Variation in the Input

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-viii

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2. The Acquisition of (Word Order) Variation

   • Merete Anderssen, Kristine Bentzen, Marit Westergaard

   Pages 1-15

3. Optional Illusions

   • Andrea Gualmini

   Pages 17-32

4. ‘Optional’ Doubly-Filled COMPs (DFCs) in Wh-Complements in Child and Adult Swiss German

   • Manuela Schönenberger

   Pages 33-64

5. The Acquisition of Adjectival Ordering in Italian

   • Anna Cardinaletti, Giuliana Giusti

   Pages 65-93

6. Input Factors in Early Verb Acquisition: Do Word Frequency and Word Order Variability of Verbs Matter?

   • Anja Kieburg, Petra Schulz

   Pages 95-127

7. Word Order in the Development of Dative Constructions: A Comparison of Cantonese and English

   • Chloe C. Gu

   Pages 129-156

8. Using Early ASL Word Order to Shed Light on Word Order Variability in Sign Language

   • Deborah Chen Pichler

   Pages 157-177

9. Variable Word Order in Child Greek

   • Konstantia Kapetangianni

   Pages 179-205

10. Optional Scrambling Is Not Random: Evidence from English-Ukrainian Acquisition

    • Roksolana Mykhaylyk, Heejeong Ko

    Pages 207-240

11. The Acquisition of Apparent Optionality: Word Order in Subject and Object Shift Constructions in Norwegian

    • Merete Anderssen, Kristine Bentzen, Yulia Rodina, Marit Westergaard

    Pages 241-270

12. Back Matter

    Pages 271-276

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The topic of variation in language has received considerable attention in the field of general linguistics in recent years. This includes research on linguistic micro-variation that is dependent on fine distinctions in syntax and information structure. However, relatively little work has been done on how this variation is acquired. This book focuses on how different types of variation are expressed in the input and how this is acquired by young children. The collection of papers includes studies of the acquisition of variation in a number of different languages, including English, German, Greek, Italian, Korean, Norwegian, Swiss German, Ukrainian, and American Sign Language. Different kinds of linguistic variation are considered, ranging from pure word order variation to optionally doubly filled COMPs and the resolution of scopal ambiguities. In addition, papers in the volume deal with the extreme case of variation found in bilingual acquisition.

• bilingual acquisition
• information structure
• language acquisition
• micro-variation
• optionality
• scopal ambiguities
• sign language
• syntax
• word order variation

• Center for Advanced Study in, Theoretical Linguistics (CASTL), University of Tromsoe, Tromsoe, Norway

  Merete Anderssen, Kristine Bentzen, Marit Westergaard

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