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
