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Subjectless sentences in child Danish

C Hamann1, K Plunkett

  • 1University of Geneva, Switzerland.

Cognition
|January 1, 1999
PubMed
Summary

Child Danish language development shows a distinct phase of subject omission linked to infinitival verb use. This pattern challenges input-driven and some grammatical theories, suggesting a complex interplay of grammar and discourse.

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Area of Science:

  • Linguistics
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Child Language Acquisition

Background:

  • Subject omission is a common phenomenon in child language acquisition.
  • Existing theories include pragmatic, processing, and grammatical accounts.
  • Danish, a pro-drop language, offers a unique perspective on subject omission.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To analyze subject omission in child Danish.
  • To evaluate pragmatic, processing, and grammatical explanations for subject omission.
  • To investigate the relationship between subject omission and verb usage in child Danish.

Main Methods:

  • Longitudinal analysis of two Danish children's speech data.
  • Examination of subject omission, finite/infinitival verb usage, and discourse anchorage.
  • Comparison of child data with adult Danish language patterns.

Main Results:

  • A distinct phase of subject omission correlated with infinitival verb usage was observed.
  • No evidence supported input-driven or discourse-anchored accounts.
  • Findings challenge current tense-based and structure-building grammatical theories.
  • An asymmetry in subject omission between main and copula verbs was noted.

Conclusions:

  • Subject omission in child Danish is best explained by a combination of grammatical and discourse-based factors.
  • Current grammatical theories require refinement to account for the observed data.
  • The study highlights the complexity of subject omission in early language development.

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