Patterns of Verbal Complementation in the Speech of a Pre-Two-Year-Old Girl

Abstract

This article analyses verb/complement patterns in the speech of a 20-22 month old girl and provides an account of the optionality in the position of the complement by assuming basic proposals of the Minimalist Program (Chomsky, 1992, 1995). A crucial starting point is that the initial state is a reflex of Fundamental Operations made available by UG to the child and that lexical entries are sets of features which are acquired gradually. Ordering constraints are not present in lexical entries nor are morphological features in need to be eliminated. Feature- checking is not activated until 24 months when freedom in word order is lost