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The development of infinitives from three to five

S L Eisenberg1, H S Cairns

  • 1Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027.

Journal of Child Language
|October 1, 1994
PubMed
Summary

Young children produce infinitive sentences early, but mastery of their control properties develops later. This study examined child language acquisition and control structures in infinitival sentences.

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Area of Science:

  • Linguistics
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Child Language Acquisition

Background:

  • Infinitival sentences are complex grammatical structures.
  • Understanding control properties in syntax is crucial for language development.
  • Previous research offers competing theories on the acquisition order of these structures.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the production and comprehension of infinitival sentences in young children.
  • To assess children's knowledge of control properties associated with infinitival constructions.
  • To evaluate competing hypotheses on the order of acquisition for infinitival sentences.

Main Methods:

  • A story completion task was used to elicit infinitival sentences from children.
  • An act-out comprehension task assessed children's understanding of control.
  • Participants included 25 children aged 3 years, 7 months to 5 years, 4 months.

Main Results:

  • Infinitival sentence production was observed even in the youngest children.
  • Development of infinitival sentence control was incomplete across all age groups studied.
  • No child demonstrated adult-like knowledge of control properties in infinitival sentences.

Conclusions:

  • Infinitival sentence production emerges early in child language.
  • Mastery of control properties in infinitival sentences is a later developmental milestone.
  • Findings contribute to understanding syntactic development and acquisition theories.

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