The Acquisition of Complex Sentences

ISBN-13: 9780521831932 / Angielski / Twarda / 2004 / 244 str.

Holger Diessel; S. R. Anderson; J. Bresnan

Opis

This comprehensive account of how children acquire complex sentences investigates spontaneous speech in English-speaking children between ages two and five. After examining the acquisition of numerous types of clauses, Holger Diessel argues that the acquisition process is determined by a variety of factors: the frequency of the various complex sentences in the language, the complexity of the emerging constructions, the communicative functions of complex sentences, and the child's social-cognitive development.

Spis treści

1. Introduction; 2. A dynamic network model of grammatical constructions; 3. Towards a definition of complex sentences and subordinate clauses; 4. Infinitival and participial complement constructions; 5. Complement clauses; 6. Relative clauses; 7. Adverbial and co-ordinate clauses; 8. Conclusion.