The status of CP and the tensed complementizer that in the developing L2 grammars of English

Abstract

In this article we examine the development of the complementizer system in child L2 grammars of English, and we show that C and its maximal projection CP are operative from the very beginning. Next, we focus on the development of the tensed complementizer that. We provide evidence which suggests that the tensed complementizer in embedded declaratives may be treated as an obligatorily null complementizer by these child L2 learners. We then examine restrictive relative clauses produced by our subjects. The evidence indicates that the tensed complementizer is first realized overtly as that in the relative clause domain. We speculate on the possible reasons as to why the relative clause domain should trigger the emergence of the overt tensed complementizer and we argue that recent proposals by Rizzi (1990) for a typology of complementizer types enable us to account for these child L2 developmental facts.