Eintrag

Titel

Roots and rogues in German child language

Personen

Nigel Duffield

Jahr

2008

Typ

Aufsatz

Periodikum

Language acquisition

ISSN

1048-9223

Seiten

225 - 269

Band

15

Heft

4

Schlagwörter

Spracherwerb
Subjekt
Syntax

Abstract

This article is concerned with the proper characterization of subject omission at a particular stage in German child language. It focuses on post-verbal null subjects in finite clauses, here termed ROGUES. It is argued that the statistically significant presence of Rogues, in conjunction with their distinct developmental profile, speaks against a STRONG CONTINUITY approach to the acquisition of null subject knowledge in German, and urges a reconsideration of the notion of OPTIONALITY in early grammars. The significance of the Rogues stage is considered in the context of specific theoretical proposals about argument omission: those of Rizzi (1992; 1994; 2000), and of Wexler (1994; 1998), are contrasted with the WEAK CONTINUITY approach proposed by Clahsen and his associates (e.g., Clahsen (1990/1991), Clahsen and Penke (1992), Clahsen, Eisenbeiß, and Penke (1996)). The data presented here, which complement related work by Hamann (1996), provide additional empirical support for these latter hypotheses

https://grammis.ids-mannheim.de/bdg/34940