The Acquisition of Verbs and their Grammar: - The Effect of Particular Languages (Hardcover, 2008 ed.)

This volume investigates the linguistic development of children with regard to their knowledge of the verb and its grammar. The selection of papers gives empirical evidence from a wide variety of languages including Hebrew, German, Croatian, Japanese, English, Spanish, Dutch, Indonesian, Estonian, Russian and French. Findings are interpreted with a focus on cross-linguistic similarities and differences, without subscribing to either a UG-based or usage-based approach. Currently debated topics, such as the role of frequency, as well as traditional ones such as bootstrapping are integrated into the presentation of language-specific, learner-specific and more general properties of the acquisition process.