SYNTACTIC DEVELOPMENT: Interrogatives & complex sentences

Question 1

ACQUISITION OF INTERROGATIVES: STAGE 1

Answer 1

(MLU 1.75-2.25) {Brown = 1-2}

Characterised by three types of question form:

Intonation:
- e.g. That horsie?

What + noun phrase (+doing):

• e.g. What that?
• e.g. What doggie doing?

Where + noun phrase (+ going):

• e.g. Where ball?
• e.g. Where man going?

What and where may appear early because they relate to the child’s immediate environment. Used frequently by parents, and relate to early semantic category of location, and also to naming, one of the child’s favourite activities!

Question 2

ACQUISITION OF INTERROGATIVES: STAGE 2

Answer 2

(MLU 2.25-2.75) {Brown = 2-2.5}

At around 30-32 months, uses both a subject and a verb with what and where questions,
- e.g. What doggie eat? Where daddy is?

Yes/no questions still identified by rising intonation alone,
- e.g. Daddy go work?

Towards the end of this stage, subject-verb inversion begins to occur in wh-interrogatives with the copula,
- e.g. Where is daddy?

Inversion may occur in the copula form first because of the simplicity of this construction. As expected from earlier in development, what and where are the first wh- words used in this construction

Question 3

ACQUISITION OF INTERROGATIVES: STAGE 3

Answer 3

(MLU 2.75 - 3.5) {Brown 2.5-3}

At about 33 to 37 months of age, when the child is acquiring the auxiliary in other sentence forms, the child begins to use the auxiliary in interrogative forms.

Negative interrogatives don’t appear until around age 5, and then almost exclusively in the uninverted form,
e.g. You aren’t going?

Question 4

Whats a clause?

Answer 4

“a pair of words or group of words that consists of a subject & a verb phrase.”

Question 5

Whats a compound sentence?

Answer 5

2 clauses (or simple sentences) linked with a conjunction (and, or, but, because).

Compound sentences are formed by linking clauses with conjunctions. This process is called conjoining or co-ordination.

Co-ordinating conjunctions are:
e.g. and, but, or, then

You can conjoin words, phrases, or whole sentences

Complex sentences are formed by subordinating one clause. This process is called embedding.

You use subordinating conjunctions,
e.g. because, after, although, before, until, while, when

or relative pronouns
e.g. who, which, that

Question 6

What’s a complex sentence?

Answer 6

2 clauses linked with a function word so that one sentence is dependent on another. (although, while, so that )

Question 7

What are two ways of embedding a clause in a sentence?

Answer 7

1) Embedding a sentence (or clause) at the beginning or end of another :
Although they invited me {I didn’t go}

2) Embedding a clause inside a noun phrase (NP)

The dog {who has already had his dinner} ate my cake

The dog ate the cake {that I was saving for later}

You let {the dog eat my cake}.

= relative clauses