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Understanding Early Grammatical Development in Children: Patterns and Constructs

This overview explores the key features of early grammatical development in children, highlighting the emergence of lexical specificity and schematic constructions. It covers the basic patterns children use, such as the verb "Get" in various contexts, and examines the significance of input frequency in language acquisition. The text further analyzes the development of complex sentences and complement clauses, detailing semantic types (e.g., communicative and perception verbs) and structures (e.g., that-complement, if-complement). Insights into children’s early utterances provide a foundation for understanding language progression.

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Understanding Early Grammatical Development in Children: Patterns and Constructs

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  1. Grammatical development

  2. Get doggy. Get milk. Get him. Get Billy. Get something to eat. Lexically-specific constructions

  3. Emergence of schematic constructions VERB __ Get __ Get doggy Get milk Get him Get Billy

  4. Features of grammatical development • The earliest grammatical patterns are formally simplified. • The earliest utterances tend to be lexically specific. • Young children often memorize grammatical patterns. • ‚Input frequency‘ seems to be an important determinant of language acquisition. • Children do not just memorize the patterns they hear, they also analyze and organize the input data.

  5. Complex sentences

  6. Complex sentences coordination subordination relative complement adverbial finite non-fi. finite non-fi. finite non-fi.

  7. Data

  8. Proportion of complex sentences

  9. Complement clauses

  10. Complement clauses • Semantic types: • 1. communicative verbs of saying (e.g. say, tell) • 2. perception verbs (e.g. see, hear) • 3. mental verbs (e.g. know, think) • Formal types: • 1. I know (that) she will come. S-complement • 2. I don’t know if she will come. IF-complement • 3. I don’t know when she will come WH-complement

  11. Early complement clauses I think it’s a cow. (Adam 2,3) See this is empty. (Peter 2,4) I know you are here. (Peter 2,5) Think he’s gone. (Nina 2,5) I guess I’ve one. (Nina 2;6)

  12. Think-clauses I think I'm go in here. 3;1 And I think... we need dishes. 3;2 Think some toys over here too. 3;3 I think I play jingle bells… with the record player. 3;5 I think he's gone. 3;5 Oh... I think it's a ball. 3;5 It's a crazy bone... I think. 3;5 I think it's in here. 3;5 I think it's in here… Mommy. 2;7 Think it's in there. 2;8

  13. Features of early think clauses • The subject is always I. • The matrix verb appears always in present tense. • There is no auxiliary, modal, or PP in the matrix clause. • The complement clause is longer and more diverse. • There is no that-complementizer. • In some sentences I think follows the complement clause.

  14. 3;0 3,6 4;0 4;6 I think__ Do you think__ I thought__ I’m thinking__ They think__ What do you think__ Development of think clauses

  15. guess clauses I guess I better come…. 3;5 Guess I'll write some more white. 3;9 Guess I lay it down. 3;10 I guess saw me break them. 3;10 I guess I have one more. 4;4 That goes right here but it don't fit… I guess. 4;4 Now… I guess that goes right there… doesn't it? 4;4 Because it have both lines… I guess. 4;5 I guess this is a hill… like this. 4;9 I guess this is… 5;0

  16. wish clauses I wish I could play with dis [= a Christmas present]. 3;5 I wish I can keep it (pause) for writing on. 3;5 I wish I can keep dat so I can tick (pause) tick it. 3;5 I wish we can eat... 3;8 I wish we could eat that. 3;8 I wish I could have a tractor to drive in them. 3;8 I wish ... could ... make some more just like dat. 3;8 I wish you could color all dese. 3;9 I wish I could have a picnic. 3;11 Momma ... I wish I could come back here. 3;11

  17. know clauses I know this piece go. 2;6 I know ... soldier marching. 2;8 How do you know it going eat supper? 3;0 How do you know dat a duck?. 3;0 How do you know dat convertible? 3;0 How do you know ... I saw ducks 3;0 How do you know ... put my cup up? 3;0 How do you know ... doesn’t hurt me? 3;1 Mommy ... How do you know dat’s Harvard Square bus? 3;1 Do you know de lights went off? 3;1

  18. see clauses Got to make them bigger… see? 2;3 See this is empty. 2;3 Let’s see we fix them. 2;3 See these are stamps. 2;4 See Daddy’s on the grass. 2;5 See boat has sails on it. 2;5 See the peoples going. 2;6 Mommy write it… see? 2;6 See I’m writing 2;6 See you do it? 2;7

  19. remember clauses Remember we played with Samantha? 3;0 Remember you reading de puzzle… 3;2 Remember I broke my window? 4;0 You have to put it in the barn… remember? 4;0 Remember it was Halloween and… 4;2 I remember the bee bite me in the belly…. 4;5 Remember I don’t had to go to the doctors? 4;5 Remember last year I knew how to make a two? 4;11 Hey ... remember that I hanged them on like that? 5;0

  20. say clauses The cowboy say (pause) “I'm angry at you”. 2;9 He sayed he has something to play with for me. 2;9 That means peoples say “put the kitty down”. 2;10 She gonna say I have a pretty dress on. 2;10 The kitty says he wants to come in. 2;10 He say the alligator's gonna bite him up. 2;10 You make a rabbit and a bear I said. 2;10 He said yes he will give you a cow. 2;11 She said she is gonna give me a pillow… 2;11 Dolly said “yes she (pause) she’s a witch. 2;11

  21. tell clauses She telled me she for get the doll carriage for me. 2;10 He telled me… me don’t scream again. 3;0 Tell me… I would like to come to your house again. 3;0 I’m gonna tell him I wanna go to his house. 3;3 I tell her… “no… no… baby that’s my stuff”. 3;3 I told you I could make a carrot. 4;2 I told you you’re cuckoo. 4;6 I wanna tell the kids ‘do you heard of this kind of water?’4;9 Tell Daddy I’m sick. 4;10 I told you I need the (…) to do it. 4;11

  22. IF-complements … and see if I’m tall. 2;10 Now let’s see if it fits on this little boy. 3;1 Let me see if there’s something else in her bag. 3;3 I want to see if you… 3;8 Let me see if I can touch you. 4;2 See if I can make a kite. 4;8 See if I can make you wink. 4;9 See if I can pour it like this. 4;9 See if it smells. 4;11 Let me see if you get anymore. 5;1

  23. WH-complements I wonder what a whale fish is. 3;8 I wonder what skinned means. 3;8 I wonder what dat is. 3;8 I wonder what dat noise is. 3;8 I wonder what it is. 3;8 Mommy… I wonder what dat is. 3;8 I wonder what dey are. 3;8 I wonder what dis is. 3;8 I wonder where the door is. 3;8 I wonder where the rest of it is. 3;8

  24. WH-complements Guess what it is? 3;5 Guess who we spun? 4;1 Guess what that is? 4;5 Guess what I can make still? 4;6 Guess what that is? 4;6 Guess what this is? 4;10 Guess what it is? 4;10 Guess what dis is? 4;11 Guess what dis is going to be, Mommy? 5;2 Guess how old I am? 5;2

  25. IF + WH-complements Early clauses: Let (me/us) see if __ I wonder wh __ Guess __ ? See if __ Later clauses: (1) He doesn’t know where he’s driving. [4;0] (2) Paul knows where it is, doesn’t he? [4;3] (3) This airplane doesn’t know where it’s going. [4;4] (4) She didn’t know where it was. [5;0]

  26. Emergence of schematic constructions I think __ Remember __

  27. Emergence of schematic constructions I think __ Remember __

  28. Emergence of schematic constructions NP VERB __ NP think __ I think __ He thinks __ I am thinking __ Remember __

  29. Relative clauses

  30. Structure of relative clauses (1) The manwho we saw was reading a book. SUBJ (2) He noticed the manwho was reading a book. OBJ (3) The man who we saw was reading a book. OBJ (4) He noticed the man who was reading a book. SUBJ

  31. Children’s spontaneous relative clauses (1) That’s the rabbit that fall off. [Nina 2;7] (2) Look at dat train Ursula bought. [Adam 2;10] (3) This is the sugar that goes in there. [Nina 3;0] (4) That’s a picture I made. [Adam 3;0] (5) Here’s a tiger that’s gonna scare him. [Nina 3;1] (6) It’s a song that we dance to. [Nina 3;2]

  32. Semantic complexity (1) Here’s the tiger that’s gonna scare him. > The tiger is gonna scare him. (2) This is the sugar that goes in there. > The sugar goes in there. (3) It’s a song that we dance to. > We dance to a song.

  33. Data

  34. Head of the relative clause (1) The manwho we saw was reading a book. SUBJ (2) He noticed the manwho was reading a book. OBJ (3) He saw to the manwho was reading a book. OBL (4) The manwho was reading a book. NP (5) That’s the manwho was reading a book. PN

  35. Head of relative clause (total)

  36. Head of relative clause (earliest)

  37. Head of relative clause (development) PN OBJ PN NP OBJ NP OBL OBL OBL SUBJ

  38. Motivating factors • Semantic complexity. • Input frequency. • Information structure. • Pragmtic function.

  39. Conclusion PN-relatives are the earliest relative clauses that children learn because: (1) they suit the communicative needs of young children (2) they are semantically similar to simple sentences.

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