Negative; NOM, Nominalizer; PL, Plural; POSS, Possessive; PFV, Perfective; PSB, Possibility; PST, Past/Perfective; REFL, Reflexive; REL, Relative clause; SG, Singular.

suffixes (-DIK, -EcEk, -mEk, -mE) to form complement and adverbial clauses.<sup>1</sup> In all three construction types, one of the respective suffixes is attached to the verb stem, which is followed by the possessive suffix for person/number and case in relative and complement clauses, and by case and/or a postposition in adverbial clauses (Erguvanlı Taylan, 2015, p. 207). The participial or nominalizing suffix occupies the same position as tense markers on the finite verb but may carry only aspectual-temporal or modal values depending on the semantics of the non-finite verb and the main verb. Since they have their own agreement markers, the nominal/pronominal subjects of these constructions can be omitted just as in main clauses (Kornfilt, 1997, p. 45–46, 48). In relative and complement clauses, the overt subject, if present, is marked with the genitive case. In complement clauses, the choice of the nominalizing suffix to be used is determined by the semantics of the main verb (e.g., -DIK with verbs of cognition). With this requirement and that for genitive marking on overt subjects, complement clauses pose some syntactic and semantic complexity for acquisition (Aksu-Koç, 1994). In adverbial clauses, simpler in both respects, the nature of the relationship between the two clauses (e.g., temporal or causal) is expressed either by a case marker or a postposition. Example (1) illustrates a complex sentence with an adverbial and a complement clause<sup>2</sup> .

(1) AD (p72) Situation: when the boy and dog wake up, they see that the frog is not there.

'At the time they woke up, (they) saw that the frog was not (there).'

Converbs, also adverbial in function (Kornfilt, 1997; Göksel and Kerslake, 2005), are derived from verbs by attaching a morphologically unanalyzable suffix (Johanson, 1995, p. 315) or have a composite structure formed by a nominal suffix followed by case or a postposition. Göksel and Kerslake (2005, p. 404) note that the "most important structural distinction among converbs is between those that are marked for person and those that are not." In the present study, only those converbs that are not marked for person have been included in the analysis of chaining devices. Some converbs encode coreferentiality between the subjects of the clauses they join (SS), whereas in others, called "variable subject" converbs by Haspelmath (1995, p. 10) or "open converbs" by Johanson (1995, p. 318), the subjects of the two clauses may be the same or different (SS/DS). Among the converbs that appear most frequently in our data are those formed with the suffixes -Ip, -ErEk, -IncE, -ken, and -DIktEn sonra.

Converbs with -Ip and -ErEk suffixes join clauses with shared arguments, hence they are SS devices which indicate that the subject of the upcoming clause is the same as the present one (Givón, 2017b, p. 106). Converbs derived with -IncE, -ken and -DIktEn sonra may connect clauses with shared or different arguments. In SS uses, the coreferentiality of the subject of the two clauses is expressed with a null pronoun. If the subject of either the main or the adjunct clause is represented by a pronoun or an NP, the converbal construction is interpreted as DS (Erguvanlı Taylan, 1986, p. 216).

The suffix -Ip corresponds to the general conjunction "and/and then" and joins clauses "that are semantically of equal status in the sentence" (Göksel and Kerslake, 2005, p. 410)<sup>4</sup> . Aspectually, -Ip marks perfectivity and a sequential relation with the event of the following clause if the predicates of both clauses are action verbs, and an almost single event interpretation if one of the predicates is a verb of cognition. The suffix -ken "while doing/being" is added to verbs already inflected for aspect, most often with the aorist -I/Ar that denotes imperfectivity. -ken expresses simultaneity with full or partial overlap between two events, depending on whether the verb it is attached to is perfective or imperfective. In example (2), an -Ip and a -ken clause form a SS chain that presents the action (looking) and the perceptual experience (seeing) of the same actor as the context for the perfective event performed by a different actor, the subject of the main clause.

(2) AD (p76) Situation: the boy is looking into the gopher's hole in the ground.

Tam just delig-in ˘ hole-GEN iç-in-e in-POSS-DAT bak-**ıp** look-CVB içeri-yi inside-ACC gör-me-ye see-NOM-DAT çalı¸s-ır-**ken** try-AOR-CVB delig-in ˘ hole-GEN iç-i-nden in-POSS.3SG-ABL bir one tane piece gelincik gopher çık-mı¸s.<sup>5</sup> exit-NARR.PST

'Just as (he) was looking into the hole, trying to see inside, a gopher came out.'

Converbs derived with the suffix -IncE indicate perfectivity, the completion of the event expressed by the -IncE clause, resulting in the inception of the event expressed in the following clause. -IncE expresses a sequential temporal relation, meaning 'when/cause' or 'as soon as.' Example (3) is a complex sentence where an -IncE clause is followed by an adverbial clause with

<sup>1</sup>Affixes alternate according to the rules of vowel harmony, which operate in terms of the high/low, front/back and rounded/unrounded phonological contrasts. Consonant assimilation and other regular morphophonological processes also apply. Alternating vowels and consonants are represented by uppercase characters. <sup>2</sup>The examples are taken from the adult narrators of the present study. Age, participant identification number and situational information are given in the first line of each example. AD stands for 'adult'.

<sup>3</sup>The morpheme -mI¸s is the marker of perfect aspect, evidential modality and past tense, depending on context. It also marks the narrative genre. We therefore gloss it as 'narrative past' (NARR.PST) in the present narrative context.

<sup>4</sup> Slobin (1995, p. 349) reports from Von Gabain (1941) that some version of -Ip is the oldest and most widespread clause chaining form in the Turkic languages. In Foley and van Valin's (1984) framework, converbs would be included under cosubordination (Erguvanlı Taylan, 1988).

<sup>5</sup> Since third person singular receives zero marking in Turkish, the finite verbs in third person are not marked 3SG.

the same subject, both connected to the main clause that has a different subject.

(3) AD (p77) Situation: the boy and dog sleep, the frog escapes from the jar.

Bir gece one night Ali Ali uyu-**yunca,** sleep-CVB köpeg-i ˘ dog-POSS.3SG ile with beraber together uyu-**dug-u ˘** sleep-ADV-POSS.3SG **zaman** time kurbaga˘ frog kavanoz-u-ndan jar-POSS.3SG-ABL kaç-mı¸s. escape-NARR.PST

'One night when Ali slept, at the time when they slept with his dog, the frog escaped.'

(4) AD (p76) Situation: the boy comes out of the pond holding on to a log.

'Ali, who was thoroughly wet, holding on to a log, came out of the pond.'

The SS/DS -DIktEn sonra 'after verb-ing' is a composite structure formed by appending the nominalizing suffix -DIK and the ablative case -DEn to the verb stem, followed by the postposition sonra 'after' (Göksel and Kerslake, 2005, p. 429). -DIktEn sonra clauses indicate perfective aspect and an ordered temporal relation. Example (5) is an SS chain formed with the converbs -DIktEn sonra, and -Ip, and a relative clause modifying the object of the -Ip clause.

(5) AD (p76) Situation: introduction of the characters and setting.

Ali Ali ile and Fındık Fındık o that gün day dı¸sarı-da outside-LOC uzun long süre period oyun game oyna-**dıktan** play-CVB **sonra** after bul-**duk**-lar-ı find-REL-PL-POSS3SG bir one kurbaga-yı ˘ frog-ACC al-**ıp** take-CVB ev-e home-DAT getir-mi¸s-ler. bring-NARR.PST-3PL

'Ali and Fındık, after playing outside for a long while, taking a frog that they found, brought it home.'

The semantic interpretation of converbs differs in terms of their specifity vs. context dependence. Slobin (1995, p. 356) draws an important distinction between -IncE and -ken vs. -Ip and -ErEk, in that the first two are inherently temporal whereas the last two rely on contextual inferences for their interpretation as successive or simultaneous. -DIktEn sonra also explicitly expresses a temporal relation. All five converbs contribute to aspectual-temporal and referential continuity between clauses in chained sequences.

The above examples from the adult data show that Turkish converbs, in addition to connecting sequences of events in chains, also combine with complement, relative or other adverbial clauses in complex sentences.

### RESEARCH ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF CONNECTIVITY IN TURKISH

Crosslinguistic evidence on connectivity has demonstrated that children acquire coordinate constructions by age 3 (Bloom et al., 1980; Peterson and McCabe, 1988) and complex sentences with subordination by age 4 (Diesel and Tomasello, 2001; Givón, 2001), showing further developments until 7–12 years of age (e.g., Berman and Slobin, 1994a: English, German, Hebrew, Spanish, Turkish; Justice et al., 2006: English; Kit-Sum To et al., 2010: Cantonese; Mäkinen et al., 2014: Finnish; among others).

Research on Turkish similarly indicates that conjunctions, converbs, adverbial, relative, and complement clauses are acquired between ages 2;6 to 5;0 but the flexibility of use in narrative discourse continues to develop until early school years (Slobin, 1986, 1995; Aksu-Koç, 1994; Aksu-Koç and von Stutterheim, 1994; Küntay and Nakamura, 2004; Altan, 2008; Özge et al., 2010; Nakipoglu and Yıldız, 2014; Sarılar et al., ˘ 2015). Studies on the development of referent tracking also evidence gradual progress during the preschool and school years (Özcaliskan and Slobin, 1999; Küntay, 2002; Aksu-Koç and Nicolopoulou, 2015).

Although there are no studies that specifically focus on input concerning connectives, children's own use in spontaneous conversations as well as in narratives indicate that they hear these forms early in development. Slobin provides evidence for their frequent use in books for preschool children (1995, p. 350) and from cros-sectional data of adult-child conversation where children's uses of converbs -IncE and -ken were recorded at 2;0 and of -Ip and -ErEk at 3;0 (1982, cited in 1995, p. 350). In this same data set, Altan (2005) observed that although children produce nominalized complements around 3;0, they prefer using sentential complements. In the longitudinal data of two children between 1;6 and 3;3, complement clauses were infrequent in the input either because mothers simplify their speech by using sentential complements or because there are few occasions to use them (Altan, 2005).

The development of clause linking in narrative discourse has been described for English, Hebrew, German, Spanish and Turkish in the now-classic work by Berman and Slobin (1994b) and for many other languages in studies in the same tradition. This body of research on stories elicited by use of the picture book Frog where are you? (Mayer, 1969) has revealed that younger children use coordinating and older children subordinating constructions to package several related events into syntactically larger units or chunks by early school years (Aksu-Koç, 1994; Aksu-Koç and von Stutterheim, 1994; Bamberg, 1994; Berman and Slobin, 1994a; Slobin, 1995; Aarsen, 1996; Fernández, 2013; among others).

Berman and Slobin (1994a, p. 540–541) summarized the patterns observed crosslinguistically across the original five languages and observed that Turkish children, in line with the typological pattern of their language, prefer non-finite linking with converbal and infinitival constructions instead of connecting finite clauses with subordinating or nonsubordinating conjunctions that are favored by peers speaking the other languages. Further evidence for Turkish children's early usage of converbal clauses in narratives and conversation is provided by Çapan (2013) and Rehbein and Herkenrath (2015). Both studies report an increase in the use of converbs between ages 4 and 5 in terms of frequency, variety and function. Converbs -ken, -IncE, and -Ip were scarce and limited to expression of temporality in the speech of 4-year-olds, whereas in the speech of 5-year-olds the frequency of their use increased and was not functionally restricted, expressing causality, manner and temporality. The speech of 5-year-olds and older children also displayed the use of other converbs such as -ErEk.

In the present analysis, we build on this previous work (Aksu-Koç, 1994; Berman and Slobin, 1994a,b; Çapan, 2013; Rehbein and Herkenrath, 2015) by tracing the use of chains and combinations of non-finite clause structures in complex sentences. Our research questions ask the following: (1) What is the developmental trajectory of complex sentences with clause chains and clause combinations as revealed by their frequency of use and the number and types of clauses combined? (2) What patterns of discourse continuity in clause chains aspectual-temporal and referential—can be identified across age groups?

### METHOD

### Participants

Forty native Turkish-speaking children and 6 adults participated in the study. The distribution of the participants by age and sex is as follows: 10 4-year-olds (6 males, Mage= 4;8, range = 4;1–4;11), 10 5-year-olds (4 males, Mage = 5;6, range = 5;0–5;10), 10 8-year-olds (3 males, Mage = 7;8, range = 7;7–8;3), 10 11-year-olds (6 males, Mage = 11;2, range = 11;0–11;11) and 6 adults (1 male, Mage = 21;0, range = 20;7–22;0). Four- and 5-year-old participants were recruited from kindergartens and 8- and 11-year-olds from primary and secondary public schools in Istanbul, Turkey. The adults were psychology undergraduates at Istanbul Bilgi University in Istanbul, Turkey. All participants were of middle socioeconomic background. Appropriate permissions were obtained for their participation.

### Material and Procedure Narrative Production Task

Narratives were elicited using Mayer's wordless picture book 'Frog, where are you?' (1969). The story depicted is about a boy, his dog and his lost frog. In their search for the frog, the boy and the dog go through successive encounters with different animals (a gopher, an owl, bees, and a deer) in the woods and finally find their frog and take it back home. The events of the story, represented in 24 pictures, are conducive to clause chaining and combining (Ögel-Balaban, 2015).

### Procedure

Each participant was tested individually in a separate room in their schools. The experimenter introduced the book and asked the participants to first look through all the pictures and then tell the story. She did not provide any prompts during story telling. Both the participant and the experimenter had the pictures of the book open in front of them as the story was being told. The narratives were video-recorded.

### Transcription and Coding

Video-recordings of the narratives were transcribed using EUDICO Linguistic Annotator (ELAN), developed at the MPI for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, for the analysis of language, sign language and gestures (Lausberg and Sloetjes, 2009). The data analyzed consist of a total of 1,833 clauses (6,485 s) comprising the narratives of 4- to 11-year olds and a total of 373 clauses (1,143 s) comprising the narratives of adults.

The narratives were coded clause by clause. A clause was defined as a unit minimally consisting of a pairing of a predicate and a set of arguments (Gast and Diessel, 2012, p. 3). Each clause was coded for the following parameters:

(i) Type of sentence in which the clause occurs (code applies for each clause in the sentence):

Simple sentence: consists of a single clause with one verbal or nominal predicate marked for tense-aspect-mood and person/number.

Complex sentence: consists of a main clause with one verbal or nominal predicate marked for tense-aspect-mood and person/number and one or more embedded and/or dependent clauses.

(ii) Type of embedded and/or dependent clause:

Non-finite clauses that are dependent and embedded, and associated suffixes:

Adverbial (-DIK, -EcEk, -mE); complement (-DIK, -EcEk, -mE), relative (-En, -DIK, -EcEk, -mE)<sup>6</sup>

Non-finite clauses that are dependent but not embedded, and associated suffixes:

Converbal (-Ip, -ErEk, -IncE, -ken, -DIktEn sonra)

<sup>6</sup> Infinitival complement clauses with -mEk followed by an aspectual or modal verb as in Köpek arılardan kaçmak istiyordu 'The dog wanted to run away from the bees' were not included since they do not link two events but focus on a phase of a single situation.

Finite clauses that are embedded but not dependent on the main clause:<sup>7</sup>

Clauses conjoined by the conjunction diye 'for' used in purpose clauses (e.g., Kaç-ma-sın **diye** kavanoz-a koy-du-k (escape-NEG-IMP.3SG for jar-DAT put-PST-1PL) 'We put it in the jar **so that** it won't escape.').

Clauses conjoined by **ki** as a complementizer (e.g., Bir de bak-mı¸s-lar **ki** kurbaga yok. ˘ (one too look-PRF-3PL COMP frog NONEXIST) 'and they just look, the frog is not there.')

Direct speech reports: Clauses representing exact utterances of the story characters followed by the verb de 'say' were not coded for their content and not counted as part of the clause combination, but the associated non-finite clause was coded. For example, Çocuk köpege "sessiz ol" der- ˘ **ken** kurbaga-yı gör-mü¸s. ˘ (boy dog-DAT quiet be say-CVB frog-ACC see-NARR.PST) 'The boy saw the frog while saying "be quiet" to the dog' was coded as a 1-NCL with -ken converb.

(iii) Type of referentiality for each clause type: Same Subject (SS), Different Subject (DS)

(iv) Number of clauses in a complex sentence with nonfinite clauses:

1-NCL complex sentence: a non-finite clause and a main clause;

2-NCL complex sentence: two non-finite clauses and a main clause;

3-NCL complex sentence: three non-finite clauses and a main clause (includes the only two instances of 4-NCL combinations);

(v) Complex sentences with a syntactic or semantic error were included in the counts. They are displayed in **Table 6** and discussed in the text.

(vi) Subject markers: Each of the three characters, boy, dog and frog and all other characters combined as 'others' were coded for the following subject marking devices, only when they were in the subject role: NP, PRO, POSSESSIVE on the verb, NULL PRO.

(vii) Aspectual-temporal continuity in clause chains and combinations:

Same aspect: the non-finite clauses express the same aspectual distinctions (e.g., perfective–perfective).

Different aspect: the non-finite clauses express different aspectual distinctions (e.g., perfective–imperfective).

Aspect and modality: At least one of the non-finite clauses expresses aspect, and at least one, modality.

An inspection of the narratives which contained complex sentences with 2- and 3-NCL chains and clause combinations showed that they all maintained an anchor tense, providing continuity at the discourse level (either the -mI¸s inflection as the narrative past or the -Iyor inflection as the narrative present). Aspectual-temporal characteristics of the chains and clause combinations which concern relations between events at the sentence level were coded as indicating 'Same Aspect,' 'Different Aspect' or 'Aspect & Modality' on the basis of the aspectual meaning of the chaining and combining devices and the verbs they are attached to, as well as the aspectual meaning of the main verb. The tense-aspect marking on the main verbs, i.e., the anchor tense, which is the same across (almost) all utterances of a narrative, was not taken as criterial. For this reason, aspectual continuity was not traced in 1-NCL chains.

(viii) Cross-sentence boundary reference (XSR): Clauses were coded for XSR if the pronoun or null subject of a clause (non-finite or main) in a chain referred, for its identification, anaphorically to a referent expressed with an NP in a preceding clause external to the sentence, regardless of whether in subject or object role.

### RESULTS

In view of the fact that the core element in clause chaining and clause combining is the verb and that there is a close relationship between lexical and syntactic development at younger ages (Marchman and Bates, 1994; Bastiaanse and Bol, 2001; among others), we used verb diversity as an index of general syntactic development. A one-way ANOVA on the mean number of different verbs by age revealed a significant difference between 4-year-olds and adults [F(4,41) = 4.18, p < 0.01]. Although 4-yearolds and older children did not differ significantly, the means show that starting at age 5 there is a gradual increase in the variety of verbs used by each age group (M4-years = 20.80, M5- years = 26.70, M8- years = 29.40, M11- years = 28.30, Madults = 38.00) suggesting that the verb diversity of 4-year-olds is restricted as compared to that of older children, whose verb diversity, in turn, is not as extensive as that of adults.

A preliminary analysis using G∗power (Faul et al., 2007) demonstrated that the sample size was too small for a powerful mixed-design inferential statistical analysis of the differences between age groups and their interactions with clause types. Therefore, no inferential statistical analysis was conducted regarding the data presented in the following sections.

### Overview of Syntactic Complexity of Narratives

**Table 1** presents an overview of the syntactic complexity of children's and adults' narratives. First, the mean number of sentences shows an overall increase in the length of the narratives across age groups. Second, the relative percentages of simple sentences decrease (from 80% for 4-year-olds to around 50% for 11-year-olds and adults), and complex sentences increase (main and subordinate, from 20% for 4-year-olds to 45% for 11-yearolds and adults), indicating a change toward syntactic complexity by age.

**Table 2** displays the frequencies of three types of embedded and/or dependent clauses in complex sentences found in the data: Finite subordinate clauses including direct speech reports and clauses joined by conjunctions ki and diye, and non-finite subordinate clauses including those that are both embedded and dependent and those that are only dependent. Direct speech reports are used with high frequency by 4- and 5-year-olds,

<sup>7</sup>Non-finite clauses that are dependent but not embedded have been classified as co-subordination by Foley and van Valin (1984), while clauses that are embedded but not dependent are not discussed in their framework. This latter type is possible with a few constructions in Turkish, involving the verb san- 'presume' or the conjunctions diye and ki (Erguvanlı Taylan, 1988, p.339; Kornfilt, 1997, p.46).

TABLE 1 | Mean number (and percentage) of total sentences, simple sentences, main, and subordinate clauses in complex sentences by age.

TABLE 2 | Frequency (and percentage) of different types of embedded and/or dependent clauses by age\*.

\*Non-finite = Converbs, adverbial clauses, complement clauses, and relative clauses; Finite = Conjunctions (diye, ki).

decrease in 8-year-olds' narratives and are rarely found in the narratives of older groups. Finite clauses linked with ki and diye are very few in 4- and 5-year-olds' narratives, are frequently used by 8-year-olds, but decline in the narratives of the older participants. Non-finite clauses that participate in complex sentences, on the other hand, show a steady increase across age groups (from 50% to 90%).

In the following analyses, direct speech reports and finite subordinate clauses are excluded, since our focus is only on clause chains and other non-finite clause combinations.

### Developmental Trajectory of Complex Sentences With Chains and Other Non-finite Clause Combinations

Our first research question asked about the developmental trajectory of complex sentences with chains and other non-finite clause combinations as revealed by their frequency of occurrence and the number and types of clauses constituting them.

**Table 3** presents the frequency of complex sentences that have one (1-NCL), two (2-NCL) and three (3-NCL) non-finite clauses by age. It is observed that 100% of the 4-year-olds' complex sentences are composed of 1-NCL and a main clause, while 2- NCL complex sentences are produced by all older children. The

TABLE 4 | Frequency (percentage) of types of non-finite clauses in 1-NCL complex sentences by age.

narratives of 11-year-olds and adults have twice as many 2-NCL complex sentences as those of 5- and 8-year-olds. Examples of 3-NCL complex sentences are scarce overall.

These data indicate that both the frequency of complex sentences and the number of clauses comprising them increase around age 5 but approximate those of adults sometime around age 11. The length of the complex sentences, however, do not exceed 3-NCLs in the present data (except for two cases of 4-NCLs by adults).

#### 1-NCL Complex Sentences

The frequency of 1-NCL complex sentences and of the associated clause types are presented in **Table 4**. The relative frequency of clause types is the same at successive ages, but both their frequency and variety increase. Converbal clauses, i.e., 1-NCL chains, are predominant at all ages, in particular for 4- and 5 year-olds, constituting about 85% of their complex sentences. Next in frequency are adverbial clauses, which show an increase at 8 years (33%), leveling off to 10–20% for the older groups. Complement and relative clauses are very infrequent in younger children's narratives but show a relative increase in the 11-yearolds' and adults' stories (on average 10% and 18%, respectively).

#### **1-NCL Chains**

**Table 5** presents the distribution by age of the five converbs that stand out as chaining devices in our narratives. At all

TABLE 5 | Frequency (and percentage) of types of converbal clauses in 1-NCL complex sentences by age.

ages, converbal clauses with -Ip have the highest relative frequency (40%), -ken (20–30%) and -IncE (10–30%) clauses have intermediate frequencies, and -DIktEn sonra (6–13%) and -ErEk (3–20%) clauses are at the lower end. The developmental order is, thus, -Ip > -ken and -IncE > -DIktEn sonra and -ErEk.

As noted by Johanson (1995, p. 314–315), in chains constructed with SS suffixes, the verbs of the converbal and the main clauses may either form a common verbal phrase with no interposed elements between them, thus presenting the two events almost as a single event [example (6)], or there may be two full predicates presenting successive events [example (7)].

(6) 5;0 (p106) Situation: the boy and the dog find the frog, take it and leave

'Then taking that frog (he) goes.'

While children use -Ip early on, -ErEk, the other SS converb, is scarce in the narratives of the younger children, becoming more frequent in 11-year-olds' and adults' narratives. In example (7) from a 5-year-old, the -ErEk clause presents the first event as the instrumental/enabling phase for the second.

(7) 5;0 (p107) Situation: boy falls on the deer that emerges behind the rock

Bir ta¸s-ın one rock-GEN üst-ü-ne top-POSS.3SG-DAT çık-**arak** climb-CVB geyig-e ˘ deer-DAT bin-mi¸s. ride-NARR.PST

'Climbing a rock, (he) rode on the deer.'

In DS chains, both the main and the converbal clause have a full verb as well as a subject of their own (Johanson, 1995, p. 314-315). Example (8) illustrates an 8-year-old's DS use of the simultaneity suffix -ken and example (9) an SS chain with -IncE.

Sonra then da and köpek dog bu-nun this-GEN iç-i-ne IN-POSS.3SG-DAT bak-**ınca** look-CVB sıkı¸s-mı¸s. get.stuck-NARR.PST

'And then, when the dog looked in this, it got stuck.'

The overall frequency of -ken chains are higher than -IncE chains, and their DS uses are more frequent than SS uses most likely because the pictures of the story book depict the activities of the two protagonists simultaneously. The frequency of the SS vs. DS -IncE chains are relatively balanced.

Chains with the converb -DIktEn sonra are infrequent across age groups (around 10% or less). The SS chain in example (10) from an 8-year-old presents the events referred to by the two predicates in an explicit temporal relation.

(10) 8;0 (p12) Situation: the boy finds the frog.

Bul-**duktan** Find-CVB **sonra** after çok much sev-in-di. love-REFL-PST '(He) was very happy after finding it.'

1-NCL chains with all of the five converbal suffixes are produced without error by 11-year-olds and adults. Although younger children use converbs early on and seem well aware of their structural requirements as noted by Çapan (2013, p. 109) (e.g., for an aspectual-temporal marker between the verb stem and the suffix -ken), they also make occasional errors. **Table 6** presents the distribution of different types of errors observed in the data.

One 5-year-old and two 8-year-olds use the SS suffix -Ip where the use of -IncE as a DS marker would be grammatical. In example (11), two clauses with different subjects are connected with -Ip, violating the requirement for the use of -IncE:

(11) 8;0 (p8): Situation: an owl comes out of the tree hole and makes the boy fall down.

Sonra then iç-i-nden in-POSS.3SG-ABL bayku¸s owl çık-<sup>∗</sup> **ıp** exit-CVB dü¸s-mü¸s fall-NARR.PST çocuk boy yer-e.<sup>8</sup> ground-DAT

'Then, an owl coming out, the boy falls to the ground.'

<sup>8</sup> ( ∗ ) indicates an ungrammatical and (<sup>∗</sup> 0) a missing morpheme.

It has been noted that crosslinguistically, SS marking is the morphologically simpler means whereas DS marking may require an overt NP or an agreement marker (Stirling, 2006, p. 318). Although -IncE does not involve any agreement marking, it nevertheless appears to pose problems to children in its DS uses. The two forms may be confused because they both indicate perfective aspect and sequentiality, and -Ip may be accessed first because it is the earliest acquired and most frequently used form.

#### **Other 1-NCL Combinations**

As presented in **Table 4** and noted above, the proportion of adverbial, complement and relative clauses in 1-NCL sentences is much lower than that of converbal clauses, particularly for 4- and 5-year-olds. These clause types that are both embedded and dependent are also morphosyntactically more complex than converbal clauses, hence their gradual increase across age groups.

Adverbial clauses are mainly used to express causal relations in the present narratives [example (12)], and complements refer to mental sates [example (13)].

(12) 8;0 (p12) Situation: beehive falls when dog pushes the tree.

(13) 8;0 (p25) Situation: the boy and dog are searching the frog.

O-ndan that-ABL sonra after ormanlık-ta woods-LOC ol-acag-ı-nı ˘ be-COMP-POSS.3SG-ACC dü¸sün-üyor-lar. think-IPFV-3PL

'Then they think it will be in the woods.'

Errors are also observed in the use of 1-NCL complex sentences with these clause types. In example (14a) the subject of the complement clause lacks the genitive suffix and its verb the accusative suffix. In addition, a verb for the adverbial clause implied by the postposition için 'for' is missing. The correct version is given in example (14b).

	- a. Sonra then kurbaga-cık- ˘ ∗**0** frog-DIM- ∗ 0GEN nerede where ol-dug˘**-u-**∗**0** be-NOM-POSS.3SG- ∗ 0ACC için for bagır-mı¸s-tı. ˘ call-PFV-PST

'Then (he) called out where the little frog is.'

b. Sonra then kurbaga-cı ˘ g-˘ **ın** frog-DIM-GEN nerede where ol-**dug˘**-**u-nu** be-COMP-POSS.3SG-ACC **anla**-**mak** understand-NOM **için** for bagır-mı¸s-tı. ˘ call-PFV-PST

'Then he called out to find out where the little frog is.'

These examples illustrate that morphosyntactic complexity affects young children's production of complex sentences. The errors concerning the use of –IncE mentioned above, on the other hand, suggest that it is not just complex morphosyntax that causes problems, but the conceptual coordination of the activities of different actors may also be at issue.

#### 2-NCL and 3-NCL Complex Sentences

In **Table 7**, we have the distribution by age of 2- and 3-NCL clause chains and other non-finite clause combinations. It is observed that the number of complex sentences composed of converbal clauses only, i.e., chains, is limited for each age group.

4-year-olds do not produce any 2-NCL or 3-NCL complex sentences. Chains with at least two converbal clauses constitute 71.43% of the complex sentences for 5-year-olds, 25.00% for 11-year-olds and 27.77% for adults. 8-year-olds do not produce any two converbal chains. Combinations with at least one converbal clause and an associated adverbial or an embedded complement or relative clause constitute 28.57% of the complex sentences for 5-year-olds, 20% for 8-yearolds, 56.25% for 11-year-olds and 55.55% for adults. Complex sentences composed of adverbial and/or complement or relative clauses are 80% for 8-year-olds but do not exceed 20% for the older participants.

TABLE 7 | Frequency (and percentage) of clause types in 2- and 3-NCL chains and other non-finite clause combinations by age\*.

\*The frequencies of 3-NCL clauses are indicated in parenthesis following the + sign.

Below, we discuss the predominant patterns of clause chains and other combinations for each age group.

### **5-year-olds**

The first clause chains with more than one converbal clause are observed in the 5-year-old narratives. Example (15) illustrates the repeated use of -Ip to relate the actions of the same actor in temporal succession, and (16) the repeated use of -ken to relate the activities of different actors as simultaneous.

(15) 5;0 (p102) Situation: the bees follow the dog who made their beehive fall.

Kovan-a hive-DAT gir-**ip** enter-CVB bal-lar-ı honey-PL-ACC al-**ıp** take-CVB çocuk boy ve and köpeg-in ˘ dog-GEN kafa-sı-na head-POSS.3SG-DAT bal honey koy-mu¸s. put-NARR.PST

'Entering the beehive, taking the honey (they = bees) put the honey on the boy's and dog's heads.'

(16) 5;0 (p105) Situation: the boy and dog are sleeping, the frog escapes from the jar.

Sonra then çocuk boy uyur**-ken** sleep-CVB köpek dog de too uyur-**ken** sleep-CVB kurbaga˘ frog sessiz silent sessiz silent kaç-mı¸s. escape-NARR.PST

'Then while the boy is sleeping and while the dog is sleeping the frog escaped silently.'

As **Table 7** shows, two 5-year-olds also produced 3-NCL complex sentences composed of a chain of two repeated converbal clauses with a complement clause. In the SS chain of example (17), the first -IncE clause sets the temporal frame, and the second -IncE clause presents the perception of the absence of the frog expressed with an embedded complement clause, as the cause for the event of the main clause.

(17) 5;0 (p105) Situation: the boy and dog wake up, the boy is surprised to see that the frog is not in the jar.

Sonra then köpek dog ile and çocuk boy uyan-**ınca** wake.up-CVB kurbaga-nın ˘ frog-GEN bu this kavanoz-da jar-LOC ol-ma-**dıg˘**-ı-nı be-NEG-COMP-POSS.3SG-ACC gör-**ünce** see-CVB ¸sa¸sır-mı¸s.

be.surprise-NARR.PST

'Then, upon waking up and seeing that the frog was not in this jar, the dog and the boy were surprised.'

These examples suggest that repeating the same chaining device in successive clauses to relate sequential activities of the same actor or simultaneous activities of different actors may be the easiest strategy for young children, conceptually as well as syntactically. This strategy also ensures chaininternal aspectual continuity, for example, perfective aspect with the repetition of -Ip clauses and imperfective aspect with the repetition of -ken clauses, and also contributes to chain-internal referential continuity, as discussed in Section on Referential Continuity.

### **8-year-olds**

For 8-year-olds, the main linking strategy is event packaging with adverbial clauses. Only one of the five complex sentences contains a converbal clause combined with an adverbial clause; the rest are combinations of two adverbial or an adverbial and a complement clause (**Table 7**) and reveal a shift of emphasis from temporal to causal relations. Examples like (18) where a converbal and an adverbial clause present the temporalcausal background, and (19) where two adverbial clauses present the causal basis for the event of the main clause, show that complex sentences with adverbial clauses may also function like chains.

(18) 8;0 (p23) Situation: the boy and dog are sleeping, the frog escapes from the jar.

Ak¸sam night ol-**unca** be-CVB çocuk boy ile and köpek dog uyku-ya sleep-DAT dal-**dık-lar-ı-n**da fall-ADV-PL-POSS.3SG-LOC kurbaga˘ frog kavanoz-dan jar-ABL çık-mı¸s.

exit-NARR.PST

'As evening came, upon the boy and dog's falling asleep, the frog exited the jar.'

(19) 8;0 (p24) Situation: the boy is looking into the owl's hole.

'And here, the owl was bothering the boy, for looking into his home, for bothering him.'

Although 8-year-olds produce complex combinations of converbal, adverbial and complement clauses, some of the examples still display errors such as the omission of the accusative marker on the verb of the complement clause and the agreement marker on the verb of the adverbial clause, similar to the errors of 5-year-olds. Such morphosyntactic errors prevailing at 8 years point to the processing demands of formulating complex language when the task is one of producing organized narrative discourse.

### **11-year-olds**

Three of the four 2-NCL chains found in the narratives of this age group are formed with the repetition of the same converb, similar to the pattern observed for 5-year-olds. In example (20), two SS -ErEk clauses are chained to describe the psychological state of the actor and his consequent action from an integrated imperfective perspective, illustrating the conceptually complex discourse function of this form (Slobin, 1995, p. 349).

(20) 11;0 (p40) Situation: the boy gets angry at the dog's breaking the jar, picks him up and sets out to search.

Sonra then çocuk boy sinirlen-**erek** get.upset-CVB köpeg-i ˘ dog-ACC el-i-ne hand-POSS.3SG-DAT al-**arak** take-CVB gezme-ye stroll-DAT çık-mı¸s. exit-NARR.PST

'Then the boy getting upset, taking the dog in his hand, set out for a stroll.'

In the other two examples where the same converbal suffix (e.g., -Ip and -Ip, or -ken and -ken) is repeated in the chained clauses, either different activities of the same actor, or similar activities of different actors are related. A deviation from this pattern is observed in the use of two different converbs -ken and -Ip, connecting the ongoing activity of one actor to the temporally overlapping activity of a second one, as in example (21) where both clauses have overt subjects expressed with an NP, and the clause marked with -Ip is followed by the main clause with a null pronoun for subject, as signaled by the SS clause.

(21) 11;0 (p39) Situation: the dog makes the beehive fall while the boy is looking into a hole.

Çocuk boy ara-r**-ken** search-AOR-CVB köpek dog arı-lar bee-PL ile with ugra¸s- ˘ **ıp** deal-CVB o-nu that-ACC yer-e ground-DAT dü¸s-ür-üyor fall-CAUS-IPFV böyle. like.this

'While the boy is searching, the dog bothers the bees and makes it (beehive) fall on the ground like this.'

The advance observed in the complex sentences of 11-year-olds is the increased variety of the types of non-finite clauses combined. In a total of eight 2-NCL and one 3-NCL complex sentence, a converbal clause is combined with an adverbial, a complement or a relative clause. In such combinations, a -ken or an -Ip converbal clause functions to frame events in terms of temporal and/or referential continuity. Example (22) is a 3-NCL complex sentence composed of a converbal, a relative, an adverbial and a main clause used to introduce the plot-initiating event of the story.

(22) 11;0 (p4) Situation: the boy and dog are sleeping, the frog gets ready to escape.

Can Can ve and köpeg-i ˘ dog-POSS.3SG uyur**-ken** sleep-CVB kurbaga-yı ˘ frog-ACC koy-**duk-lar-ı** put-REL-PL-POSS.3SG kavanoz-dan jar-ABL kurbaga˘ frog kaç-**mak** escape-ADV **için** for hazırlık preparation yap-ıyor-du. make-IPFV-PST

'While Can and his dog were sleeping, the frog was getting ready to escape from the jar that they had put the frog in.'

Older children can easily situate events referred to by an -Ip or -ErEk clause against background events expressed by an -IncE, -ken or adverbial clause, and further refer to the mental states of actors with a complement clause embedded in the sequence, thus producing complex sentences that can be regarded as 'chains with other non-finite clauses.' These advances in children's use of language reflect developments in their ability to coordinate actions and mental states of different actors, as well as in their developing narrative skills for backgrounding, foregrounding, and evaluating events from different perspectives.

Chains showing increased variability in terms of the relations contracted between clauses by use of different converbs are found more frequently in the narratives of the adults. Of the five full chains observed for adults, only one is a combination of -ken and -ken clauses, while two are -ken and -Ip, and two are -dIktEn sonra and -Ip combinations.

### Continuity in Clause Chains and Other Non-finite Clause Combinations

As Givón puts it ". . . coherent discourse tends to maintain, over a span of several clauses, the same topical referent, the same or contiguous time, the same or contiguous location, and sequential action" (2017a, p. 29; also Watanabe, 1994). Following this idea, our second research question asked whether children's 2- and 3-NCL complex sentences showed a developmental pattern in terms of the type of discourse continuity contracted. Below, we present the distribution of chains and clause combinations in terms of the aspectual-temporal and referential continuities they display.

### Aspectual-Temporal Continuity

We define aspectual-temporal continuity internal to a complex sentence (for clause chains or clause combinations separately) as the use of forms that encode the same aspectual distinctions in successive clauses (e.g., all encoding perfective or all encoding imperfective aspect). The patterns observed across 2- and 3-NCL chains and other non-finite clause combinations are summarized in **Table 8**. 1-NCL chains were not included in this analysis because the anchor tense marked on the main verbs of each narrative did not show any variation.

For 5-year-olds, complex sentences with chains display a high percentage of same aspect clauses (57.14%) whereas the complex sentences with other non-finite clause combinations display different aspectual specifications (28.57%). Eight-yearolds do not produce any clause chains, but their other nonfinite clause combinations also show a preference for the same (60%) in comparison to different (20%) aspectual marking. Eleven-year-olds and adults, on the other hand, produce more complex sentences with other non-finite clauses (75% and 72%, respectively) than chains, and majority of these express different aspectual combinations. However, the dominant pattern across the clauses of their chains is same aspectual marking (3 out of 4, for 11-year-olds and 3 out of 5 for adults). These distributions in **Table 8** indicate that younger children install continuity at the sentential level by using clause chaining devices that present events from the same aspectual-temporal framework, as in examples (15) and (16). Older children and adults, on the other hand, tend to use varied combinations of converbal, adverbial, complement and relative clauses for expressing relations that hold beyond the sequential clausal level and from different perspectives as in example (22).

### Referential Continuity

Referential continuity was evaluated for chains only. We define referential continuity internal to a chain in terms of the identity of subjects expressed by an NP, pronoun or a null pronoun, and cross-sentence-boundary referential continuity (XSR) in terms of the identity of subjects anaphorically referred to by a null pronoun or pronoun to an NP in one of the previous clauses external to the chain.

**Table 9** summarizes the frequency of types of referential continuity by age. The category 'DS' refers to chains that link the activities of different actors, and therefore lack referential continuity. The category 'SS' refers to chains that link different activities of the same actor and therefore establishes refrential continuity. The third type of referential combination, observed in case of 2- and 3-NCL chains, is '2SS-1DS,' where two of the actors are the same and one is different.

It is observed in **Table 9** that among 1-, 2-, and 3-NCL chains, the proportion of SS chains is higher (ranging between 60.87% and 70.59%) than that of DS chains (ranging between 28.12% and 39.13%) at all ages. The proportion of SS chains which is around 60% for 4- and 5-year-olds is somewhat higher in the narratives of the older age groups (around 70%). Furthermore, the proportion of chains with cross-sentenceboundary anaphoric reference is higher for SS than for DS chains (ranging between 60% and 75%) at all ages. These distributions indicate that by the age of 4 children are using chaining devices effectively, achieving referential continuity intra-sententially, and also beyond sentence boundaries, thus maintaining continuity with a previous discourse segment,

In example (23) from an 11-year-old, two -Ip clauses relate the activities of the same actor from a perfective-sequential perspective and contract both aspectual-temporal and referential continuity. Furthermore, the SS -Ip suffix makes anaphoric reference across the sentence boundary to an NP that went before, as well as signaling that the subject of the upcoming clause is the same.

(23) 11;0 (p15) Situation: the boy and the dog take their frog, salute the other frogs and leave.

Sonra then kendi PRO kurbaga-lar-ı-nı ˘ frog-PL-POSS.3SG-ACC al-**ıp** take-CVB öbür other kurbaga-lar-a ˘ frog-PL-DAT selam greeting ver**-ip** give-CVB ev-leri-ne home-POSS.3PL-DAT geri back dön-mü¸s-ler. return-NARR.PST-3PL

'Then taking their own frog, greeting the other frogs, they went back to their home.'

In summary, evaluated from the perspective of continuity, the acquisition data suggest that Turkish children's earliest nonfinite clause combinations and chains are built on aspectual and referential continuity, then differentiate to include temporalcausal perspectives, and coordination of subjects.

## DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

In the present study, we investigated the development of complex sentences with non-finite clauses of varying degrees of dependency and embedding in the narratives of Turkishspeaking 4- to 11-year-olds and adults. Our first research question concerned developments in clause chaining with converbal clauses that are dependent but not embedded, as well as developments in clause combining with complement, relative and adverbial clauses that involve both dependency and embedding.

Our results show an early start and a gradual change across age groups. In terms of frequency, a clear increase in 1-, 2- and 3-NCL complex sentences is observed by age, the performance of 11-year-olds approximating that of adults.

TABLE 8 | Frequency (and percentage) of 2-NCL and 3-NCL complex sentences in terms of type of aspect by age.

TABLE 9 | Frequency (and percentage) of DS, SS and 2SS-1DS combinations in 1-, 2- and 3-NCL chains and cross-sentence-boundary referential continuity (XSR) by age.

In terms of length, 4-year-olds produce maximally 1-NCL sentences, while older children and adults produce 2-NCL and occasionally 3-NCL sentences. Since the number of clauses a chain can potentially include is far above three observed in the present data, our findings need some explanation. First, it may be that the elicitation material that provides two or three events at a time in the pictures of the story book, thus the content to be told, could have limited the length of the chains. Second, longer chains, even 2- and 3- NCL clause ones might have been scarce because narrators, particularly older ones, present event packages where they combine converbal with adverbial, complement, and relative clauses. Third, this may be the nature of clause chaining in Turkish, where length of chains is rather limited to 3 or 4 converbal clauses.

In terms of the variety of clause types combined into a complex sentence, converbal and adverbial clauses are recorded from age 4 on, complement clauses appear at 5, and relative clauses are found only in the narratives of 11-year-olds and adults. The variety of clause types combined in a complex sentence also increases with age. The 2- and 3-NCL complex sentences of 5-year-olds consist mainly of combinations of converbal clauses and very few complement clauses, while those of 8-year-olds comprise adverbial and complement clauses, and those of 11-year olds and adults, combinations of converbal, complement, adverbial and relative clauses.

Among converbal clauses functional in clause chains, those with the SS -Ip suffix for sequencing emerges first and is the most frequent at all ages. Next are the SS/DS converbs, -IncE for relating events in temporal-causal succession, -ken for representing simultaneity, and -DIktEn sonra for temporal ordering of events. The SS converb -ErEk, which presents events from a temporally integrated perspective, is observed mainly in the stories of 11-year-olds and adults. The frequency of SS chains is higher than that of DS chains across all age groups. Adverbial clauses provide the temporal-causal circumstances for plot-advancing events in 8- and 11-yearolds' narratives, and complement clauses are used to make mental state attributions by 11-year-olds and adults. These developments are not error-free, however. Violation of the SS vs. DS subject requirements of converbs, and failure to provide the person/number and/or genitive suffixes for subject reference of adverbial and complement clauses, or the accusative case on complements reveal the semantic and morphosyntactic complexity of clause combining structures in Turkish.