On acquiring an (S)VO language: subjectless sentences in children’s Hebrew

The study considers children's acquisition of Hebrew, as a language which exhibits several asymmetries with respect to where zero subjects are required, optional, or disallowed. It aims to throw light on the more general issue of linguistic variability, by suggesting ways in which the notion of 'licensing' of a phenomenon such as null subjects might be extended (section 1). Modern Hebrew is analyzed as variable in the patterning of its subject less clauses in impersonal constructions, with verbs marked for person agreement, and in subordinate-clause ellipsis (section 2). Findings from the conversational and narrative usage of Hebrew-speaking children at different ages (section 3) are consistent with claims concerning children's progression from pregrammatical to thematic organization of linguistic material, the role of language-particular structural patternings in acquisition, and the confluence of factors impinging on the acquisition process (section 4). The particular case of Hebrew is suggestive for how children in general are able to accommodate structural asymmetries in the course of acquisition. 1. Structural asymmetries The parameter-setting model of language acquisition, like the theory of parametric syntax in general, is based on the premise that the properties of a language cluster on certain typological parameters (see, for example, Roeper and Williams 1987). For instance, a so-called 'null-subject language' typically displays morphological uniformity — that is, it has either rich verb-agreement inflection or none at all; it allows null pronoun subjects in simple clauses and deletion of coreferential pronouns in subordinate clauses; and it will have subject-verb inversion, whereas subject-aux inversion will play no special part in its grammar (Hyams 1986; Weissenborn 1989). Similarly, on the 'head-direction' parameter, in head-initial IanLinguistics 28 (1990), 1135-1166 0024-3949/90/0028-1135 $2.00