The Acquisition of Functional Categories and the Implication for the Grammatical Theory

本项目通过语法习得的窗口来观察语言的变化。通过对儿童在名词短语中产生的典型错误，即词根不定式（类似物）、格标记错误、错误的动词形式和过度生成错误的描述性研究，我们提出儿童在很小的时候就对其语言的形态句法特性和功能结构有了大量的了解，即使儿童产生错误的句子，儿童的中间习得阶段也受限于人类语言允许的变化范围内。

This project views the language variation through the window of grammar acquisition. Based on the descriptive study of the typical errors children produce, i.e., Root Infinitive (analogues), Case-marking errors, erroneous verbal forms, and the overgeneration in Noun Phrases, we proposed that children know a great deal about the morpho-syntactic properties and the functional structure of their language at a very early age, and even if children produce erroneous sentences, children's intermediate acquisition stages are restricted within the permitted variation of human languages.