Chapter 9 - LOT publications

Accounts of SLI in Afrikaans
In the grammar of adult speakers of Afrikaans, particle-verbs have the linear
order particle+verb (e.g., houtkap or afval), 178 but in the grammar of children,
it appears that the compound can also be verb+particle (i.e., kaphout and
valaf). When verb movement takes place to the T for feature checking
purposes, the whole particle-verb (kaphout or valaf) is raised and not just the
verbal stem (kap or val). 179 One could say that pied piping takes place here,
whereas something similar to preposition stranding (say, “particle
stranding”) should have occurred. This would explain the word order in
utterances such as (210). As can be seen from (211), it appears that
unnecessary material has been copied and/or incorrect copies spelled out.
(210) Target:
daar val af die een
daar val die een af
there fall off the one
there fall the one off
‘There the one falls off’
(211) CP
Spec
daar
C'
C TP
val af
Spec T'
die een
T
val af
SC
DP
die een
VP
Particle
af
V
val af
178 Compounds in Afrikaans are head-final. Consider, for example, plakboek ‘scrap
book’ N = plak ‘paste’ V + boek ‘book’ N, and mooimaak ‘beautify’ V = mooi ‘pretty’ A +
maak ‘make’ V.
179 In constrast to the adult speaker of Afrikaans, the child with SLI moves the entire
complex verb [V+Preposition] to T and subsequently to C. It is possible that the child
is confused by the existence of other verbal forms consisting of a verb and a
preposition (although in the order [Preposition+V]) which undergo movement as a unit
to C. Two examples of sentences containing such verbal forms are given in (i) and (ii):
(i) Paul onderhandel met die smouse
‘Paul negotiates with the hawkers’
(ii) Susan oorskat haar vermoëns
‘Susan overestimates her abilities’
292