Journal Articles

1. Diessel, H; Tomasello, M, The acquisition of finite complement clauses in English: A corpus-based analysis, Cognitive Linguistics, vol. 12 no. 2 (January, 2001), pp. 97-142 [doi].
   (last updated on 2024/11/03)

   Abstract:
   This article examines the development of finite complement clauses in the speech of seven English-speaking children aged 1;2 to 5;2.It shows that in most of children's complex utterances that seem to include a finite complement clause, the main clause does not express a full proposition; rather, it functions as an epistemic marker, attention getter, or marker of illocutionary force. The whole construction thus contains only a single proposition expressed by the apparent complement clause. As children grow older, some of the “main clauses” become more substantial and new complement-taking verbs emerge that occur with truly embedded complement clauses. However, since the use of these constructions is limited to only a few verbs, we argue that they are not yet licensed by a general schema or rule; rather, they are “constructional islands” organized around individual verbs. © 2001, Walter de Gruyter. All rights reserved.