Root Infinitives

Root Infinitives

1. Characteristic of overt subject languages

   • German
     • Infinital form -en "helicopter to clean"
   • Danish
   • Dutch
   • Swedish
   • Norwegian

2. Have default pronoun (me,moi) or lexical NP subjects which often appear in the specifier of VP position

3. Optional Infinitive period

   • Children use both sentence types until they solidify the use of verb inflection and nominative subject
     • Infants are sensitive to the setting of their native language for these parameters from their first word combinations.

4. During the second year they first build up a lexicon and then begin minimally combining words in keeping with the constraints of the native syntax.

   • All languages embrace similar syntactic categories.
     • Germanic languages require that the inflected verb be located in the second structural position just as the inflected auxiliary or modal is placed in English questions
       • The 2 positions are located in the highest functional projection.
         • How many apples did he eat?
           • WH phrase occupies first position
           • Auxiliary "did" occupies second position
         • Children learning Germanic languages produce clauses with root infinitives in final position and clauses with inflected verbs in second position.
           • Da ist er Here is he He is here
       • Morphology:
         • Children generally gained present progressive -ing before past irregular (went) before third person regular -s an d before past regular -ed
           • Children appear to gain morphological competence the same time as syntactic competende although thet are not linked.
             • Children tend to use nonfinite verbs along side finite verbs for a period of several months. The mature syntax is not achieved overnight.
               • In the nominal domain, gender number of adjectives and determiners is oftem linked to the licencing os null nouns
                 • El rojo -> The red one Noun drop

5. Three major parameters of subject verb placement, studied in Western Languages.

   • Null Subject
     • Verb Raising
       • Verb Second