A cross-sectional study on the use of “be” in early Italian
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Claudia Caprin
Abstract
This work aims at studying the acquisition of copula and the auxiliary BE in Italian children. It will be shown that from the earliest stages the copula and the auxiliary BE are omitted at different rate, suggesting that children distinguish between the two grammatical categories. Moreover, on the basis of an analysis of ambiguous contexts (adjectival or verbal passives), it will be claimed that earliest passive are verbal and not adjectival passives. The data come from the spontaneous productions of 59 children (ranging in age from 22 to 35 months) involved in a cross-sectional study on language acquisition.
Abstract
This work aims at studying the acquisition of copula and the auxiliary BE in Italian children. It will be shown that from the earliest stages the copula and the auxiliary BE are omitted at different rate, suggesting that children distinguish between the two grammatical categories. Moreover, on the basis of an analysis of ambiguous contexts (adjectival or verbal passives), it will be claimed that earliest passive are verbal and not adjectival passives. The data come from the spontaneous productions of 59 children (ranging in age from 22 to 35 months) involved in a cross-sectional study on language acquisition.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- The acquisition of syntax in Romance languages ix
- The production of SE and SELF anaphors in Spanish and Dutch children 3
- On the acquisition of ambiguous Valency-Marking Morphemes 23
- Definite and bare noun contrasts in child Catalan 51
- Null arguments in monolingual children 69
- Prenominal elements in French-Germanic bilingual first language acquisition 95
- A cross-sectional study on the use of “be” in early Italian 117
- Patterns of copula omission in Italian child language 135
- Looking for the universal core of the RI stage 159
- The acquisition of experiencers in Spanish L1 and the external argument requirement hypothesis 183
- Early operators and late topic-drop/pro-drop 203
- The acquisition of A- and A’-bound pronouns in Brazilian Portuguese 227
- Acquiring long-distance wh-questions in L1 Spanish 251
- Evidence from L1 acquisition for the syntax of wh -scope marking in French * 289
- Acquisition of focus marking in European Portuguese 319
- Subject pronouns in bilinguals 331
- Is the semantics/syntax interface vulnerable in l2 acquisition? 353
- The development of the syntax-information structure interface 371
- Beyond the syntax of the Null Subject Parameter 401
- Index 419
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- The acquisition of syntax in Romance languages ix
- The production of SE and SELF anaphors in Spanish and Dutch children 3
- On the acquisition of ambiguous Valency-Marking Morphemes 23
- Definite and bare noun contrasts in child Catalan 51
- Null arguments in monolingual children 69
- Prenominal elements in French-Germanic bilingual first language acquisition 95
- A cross-sectional study on the use of “be” in early Italian 117
- Patterns of copula omission in Italian child language 135
- Looking for the universal core of the RI stage 159
- The acquisition of experiencers in Spanish L1 and the external argument requirement hypothesis 183
- Early operators and late topic-drop/pro-drop 203
- The acquisition of A- and A’-bound pronouns in Brazilian Portuguese 227
- Acquiring long-distance wh-questions in L1 Spanish 251
- Evidence from L1 acquisition for the syntax of wh -scope marking in French * 289
- Acquisition of focus marking in European Portuguese 319
- Subject pronouns in bilinguals 331
- Is the semantics/syntax interface vulnerable in l2 acquisition? 353
- The development of the syntax-information structure interface 371
- Beyond the syntax of the Null Subject Parameter 401
- Index 419
