Have-cliticisation in child English : a generative account

Abstract EN

The cliticisation of have onto a preceding word has been argued to be constrained by principles of Universal Grammar.

In particular, have-cliticisation appears to be blocked when an empty T constituent that follows from Universal Grammar intervenes between have and its host provided that the host c-commands have and that the host ends with a vowel or diphthong.

The study investigates knowledge of these constraints in child English.

In particular, the study aims to see whether children learning English as a first language exhibit awareness of the generative constraints on have-cliticisation.

The longitudinal transcripts from CHILDES of eight American and British children were used for data collection.

An analysis of the occurrences of have-cliticisation in those transcripts shows that English-speaking children are sensitive to the generative constraints on havecliticisation suggesting that their production of have-cliticisation is constrained by Universal Grammar