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ERIC Number: EJ1117395
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2016-Nov
Pages: 38
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0305-0009
EISSN: N/A
Early Verb Constructions in French: Adjacency on the Left Edge
Veneziano, Edy; Clark, Eve V.
Journal of Child Language, v43 n6 p1193-1230 Nov 2016
Children acquiring French elaborate their early verb constructions by adding adjacent morphemes incrementally at the left edge of core verbs. This hypothesis was tested with 2657 verb uses from four children between 1;3 and 2;7. Consistent with the Adjacency Hypothesis, children added clitic subjects frst only to present tense forms (as in "il saute" "he jumps"); modals to infnitives (as in "faut sauter" "has to jump"); and auxiliaries to past participles (as in "a sauté" "has jumped"). Only after this did the children add subjects to the left of a modal or auxiliary, as in "elle veut sauter" "she wants to jump", or "elle a sauté" "she has jumped". The order in which these elements were added, and the development in the frequencies of the constructions, all support the predictions of the Adjacency Hypothesis for left edge development in early verb constructions.
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A