Living with Optionality': Root Infinitives, Bare Forms and Inflected Forms in Child Null Subject Languages (original) (raw)

AI-generated Abstract

The paper discusses the phenomenon of Root Infinitives (RIs) and their role in the grammatical development of children in various languages, particularly focusing on null subject languages. It highlights the differences in the usage of RIs among children acquiring null subject languages (like Italian, Spanish, and Catalan) compared to non-null subject languages (like Dutch and German). A key argument is that while non-null subject languages exhibit a higher prevalence of RIs, children acquiring null subject languages may not experience an RI stage, leading to different implications for theories of language acquisition.