Refining intervention: The acquisition of featural relations in object A-bar dependencies

• Redefining intervention effects in terms of the formal presence of a D + NP structure.
• Evidence for a hierarchical organization of features based on the role of animacy.
• Empirical support for a structural-sensitive approach to intervention in children.
• Limitations of working memory resources affect comprehension of A-bar dependencies.

The presence of a [+NP] feature (representing a ‘lexical restriction’) on both the moved DP and the intervening subject is assumed to hinder children's comprehension of object A-bar dependencies (Friedmann et al., 2009). In order to better understand the nature and impact of this feature and its interaction with animacy, we assessed comprehension of object relative clauses and wh-questions in French-speaking children aged 5–11 using a character-selection task. Furthermore, we explored the link between processing of featural relations and working memory abilities through digit-span tasks. Results on questions straightforwardly confirm the role of the [+NP] feature; results on relatives suggest that the locality effect is sensitive to the formal similarity in D + NP shape of the target and the intervener. An animacy mismatch facilitates processing (as of age 7) only in the [+NP] condition, suggesting that the computation of locality draws on the structural expression of features, not just their mere semantic value. We argue in favor of a restrictive structural approach to intervention, and of a hierarchical organization of features. The link between accuracy and memory scores illustrates that limitations of computational resources affect processing of A-bar dependencies.