The link between lexical semantic features and children’s comprehension of English verbal <i>be</i>-passives

Children seem to be relatively delayed in their comprehension of the verbal be-passive English, compared acquisition other constructions object-movement such as wh-questions and unaccusatives. Prior work has found that children’s performance on these passives can affected by verb’s lexical semantics. Through a meta-analysis experimental studies assessing English-speaking age for be- passive, we identify developmental trajectory composed five classes, where each class distinct semantic profile. A Truth-Value Judgment (TVJ) Task be-passives supports this trajectory. Together, TVJ study underscore importance semantics understanding development English be-passive.