Emergence of Syntax

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Emergence of Syntax
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Introduction

• One of the most important concerns of theoretical
  linguistics today represents the study of the
  acquisition of language.
• By studying language acquisition, we can learn
  more about the innate structures, Universal
  Grammar, which drive the process of acquisition.

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• Research shows
• children and adults do not differ with respect to
  devices for acquiring language structure (the
  Continuity Approaches) or
• Children differ in their grammar in comparison to
  adults, by building language structure (The
  Structure Building Model).

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• Even though children talk differently than
  adults, underlying knowledge of the language
  structure is the same.

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Emergence of Functional Categories

• Continuity Hypothesis (Hyams 1992)
• Lexical elements need to be acquired
• Grammatical principles and the Functional
  Categories are antecedently available to the
  child, containing null elements.
• Children have full grammatical competence and the
  differences between child speech and adult speech
  should be attributed to external factors (i.e.
  developmental).

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• The Strong Continuity Approach - functional
  categories are available from the beginning and
  they are operative when the child starts to
  produce sentences, children are filling in the
  pre-existent categories as they mature.
• Differences between adult speech and child speech
  are maturational.
• This approach is also called the Maturational
  Approach (based on lexical learning as the child
  fills in the preexisting categories).

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No Functional Categories

• No Functional Categories The Structure
  Building Model (Radford 1990)
• no Functional Categories available at the
  beginning
• grammar is characterized by the absence of the
  functional categories and the child builds the
  functional categories as they acquire language.

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Finite Vs. Non-finite

• Parameters are set correctly very early (Wexler
  1998)
• Children, at a very early stage, know the
  contrast between finite and non-finite verbs
• Both finite and non-finite verbs are used, but
  finite verbs only occur in finite contexts. In
  some languages (e.g. English, Dutch, German),
  children go through an Optional Infinitive (Root
  Infinitive) stage.

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Optional Infinitive Stage

• Wexler (1998) - the Optional Infinitive Stage is
  caused by the so called Unique Checking
  Constraint which prevents a D-feature on DP from
  checking more than one D-feature on functional
  categories (Tense and Agreement), therefore
  forcing either TNS or AGR to be omitted.
• The Truncation Theory (Rizzi) claims that in this
  stage, children do not recognize a Complementizer
  position in Root clauses (infinitive clauses).
• Hoekstra and Hyams (1993) - The Optional
  Infinitive Stage results from the lack of the
  number agreement.

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What are Root Infinitives?

• Children produce main clauses containing an
  infinitive verb, rather than a finite verb
• Phenomenon observed in English, Danish, Dutch,
  French, German, Russian

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Examples

• a. Dormir petit bébé
• sleep-Inf little baby
• Little baby sleep
• b. Mary go.
• c. Papa have it.
• d. Dolly like ice-cream.

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Root Infinitives

• The Optional-Infinitive stage - stage in
  grammatical development when children use root
  infinitives and tensed verbs as grammatical, in
  alternation.

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The Optional Infinitive Stage

• The Optional Infinitive stage appears not only in
  English, but also in all Germanic languages, as
  well as French and other languages.
• Children acquiring German use finite verbs in
  second position and non-finite verbs in final
  positions. This is given by the V2 process (V to
  C movement).

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• Wexler (1992) - null subjects are the effect of
  the Optional Infinitive stage, and there is
  evidence that children use null subjects mainly
  with non-finite verbs.
• In the Optional Infinitive stage, Agr and/or
  Tense may be omitted. If Agreement is omitted,
  then there is no NOM case assigned, the subject
  gets the default case, which is ACC in English.
• The lack of Tense licenses PRO, the use of the
  null subjects.

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Pattern (Wexler)

• a). he likes ice-cream
• AGR, TNS
• b). he like ice-cream
• AGR, -TNS
• c). him like ice-cream
• -AGR, TNS
• d). him likes ice-cream

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• Wexler (1998) proposes that the OI stage is
  caused by the so-called Unique Checking
  Constraint.
• While raising, the subject can only check one
  D-feature from the Tense or Agreement (assuming
  that these functional projections have a
  D-feature associated with them).

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The Truncation Theory - Rizzi

• A child can choose to project all the way up to
  CP, or he can project just part of the way up.
• But he cant leave anything out from the middle
  of the tree.
• The difference between the child
• the adult takes CP as the root node of any
  sentence, whereas the child can choose anything
  as the root node.
• The extra constraint requiring CP to be the root
  is something that emerges maturationally some
  time before the childs third birthday.

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Null Subject Languages

• Children acquiring a null-subject language
  (Italian, Spanish, Catalan or Romanian) no
  Optional Infinitive stage, because they make the
  distinction between finite and non-finite verbs
  and use correct verbal forms (finite/non-finite)
  in proper environments.
• Torrens (Spanish and Catalan) concludes that
  children do not undergo an Optional Infinitive
  stage, they distinguish between finite and
  non-finite verbs and they produce verbs in
  correct contexts.

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Null Subject Languages

• Italian children (Guasti 1993) - distinguish
  between finite and non-finite verbs and the
  Optional Infinitive stage is not a characteristic
  of the Italian child language.
• Romanian children correctly place the verb forms
  in the correct distributions.

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Null Subject Languages

• Grinstead (2000) - Spanish and Catalan children
  - claims that children at a very early stage
  lack contrastive use of tense and number
  morphology. But this stage ends at around 110
  and that is when the recordings for the present
  research studies just started.
• Phillips (1995) if speakers of null-subject
  languages have Root Infinitives this is happening
  before the earliest possible recording.

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Properties of Root Infinitives

• Do not occur in pro-drop
• Languages
• Occur in declarative Sentences, but not in
  wh-questions
• Root infinitives are incompatible with auxiliaries

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Phillips (1995)

• Root infinitive clauses are not due to a deficit
  in syntactic or morphological knowledge.

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• Root infinitive clauses are fully represented
  finite clauses in which merger of the verb with
  inflection has been delayed

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• Phillips (1995) root infinitives depend on the
  interaction of the detailed knowledge children
  have of their target language at a very early age
  with one specific performance factor the task of
  accessing morphological knowledge.
• The morphological simplifications not a
  reflection of the childs knowledge of syntax

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• The root infinitive stage lasts for different
  lengths of time in different children, and
  individual children use root infinitives with
  widely differing frequencies
• Frequency of root infinitive use drops off
  gradually over time.

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Root Infinitives in German and Dutch
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English