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Abstract

Recursion in adult language contributes to variety of surface form, paraphrase, and ambiguity. Developing recursion in child language reveals these characteristics. This paper, based on the naturalistic observation of phrase structure development in the speech of six monolingual preschoolers, reveals a gradual acquisition of grammatical categories. The data further demonstrate links between developmental stages in terms of connectors used and in terms of intonation. The results of my investigation suggest that children restructure utterances (rather than acquire entirely new ones) as stages develop. The data also suggest that in order to carry out this restructuring, children make use of auditory memory and problem solving abilities. I conclude that my observations of children's developing recursion can best be accounted for by a biological, cognitive-linguistic model.

Keywords

recursion restructuring intonation process

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Recursion in Development: Support for a Biological Model of Language

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