Cross-Linguistic Similarities in the Acquisition of English and Catalan

Abstract

This paper analyses the acquisition of the functional categories Agreement (AGR-S) and Tense (TNS) by monolingual English and Catalan speaking children. The theoretical framework assumed is the Principles and Parameters model of Generative Theory. The results of the study show that all the children go through two stages in the acquisition of these two functional categories: A first prefunctional stage, characterised by the absence of syntactic projections for Agreement and Tense; and a second, functional stage, in which children start to show knowledge of the mechanisms and properties associated with the two functional categories at stake. The results of this study provide evidence for the Maturation of Functional Categories Hypothesis, as proposed by Guilfoyle and Noonan (1988), Radford (1990), and Tsimpli (1992), among others.