The acquisition of the constraints on Havecliticisation in child English : a universal grammar account

Other Title(s)

اكتساب الضوابط على اختصار have في اللغة الإنجليزية لدى الأطفال : تفسير نظرية القواعد الكونية

Dissertant

Tarawinah, Dimah Ziyad

Thesis advisor

al-Najadat, Jumah Salim

Comitee Members

Abd al-Haqq, Fawwaz Muhammad
al-Khawlidah, Muhammad Arshid Said
al-Sarayirah, Atif Ata Allah Id

University

Mutah University

Faculty

Faculty of Arts

Department

Department of English Language and Literature

University Country

Jordan

Degree

Master

Degree Date

2015

English Abstract

The production of have-cliticisationin in English is governed by two basic conditions: the c-command condition and the adjacency condition (Radford, 2009).

This study aims at investigating the acquisition of these conditions that restrict using have-cliticisation in child English ( in both American and British English).

This phenomenon is tackled within the syntactic framework of Universal Grammar, namely, the Minimalist Program.

Radford's (2009) generative analysis is adopted in this study to account for the informants' production of the contracted and the full form of have.

The generative account of have-cliticisation assumes that have can encliticise onto a preceding host when this host c-commands have, and when it is immediately adjacent to have, providing that this host ends with a vowel/diphthong.

The proposed analysis also predicts the ungrammaticality of using have-cliticisation in some cases (e.g.

have in movement constructions, have in elliptical constructions… etc.) because of the violation of the adjacency condition which follows from a principle of UG, specifically, the TP Projection principle.

This principle presumes that have-cliticisation is blocked in such cases because an empty T category intervenes between have and its c-commanding host.

To approach the aim of the study, CHILDES transcripts were used in order to obtain the data necessary for the goal of this research.

CHILDES provided the study with the needed data of eight children.

Five of the participants were learning American English as their first language.

The other three children were learning British English as their first language.

The children's productions of have were classified into different constructions in accordance with the use of have.

Analyzing the informant's files shows that the children produced illustrations of perfective have constructions, possessive have constructions, have in movement construction and have in infinitive clauses.

The proposed analysis provides a unified account of the children's production of have.

The findings entail that the participants of the study were aware of the constraints that govern the production of have.

The children did not encliticise have onto the host in the non-licensing constructions as often as in the licensing constructions.

The children exhibited their adherence to the constraints on have-cliticisation by their correct production of have-cliticisation only in the licensing constructions.

I argue that the proposed analysis in this study can adequately capture the children's production of have.

The study ends up proposing that the children's correct prediction of the constraints on have-cliticisation is due to their innate knowledge of the TP Projection principle of UG.

This principle is assumed to be a part of the children's biological endowment from the moment of birth.

The current study has important implications for other linguists who are interested in the field of first language acquisition.

This study suggests using CHILDES website as a rich resource for children's language production.

The proposed analysis of the children's production of have also implies a further branch of investigation which is related to exploring the children's production of utterances containing where've and would've.

Additionally, the current study recommends investigating whether the children's production of have is governed by certain developmental stages or not.

Main Subjects

Educational Sciences
Languages & Comparative Literature

Topics

• Education
• Learning
• Kindergarten
• Grammar
• English language

No. of Pages

94

Table of Contents

• APA
• MLA
• AMA

Language

English

Data Type

Arab Theses

Record ID

BIM-673558