LANGUAGE ACQUISITION This page intentionally left blank LANGUAGE ACQUISITION THE GROWTH OF GRAMMAR Maria Teresa Guasti A BradfordBook The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England (2002MassachusettsInstituteofTechnology Allrights reserved. No partof this bookmaybe reproduced inany formby any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or informa- tionstorageandretrieval)withoutpermissioninwritingfromthepublisher. ThisbookwassetinTimesNewRomanin3B2byAscoTypesetters,HongKong, andwasprintedandboundintheUnitedStatesofAmerica. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Guasti,MariaTeresa. Languageacquisition:alinguisticperspective/MariaTeresaGuasti. p. cm. ‘‘ABradfordbook.’’ Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN0-262-07222-X(alk.paper) 1.Languageacquisition. I.Title. P118.G83 2002 4010.93—dc21 2001044322 ToAditi, Alessandro, and Natale This page intentionally left blank Contents Preface xi Acknowledgments xiii Abbreviations xv Chapter1 BasicConcepts 1 Introduction 1 1.1 ReflectionsontheCourseofLanguageAcquisition 1 1.2 TheLogicalProblemofLanguageAcquisition 5 1.3 TheNotionofGrammar 5 1.4 Constraints 8 1.5 WhereDoesKnowledgeofLanguageComeFrom? 10 1.6 TheCriticalPeriod 20 Chapter2 FirstStepsintoLanguage 23 Introduction 23 2.1 TheQuestfortheNativeLanguage 24 2.2 LearningthePhonemicContrastsoftheNativeLanguage 40 2.3 Infants’SpeechProduction 47 2.4 SummaryandConcludingRemarks 52 Chapter3 AcquisitionoftheLexicon 55 Introduction 55 3.1 WhyFindingWordsIsaProblem 56 viii Contents 3.2 WhyAcquiringtheMeaningofWordsIsaProblem 74 3.3 AcquisitionofVerbs 80 3.4 BootstrappingofSyntax 90 3.5 SummaryandConcludingRemarks 96 Chapter4 TheEmergenceofSyntax 101 Introduction 101 4.1 WordOrderinChildren’sProductions 101 4.2 TheStructureofEarlyClauses 103 4.3 TheSubjectAgreementRelation 120 4.4 RootInfinitives 128 4.5 SummaryandConcludingRemarks 146 Chapter5 NullSubjectsinEarlyLanguages 151 Introduction 151 5.1 ParametricAccountsofEarlyNullSubjects 152 5.2 RootNullSubjects 160 5.3 PerformanceAccounts 179 5.4 SummaryandConcludingRemarks 183 Chapter6 AcquisitionofWh-Movement 187 Introduction 187 6.1 QuestionFormationinEarlySystems 188 6.2 AuxlessQuestionsinEarlyEnglish 202 6.3 Long-DistanceWh-Movement 209 6.4 RelativeClauses 220 6.5 SummaryandConcludingRemarks 240 Chapter7 AcquisitionofNP-Movement 245 Introduction 245 7.1 PassiveConstructionsinAdultandChildGrammar 246 7.2 AMaturationalAccountofEarlyPassiveConstructions 252 ix Contents 7.3 ProblemswiththeMaturationalAccount 254 7.4 NewFindingsaboutEarlyPassives 260 7.5 SummaryandConcludingRemarks 268 Chapter8 AcquisitionoftheBindingPrinciples 271 Introduction 271 8.1 TheBindingTheory 272 8.2 PrincipleA 285 8.3 PrincipleB 290 8.4 PrincipleC 300 8.5 SummaryandConcludingRemarks 308 Chapter9 AspectsoftheAcquisitionofQuantification 313 Introduction 313 9.1 PrerequisitesforHandlingQuantificationalStructures 314 9.2 TheStructureofQuantifiedNPsandtheSyntax-SemanticsMapping 316 9.3 Children’sErrorswithUniversalQuantification 329 9.4 SummaryandConcludingRemarks 343 Chapter10 AcquisitionofControl 347 Introduction 347 10.1 AspectsoftheTheoryofControl 348 10.2 TheStructure-ChangingHypothesis 350 10.3 TheMaturationHypothesis 356 10.4 TheLexical-SyntacticIntegrationHypothesis 365 10.5 SummaryandConcludingRemarks 371 Chapter11 DissociationbetweenLanguageandOtherCognitiveAbilities 375 Introduction 375 11.1 ImpairedLanguageinOtherwiseNormalChildren:SpecificLanguage Impairment 376 11.2 ApproachestoSpecificLanguageImpairment 378