Early Finiteness in Inuktitut: The Role of Language Structure and Input

A stage of optional infinitive (OI) production has been identified in typically developing (TD) children learning languages that do not permit null subjects (Wexler (1994; 1998; 1999)), and this stage has been shown to be extended in at least English- and German-speaking children with specific language impairment (SLI; Rice, Noll, and Grimm (1997), Rice, Wexler, and Cleave (1995)). Although TD children learning null subject languages do not go through an OI stage (Bar-Shalom and Snyder (1997), Guasti (1993)), reports differ concerning whether children with SLI learning these languages go through this stage (Bortolini, Caselli, and Leonard (1997), Bottari, Cipriani, and Chilosi (1996)). In this article, we present evidence from Inuktitut, a null subject language not yet investigated with respect to OIs. We show that although TD children learning Inuktitut do not go through an OI stage, one child with SLI does go through an OI stage. In addition, the percentage of finite verb forms marked with an overt verbal inflection in Inuktitut child-directed speech (CDS) is strikingly high compared with that in English CDS. We discuss the implications of these results for theories of continuity, the initial stage of child grammar, and the effect of language structure and input on language acquisition.

[1]  S. Varlokosta,et al.  Functional projections, markedness, and “root infinitives” in early child Greek , 1998 .

[2]  R. Higginson.  Fixing : assimilation in language acquisition , 1985 .

[3]  J. Grinstead,et al.  Case, inflection and subject licensing in child Catalan and Spanish , 2000, Journal of Child Language.

[4]  C Snow,et al.  Child language data exchange system , 1984, Journal of Child Language.

[5]  Steven Pinker,et al.  Language learnability and language development , 1985 .

[6]  K. Demuth.  Accessing Functional Categories in Sesotho: Interactions at the Morpho-Syntax Interface , 1992 .

[7]  Martha B. Crago,et al.  Building the case for impairment in linguistic representation: Inuktitut data , 1994 .

[8]  R. Brown,et al.  A First Language , 1973 .

[9]  J. Weissenborn.  Functional Categories and Verb Movement: The Acquisition of German Syntax Reconsidered , 1990 .

[10]  A. Pierce,et al.  Crosslinguistic Evidence for Functional Projections in Early Child Grammar , 1994 .

[11]  Hagit Borer,et al.  Bi-unique relations and the maturation of grammatical principles , 1992 .

[12]  A. S. Brown.  I Don't Want To , 1913 .

[13]  M. Guasti.  Verb Syntax in Italian Child Grammar: Finite and Nonfinite Verbs , 1993 .

[14]  S. Lane,et al.  Let's Play! , 2002 .

[15]  M L Rice,et al.  Specific language impairment as a period of extended optional infinitive. , 1995, Journal of speech and hearing research.

[16]  S. Allen,et al.  Early passive acquisition in Inuktitut , 1996, Journal of Child Language.

[17]  P. Bloom.  Subjectlees sentences in child language , 1990 .

[18]  J. Zwart.  The Minimalist Program , 1998, Journal of Linguistics.

[19]  D. Poeppel,et al.  The full competence hypothesis of clause structure in early German , 1993 .

[20]  A. Awad.  COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 3 , 1987 .

[21]  K. Wexler,et al.  Toward tense as a clinical marker of specific language impairment in English-speaking children. , 1996, Journal of speech and hearing research.

[22]  B. D. Schwartz,et al.  Language Acquisition Studies in Generative Grammar , 1994 .

[23]  Reinhilde Bok-Bennema,et al.  Case and Agreement in Inuit , 1991 .

[24]  Virginia Valian,et al.  Categories of First Syntax: Be, Be+ing, and Nothingness , 1992 .

[25]  Viviane Déprez,et al.  Negation and functional projections in early grammar , 1993 .

[26]  Harald Clahsen,et al.  The Seeds of Structure: A Syntactic analysis of the acquisition of Case marking , 1994 .

[27]  B. Richards,et al.  Input and interaction in language acquisition: Child-directed speech and influences on language acquisition: methodology and interpretation , 1994 .

[28]  Shanley Allen,et al.  Aspects of Argument Structure Acquisition in Inuktitut , 1996 .

[29]  Harald Clahsen,et al.  Introducing CP: wh-questions and subordinate clauses in German child language , 1995 .

[30]  Mary D. Swift.  Verb Base Ellipsis in Inuktitut Conversational Discourse , 2002, International Journal of American Linguistics.

[31]  J. Bohannon,et al.  Intonation Patterns in Child-Directed Speech: Mother-Father Differences. , 1984 .

[32]  C. Foley,et al.  The development of functional categories : The acquisition of the subject in French , 1998 .

[33]  J. Bobaljik.  On Ergativity and Ergative Unergatives , 1993 .

[34]  B. Martha,et al.  Cultural context in communicative interaction of inuit children , 1988 .

[35]  V. Abernethy.  Commentary to Chapter 10 , 1984 .

[36]  K. Wexler.  Very early parameter setting and the unique checking constraint: a new explanation of the optional infinitive stage: a new explanation of the optional infinitive stage , 1998 .

[37]  K. Demuth,et al.  Subject, topic and Sesotho passive , 1990, Journal of Child Language.

[38]  P. Suppes.  The Semantics of Children's Language , 1974 .

[39]  Amye Warren.  Sex differences in speech to children , 1982 .

[40]  Hagit Borer,et al.  The Maturation of Syntax , 1987 .

[41]  B. MacWhinney,et al.  The Child Language Data Exchange System: an update , 1990, Journal of Child Language.

[42]  Monika Rothweiler.  Spracherwerb und Grammatik : Linguistische Untersuchungen zum Erwerb von Syntax und Morphologie , 1990 .

[43]  Issues of Complexity in Inuktitut and English Child Directed Speech , 1998 .

[44]  Nina Hyams,et al.  The Underspecification of Functional Categories in Early Grammar , 1996 .

[45]  Jürgen M. Meisel,et al.  The Acquisition of verb placement : functional categories and V2 phenomena in language acquisition , 1996 .

[46]  N. Hyams.  The Genesis of Clausal Structure , 1992 .

[47]  F. Genesee,et al.  On Continuity and the Emergence of Functional Categories in Bilingual First-Language Acquisition , 1997 .

[48]  Kenneth Wexler,et al.  The development of inflection in a biologically based theory of language acquisition. , 1996 .

[49]  L B Leonard,et al.  Grammatical deficits in Italian-speaking children with specific language impairment. , 1997, Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR.

[50]  Monika Rothweiler.  Spracherwerb und Grammatik , 1990 .

[51]  Laurence B. Leonard,et al.  Morphological Deficits in Children With Specific Language Impairment: The Status of Features in the Underlying Grammar , 1992 .

[52]  Hannelore Grimm,et al.  An Extended Optional Infinitive Stage in German-Speaking Children With Specific Language Impairment , 1997 .