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Reading Working Papers in Linguistics 4 (2000) - The University of ...

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EARLY VERBS IN BILINGUAL ACQUISITION<br />

‘lexical verb’, or undifferentiated as between ma<strong>in</strong> and auxiliary forms (e.g.<br />

Bates et al. 1988). In our view, neither <strong>of</strong> these solutions is appropriate.<br />

Garman (1995) assembled the essential facts <strong>in</strong> the form <strong>of</strong> an antilogism<br />

(Hockett 1961), a set <strong>of</strong> 3 propositions among which the truth <strong>of</strong> any two<br />

logically excludes the third:<br />

(a) ma<strong>in</strong> verbs constitute an open word class;<br />

(b) the class <strong>of</strong> ma<strong>in</strong> verbs <strong>in</strong>cludes the copula be;<br />

(c) the copula be is a closed-class verb.<br />

Our candidate for rejection is (a): it reflects an unjustified expectation<br />

that the partition between ‘open’ vs. closed’ lexical classes should co<strong>in</strong>cide<br />

with the boundary <strong>of</strong> a particular set <strong>of</strong> syntactic form classes. As such, it<br />

represents an <strong>in</strong>terest<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>stance where lexicon and syntax are dist<strong>in</strong>ct.<br />

References<br />

Bates, E., Bretherton, I. & Snyder, L. (1988). From first words to grammar: <strong>in</strong>dividual<br />

differences and dissociable mechanisms. Cambridge: C.U.P.<br />

De Houwer, A. (1990). <strong>The</strong> acquisition <strong>of</strong> two languages from birth: a case study.<br />

Cambridge: C.U.P.<br />

Fletcher, P., Garman, M., Johnson, M., Schelletter, C. & Stodel, L. (1986). Characteris<strong>in</strong>g<br />

language impairment <strong>in</strong> terms <strong>of</strong> normal language development: advantages and<br />

limitations. Proceed<strong>in</strong>g <strong>of</strong> the seventh annual Wiscons<strong>in</strong> symposium on research <strong>in</strong><br />

child language disorders. Madison, WI: <strong>University</strong> <strong>of</strong> Wiscons<strong>in</strong>.<br />

Fletcher, P. & Garman, M. (1988). Normal language development and language impairment:<br />

syntax and beyond. Cl<strong>in</strong>ical L<strong>in</strong>guistics & Phonetics 2. 97-113.<br />

Garman, M. (1995). Lexical pr<strong>of</strong>il<strong>in</strong>g <strong>of</strong> spontaneous speech <strong>in</strong> children and adults. In P.<br />

Kerswill, R. Ingham, Y. Huang & L. Shockey (eds), <strong>Work<strong>in</strong>g</strong> papers <strong>in</strong> l<strong>in</strong>guistics,<br />

Vol 2, <strong>University</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Read<strong>in</strong>g</strong>, 1-22.<br />

Garman, M., Schelletter, C. & S<strong>in</strong>ka, I. (1999). Three hypotheses on early grammatical<br />

development. In Perk<strong>in</strong>s, M. & Howard, S. (eds) New directions <strong>in</strong> language<br />

development and disorders. New York: Kluwer/Plenum. 73-84.<br />

Hockett, C.F. (1961). L<strong>in</strong>guistic elements and their relations. Language 37. 29-53.<br />

Miller, J. & Chapman, R. (1993), Systematic analysis <strong>of</strong> language transcripts. Madison,<br />

WI: <strong>University</strong> <strong>of</strong> Wiscons<strong>in</strong>.<br />

Richards, B. (1987). Type-token ratios: What do they really tell us? Journal <strong>of</strong> Child<br />

Language 12. 201-209.<br />

Schelletter, C, S<strong>in</strong>ka, I. & Garman, M. (1999). Latvian/English and German/English bil<strong>in</strong>gual<br />

acquisition: new light on Universal Grammar. Proceed<strong>in</strong>gs <strong>of</strong> the first <strong>in</strong>ternational<br />

symposium on bil<strong>in</strong>gualism, Vigo: <strong>University</strong> <strong>of</strong> Vigo, October 1997.<br />

187

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