Syntax – it’s not All or Nothing May leave out grammatical elements when repeating sentences: –"I can see a cow" repeated as "See cow" (Eve at 25 months) –"The doggy will bite" repeated as "Doggy bite" (Adam at 28 months) Telegraphic patterns alternate with adult forms, often in adjacent utterances: –She's gone. Her gone school. (Domenico at 24 months) –He's kicking a beach ball. Her climbing up the ladder there. (Jen at 24 months) –I teasing Mummy. I'm teasing Mummy. (Holly at 24 months) –I having this. I'm having 'nana. (Olivia at 27 months) –I'm having this little one. Me'll have that. (Betty at 30 months) –Mummy haven't finished yet, has she? (Olivia at 36 months)

Is grammar practice necessary? Probably not (Karin Stromswold) Mute children still may have the ability to understand complex grammar –“The dog was bitten by the cat” –“The cat was bitten by the dog” –“The dogs chase the rabbit” –“The dog chases the rabbit”

How do we know what children understand? Head-turn experiments / preferential viewing tasks –Big Bird is hitting Oscar the Grouch –Oscar the Grouch is hitting Big Bird

How do we know what children understand? Follow instructions –semantically-reversible sentences Put the frog on the napkin in the box

How do wugs gling the fripper? This is a wug. Now there is another one. There are two of them. There are two _____. (kids are really good at this by the time they’re 4 years old!) Past tense version – rick, bing, or gling: children will tell you that yesterday, he ricked, blinged, or glinged. Progressive (-ing) faster to appear than past tense (-ed)

Overgeneralization From Words and Rules – by S. Pinker (1999) U-shaped development About 24 months, children start overgeneralizing -ed as the past tense for irregular verbs Add the –ed to present and irregular past tense forms and neologisms –breaked and broked –eated and ated –ponked, lightninged, spidered –sweepened, presseded, pukeded (Children do this with the 3 rd person –s, as in “He just haves a cold. She do’s what her mother tells her, and with other endings, coming up with words like “specialer” and “powerfullest”)

eat+s and cat+s Alan Prince studied a girl who discovered these suffixes and created these words: –mik –upstair –downstair –clo –len –sentent –bok –trappy –Santa Claw We’ve done it, too: Cherry – from cerise (French) Pea – from pease (mass noun)

Children seem oblivious to correction attempts! Child: My teacher holded the baby rabbits and we patted them Adult: Did you say your teacher held the baby rabbits? Child: Yes. Adult: What do you say she did? Child: She holded the baby rabbits and we patted them. Adult: Did you say she held them tightly? Child: No, she holded them loosely.

How do children learn to use the correct forms? Not correction! –Overt correction seems to interfere with learning One hypothesis – “The Blocking Principle” –First, learn the general rule –Then, hear irregular forms – realize they’re exceptions –Regular forms jump in and block application of the rule Frequency matters. The more kids hear irregular verbs, the less kids regularize them

Children know the correct forms before they reliably use them! (Tom Bever) Tom: Where’s Mommy? Child: Mommy goed to the store. Tom: Mommy goed to the store? Child: NO! (annoyed) Daddy, I say it that way, not you. (Dan Slobin) Child: You readed some of it too…she readed all the rest. Dan: She read the whole thing to you, huh? Child: Nu-uh, you read some. Dan: Oh, that’s right, yeah. I readed the beginning of it. Child: Readed? (annoyed surprise) Read! Dan: Oh yeah, read. Child: Will you stop that, Papa?

What about word order? Nameera Akhtar (1999) Tested 2, 3, and 4-year-olds in separate groups Younger children willing to use new verbs in non- English verb orders (SOV and VSO) The oldest group consistently reverted to SVO By 4 years, most children have settled on the grammar they’re going to use! Subject-Verb-ObjectSubject-Object-Verb Object-Subject-VerbObject-Verb-Subject Verb-Object-SubjectVerb-Subject-Object