Abstract
Overgeneration raises in acute form the problem of how learners succeed in fixing the proper bounds of grammars on the basis of limited evidence. In this paper we look at an overgeneration found in the English production data of Japanese-speaking learners in which finite S (not introduced by Wh) occurs as a complement of P. An analysis is proposed whereby the acquisition of configurationality in the VP is the necessary antecedent knowledge to an eventual correction. It initiates an altered perception of complement category distribution, one which now includes a movement rule to a nonargument position. The inability of this rule to execute with PP expunges the overgeneration. The paper concludes with the suggestion that overgeneration is not as intractable a learnability problem if grammatical development consists of qualitative jumps in the perception of the input data rather than continuity with local modifications.
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