1. 1 Acqusisition of Syntax Guasti Chapter 6; Thornton (1995)

2. 2 Outline Finish up Truncation Theory from last time Start acquisition of Wh-movement

3. 3 Review from last time Truncation Theory Where train go? Why mummy crying? Do these utterances constitute a problem?

4. 4 Review from last time Children learn language in a highly systematic way Many similarities can be observed in child language acquisition across languages Children’s errors are also systematic and similar across languages. What could this ultimately mean?

5. 5 Wh-Movement in Adult Grammar The witch drinks water What can we move? Subject wh- Who t drinks water? Object wh- What does the witch drink t ?  Let’s draw a Tree! Can we make predictions about children’s mistakes based on our knowledge of wh- movement?

6. 6 Short Distance [What did John eat t] Long Distance [ What did John say [he wanted t]] Short-Distance Movement vs. Long-Distance Movement

7. 7 Long-Distance Movement: Subject vs. Object Extraction Subject extraction: Who did you say wanted a book? Object extraction: What did you say John wanted?

8. 8 Children’s utterances with Long- Distance Wh-Movement: Medial Wh- What children say: What do you think is in the box? What do you think what’s in the box? What do you think that’s in the box? Who do you think is in the room? Who do you think who’s in the room? Who do you think that’s in the room?

9. 9 How can we elicit medial wh- utterances? Movie about an experiment eliciting wh- medial utterances.

10. 10 Are Medial Wh-questions possible in adult grammars? Yes! Some dialects of German, Romani, and Dutch have medial wh-questions What does this tell us about English children’s early grammar?

11. 11 Children’s utterances with Long- Distance Wh-Movement: Medial Wh- Children produce medial wh- words in finite clauses: -What do you think what’s in the box? Children never produce medial wh- words when the embedded clause is infinitival: Who do you want to help you? Who do you want WHO to help you?

12. 12 Let’s draw a tree… What do you think WHAT the mouse ate? Can we speculate about why children produce medial wh-words like that?

13. 13 Analysis of the medial-wh: finite embedded clauses Thornton (1990, 1995) proposes that medial-wh questions result from children treating ‘what’ and ‘that’ as agreeing complemetizers (CP agreement). Evidence for this claim comes from French and Irish (see Guasti pp. 213 - 223) Que crois-tu t j qui t j est arrivé? What think-you that has happened = What do you think (what/that) has happened?

14. 14 Today we spoke about: -short vs. long wh- movement -subject vs. object extraction in wh-movement We also saw that medial wh- words are -possible in finite embedded clauses -impossible in infinitival embedded clauses EXERCISE: For each of the sentences on the board decide if: 1) the wh-movement is short or long; 2) we have a case of subject or object extraction; 3) a child utterance with a medial wh-word would be possible.

15. 15 Analysis of the medial-wh: infinitival embedded clauses What do you want WHAT to drink? Thornton believes that medial-wh words do not occur in infinitival clauses because the verb takes an IP complement (not a CP) Therefore, intermediate CP agreement cannot apply.

16. 16 Conclusion Children make systematic mistakes when they acquire language. Some of the utterances they produce may represent parametric options that are not available in their native language, but available in other languages. This means that acquisition is guided by the principles of Universal Grammar and children have to discover the parameters of their L1.

17. 17 Analysis of the medial-wh: finite embedded clauses Thornton (1990, 1995) proposes that medial-wh questions result from children treating ‘what’ and ‘that’ as agreeing complemetizers (CP agreement). Evidence for this claim comes from French and Irish (see Guasti pp. 213 - 223) Que crois-tu t j qui t j est arrivé? What think-you that has happened = What do you think (what/that) has happened?