OV sequences in early child Catalan and English
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Susagna Tubau
Abstract
In this paper I investigate the nature of preverbal objects in child English and Catalan. OV sequences occur in the children’s productions between approximately 19 months and 2 years of age even though both adult English and Catalan display VO word order. I claim that OV sequences emerge in child English and Catalan after Telicity Phrase and Aspect Phrase have been acquired but are still underspecified, thus not forcing movement of objects and verbs to Tel0 and Asp0 respectively. While V-to-Asp0 without object-to-Tel0 yields VO word order, the opposite yields OV, which disappears as soon as both movements can no longer take place non-simultaneously. In child Catalan, two kinds of OV sequences are distinguished: ‘true’ OV sequences, which occur with non-finite and non-adult inflected verbs, and Focus fronted OV combinations, which are attested with adult-like inflected verbs and whose syntax is different from ‘true’ OVs.
Abstract
In this paper I investigate the nature of preverbal objects in child English and Catalan. OV sequences occur in the children’s productions between approximately 19 months and 2 years of age even though both adult English and Catalan display VO word order. I claim that OV sequences emerge in child English and Catalan after Telicity Phrase and Aspect Phrase have been acquired but are still underspecified, thus not forcing movement of objects and verbs to Tel0 and Asp0 respectively. While V-to-Asp0 without object-to-Tel0 yields VO word order, the opposite yields OV, which disappears as soon as both movements can no longer take place non-simultaneously. In child Catalan, two kinds of OV sequences are distinguished: ‘true’ OV sequences, which occur with non-finite and non-adult inflected verbs, and Focus fronted OV combinations, which are attested with adult-like inflected verbs and whose syntax is different from ‘true’ OVs.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword vii
- Tense domains in BP and EP – vP, CP and phases 1
- Variable-behavior Ps and the location of PATH in Old French 25
- Hebrew and Arabic children going Romance 51
- Adjectives and deleted nominals in Spanish 67
- On the nature of covert operations 87
- Ellipsis and Restructuring in European Portuguese 109
- The early steps of modal and negation interactions 131
- Structural patterns blocking plural in Romance nominalizations 145
- On the distribution of adjectives in Romanian 161
- Subject doubling in European Portuguese dialects 179
- On the Quebec French interrogative particle tu 201
- Autonomous typological prosodic evolution versus the Germanic superstrate in diachronic French phonology 223
- Dummy prepositions and the licensing of null subjects in Brazilian Portuguese 243
- OV sequences in early child Catalan and English 267
- Index 287
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword vii
- Tense domains in BP and EP – vP, CP and phases 1
- Variable-behavior Ps and the location of PATH in Old French 25
- Hebrew and Arabic children going Romance 51
- Adjectives and deleted nominals in Spanish 67
- On the nature of covert operations 87
- Ellipsis and Restructuring in European Portuguese 109
- The early steps of modal and negation interactions 131
- Structural patterns blocking plural in Romance nominalizations 145
- On the distribution of adjectives in Romanian 161
- Subject doubling in European Portuguese dialects 179
- On the Quebec French interrogative particle tu 201
- Autonomous typological prosodic evolution versus the Germanic superstrate in diachronic French phonology 223
- Dummy prepositions and the licensing of null subjects in Brazilian Portuguese 243
- OV sequences in early child Catalan and English 267
- Index 287
