Home Linguistics & Semiotics Placement of infinitives in successive child language acquisition
Chapter
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Placement of infinitives in successive child language acquisition

  • Aldona Sopata
View more publications by John Benjamins Publishing Company
Search
The Development of Grammar
This chapter is in the book The Development of Grammar

Abstract

In recent work on child second language acquisition (cL2) a number of different age ranges for the onset of this acquisition type have been proposed (Schwartz 2004; Meisel 2008; Nicholas & Lightbown 2008). This paper aims at showing at which age noticeable differences as compared to first language acquisition (L1) emerge in the placement of infinitives in German. The study is also concerned with the acquisition of subject verb agreement as a turning point in the developmental sequence of German. The data of the children studied are shown to be consistent with the hypothesis of Meisel (2008) assuming the onset of cL2 between the ages 3 and 4.

Abstract

In recent work on child second language acquisition (cL2) a number of different age ranges for the onset of this acquisition type have been proposed (Schwartz 2004; Meisel 2008; Nicholas & Lightbown 2008). This paper aims at showing at which age noticeable differences as compared to first language acquisition (L1) emerge in the placement of infinitives in German. The study is also concerned with the acquisition of subject verb agreement as a turning point in the developmental sequence of German. The data of the children studied are shown to be consistent with the hypothesis of Meisel (2008) assuming the onset of cL2 between the ages 3 and 4.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents vii
  3. Introduction 1
  4. Part I. (2)L1 versus L2 versus child L2
  5. ‘Acquisition’ in grammatical development 19
  6. Tense and Aspect in early French development in aL2, 2L1 and cL2 learners 47
  7. Subject clitics in child L2 acquisition of French 75
  8. Placement of infinitives in successive child language acquisition 105
  9. Part II. The acquisition of sentence structure and functional categories
  10. The developmental pathway of nominal functional categories in early child Mandarin 125
  11. The emergence of CP in child Basque 151
  12. Some directions for the systematic investigation of the acquisition of Cypriot Greek 179
  13. Strict Interfaces and three kinds of Multiple Grammar 205
  14. Part III. Autonomous development vs. crosslinguistic influence in bilingual first language acquisition
  15. Delay and acceleration in bilingual first language acquisition 231
  16. Intonation targets of yes/no questions by Spanish and German monolingual and bilingual children 263
  17. Perception of German vowels by bilingual Portuguese-German returnees 287
  18. Part IV. Language acquisition, language contact and diachronic change
  19. Acquisition in the context of language change 309
  20. On the diachronic reanalysis of null subjects and null objects in Brazilian Portuguese 331
  21. On the decrease in subject-verb inversion in French declaratives 355
  22. On the relation between acceptability and frequency 383
  23. Name index 405
  24. Subject index 409
https://doi.org/10.1075/hsm.11.06sop

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents vii
  3. Introduction 1
  4. Part I. (2)L1 versus L2 versus child L2
  5. ‘Acquisition’ in grammatical development 19
  6. Tense and Aspect in early French development in aL2, 2L1 and cL2 learners 47
  7. Subject clitics in child L2 acquisition of French 75
  8. Placement of infinitives in successive child language acquisition 105
  9. Part II. The acquisition of sentence structure and functional categories
  10. The developmental pathway of nominal functional categories in early child Mandarin 125
  11. The emergence of CP in child Basque 151
  12. Some directions for the systematic investigation of the acquisition of Cypriot Greek 179
  13. Strict Interfaces and three kinds of Multiple Grammar 205
  14. Part III. Autonomous development vs. crosslinguistic influence in bilingual first language acquisition
  15. Delay and acceleration in bilingual first language acquisition 231
  16. Intonation targets of yes/no questions by Spanish and German monolingual and bilingual children 263
  17. Perception of German vowels by bilingual Portuguese-German returnees 287
  18. Part IV. Language acquisition, language contact and diachronic change
  19. Acquisition in the context of language change 309
  20. On the diachronic reanalysis of null subjects and null objects in Brazilian Portuguese 331
  21. On the decrease in subject-verb inversion in French declaratives 355
  22. On the relation between acceptability and frequency 383
  23. Name index 405
  24. Subject index 409
Sign up now to receive a 20% welcome discount
Institutional Access
How does access work?
Have an idea on how to improve our website?
Please write us.
© 2025 De Gruyter Brill
Downloaded on 15.9.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1075/hsm.11.06sop/html
Scroll to top button