Children add further complexity by combining two or more clauses. They can link them with coordination or subordination. In subordinate constructions, one clause is embedded in the main or matrix clause. The embedded clause can fill a grammatical role, as subject, say, in complement constructions, or it can modify parts of the main clause, adding to a noun phrase with a relative clause, or to a verb phrase with a temporal clause. These constructions allow for more options in the flow of information as well as in the expression of more complex events. Among the first constructions here are coordinations of different elements in a clause, as well as of different clauses. Among subordinate clause constructions, because, what, when, and so were the most frequent up to 2;9, followed by if, that, and where. They produced relative clauses to specify referents; complements with verbs like think and know. And they produced temporal, causal, and conditional constructions to describe sequences of events. Children treat clause order first as reflecting the actual order of events, only later assigning the appropriate meanings to connectives like before and after. And they take time to master the meanings of because and if.

Chapter 5 extends the cartographic analysis of the clause periphery. Module 5.1 analyses Negative/Interrogative Inversion as involving a focused negative/interrogative XP moving through spec-FINP (concomitantly attracting an auxiliary to move to FIN) before moving to spec-FOCP. Module 5.2 goes on to look at embedded wh-questions (arguing that these involve a wh-XP moving to spec-FORCEP), and at how come questions (taking these to involve how come directly generated in spec-FORCEP). Module 5.3 then analyses yes-no questions, arguing that these involve an abstract yes-no question operator which behaves similarly to wh-question operators. Module 5.4 examines exclamative clauses (taking these to involve movement of an exclamative wh-XP to spec-FORCEP), and standard and non-standard relative clauses, analysing these as involving an overt/null relative operator on the edge of a RELP/relative projection positioned above a declarative/interrogative/exclamative/imperative FORCEP. The chapter concludes with a Summary (Module 5.5), Bibliography (Module 5.6), and Workbook (Module 5.7), with some Workbook exercise examples designed for self-study, and others for assignments/seminar discussion.

Chapter 9 addresses intervention study in a variety of phenomena related to word-order configurations that fall beyond the scope of preceding chapters. Four distinct topics are covered: sentence-level word order (canonical word order, such as subject–verb–object in English, vs. noncanonical word order, such as object–verb–subject), adjective ordering (how adjectives are placed with respect to the noun that they modify), relative clauses (clauses which modify nouns), and quantifier scope (the interpretation of ambiguous sentences containing indefinite and universal quantifiers). Within each topic, the chapter provides an overview of the relevant experimental findings from SLA before considering intervention studies on the topic. Chapter 9 has the most diverse representation of target languages in the textbook; the target languages in the intervention studies reviewed include English, German, Spanish, Russian, French, and Japanese.

In many introspective and corpus studies, inserting a resumptive pronoun in place of a gap in island-violating wh-dependency structures in English is said to amnesty, ameliorate, or repair the island violation, improving the acceptability of otherwise unacceptable structures. Most experimental studies on the acceptability of such resumptive structures, however, report that native speakers of English do not judge island-violating dependency structures with resumptive pronouns to be more acceptable than the ones with gaps. But studies testing the comprehensibility and processing of resumption report that resumptive pronouns increase the comprehensibility of island-violating structures and facilitate processing of long dependencies. These results taken together suggest that although resumptive pronouns in islands do not have an ameliorating effect on grammaticality, they may confer a processing benefit. A question, however, remains as to whether the reported enhanced comprehensibility and ease in processing actually increase the accuracy in interpreting the resumptive pronouns.

Participle clauses as postmodifiers in noun phrases (e.g. the window broken by the thief) have been discussed as a potential indication of densification, as they are shorter than their most obvious alternative, that is, finite relative clauses. A careful examination reveals that only a subset of tokens of participle and relative clauses can be considered equivalent and exchangeable, and to reflect this finding both variationist and text-linguistic analyses are carried out. There is some evidence of densification in newspaper language and, to some extent, scientific texts; history texts, in contrast, develop in the opposite direction, underscoring the importance of considering subgenres of academic writing. Among the newspapers considered, the Poor Man’s Guardian, which was aimed at working-class readers, shows no tendencies towards densification; this may be due to journalists’ perceptions about the paper’s readership. The issue of whether variationist or text-linguistic approaches are more suitable is discussed. Non-restrictive participle clauses are shown not to indicate densification; instead, they function as a characterizing or backgrounding device in narrative texts.

This chapter outlines an emergentist approach to understanding why human languages have the particular properties that they do and how those properties are acquired by children. Drawing on a variety of examples, it illustrates the role of two factors in shaping language and its acquisition: limitations on the resources available for processing utterances in real time, and the role of input in facilitating the acquisition of particular words and patterns. Both these factors fit well with a key claim of linguistic emergentism, which is that the human language faculty is shaped by forces – cognition, perception, memory, computation, and experience – that are not themselves linguistic in character. The emergentist approach thus provides an alternative to theories that attribute the unique human ability to learn and use language to an inborn Universal Grammar. The second line of inquiry pursued investigates the emergence of particular features of Korean, especially reflexive pronouns and relative clauses, in child and adult heritage learners. The developmental profile associated with these phenomena fits well with the emergentist approach to language, and helps confirm that heritage languages are learned in essentially the same way as languages that are acquired in a monolingual setting.

This chapter integrates the treatments of quantifier phrases, genitives, and pronouns from Chapters 6 and 7 in a more detailed assignment-variable-based layered n analysis of noun phrases. Applications to additional effects associated with “specificity” are explored, including presuppositional vs. nonpresuppositional uses, contextual domain restriction, weak vs. strong quantifiers, existential ‘there’ sentences, and modal independence. Possibilities for nonlocal readings of world arguments are captured in a general phase-based syntax. An alternative matching analysis of relative clauses is provided, which improves on the head-raising account from Chapter 6. A semantics incorporating events is briefly considered in a parallel layered v analysis of verb phrases.

This chapter develops an improved assignment-variable-based compositional semantics for head-raising analyses of restrictive relative clauses, and applies the account to certain types of pronominal anaphora. The speculative choice-function based analysis of names from Chapter 4 is extended to certain indefinites, relative words, and donkey pronouns. An analysis of donkey pronouns as copies of their linguistic antecedent is supported by crosslinguistic data. Nominal quantifiers are treated as introducing quantification over assignments. The proposed semantics for quantifiers helps capture linguistic shifting data in universal, existential, and asymmetric readings of donkey sentences. Additional composition rules or principles for interpreting reconstructed phrases aren’t required (e.g., Predicate Abstraction, Predicate Modification, Trace Conversion). The semantics is fully compositional. Critical challenges are discussed.

This chapter gives an introductory overview of the patterns of reference and nominal syntax in the languages of mainland Southeast Asia. The chapter begins with the principles by which head nouns are modified, for example by adjectives or relative clauses, or in possessive constructions. Many languages of the area have systems of nominal classification, especially numeral classifiers and class terms. Personal pronoun systems range from extremely simple, such as in certain varieties of Chinese, to extremely complex, such as in the systems of Thai, Burmese, or Cambodian, whose systems of pronouns show elaborate distinctions in social-hierarchical structure and politeness. Demonstrative systems of the area span the range of complexity, ranging from two-term systems to systems with eight or more distinctions.

This chapter examines a range of movement operations by which phrases can move to spec-CP. It begins by arguing (6.1) that wh-questions are CPs containing a wh-constituent which moves from some position below C into spec-CP. It goes on (6.2) to show how question words can pied-pipe additional material along with them when they move, and argues that this is in consequence of putatively universal principles governing movement. There is then (6.3) discussion of evidence that long Wh-Movement proceeds one clause at a time, and of constraints which determine how it applies. 6.4 examines the syntax of wh-exclamatives, arguing that these too involve Wh-Movement, and discussing the factors determining what moves where. 6.5 discusses various types of relative clause, and provides a Wh-Movement account of restrictive relative clauses, as well as sketching an alternative Antecedent Raising account. The chapter concludes with a summary (6.6), and a set of bibliographical notes (6.7). Accompanying free-to-download materials include a Workbook and Answerbook for students, and an Answerbook and set of PowerPoints for teachers.

This chapter looks at the syntax of adjuncts, beginning with the head adjunction operation which adjoins one head to another (3.1). The remainder of the chapter looks at phrasal adjunction operations which adjoin one phrase to another. 3.2 looks at how adverbial/prepositional phrases, subordinate clauses and topics can be adjoined to TP, and thereby be positioned between complementiser and subject. 3.3 argues that adverbial/prepositional phrases and extraposed constituents can be adjoined to VP. 3.4 argues that adnominal adjectival phrases are adjoined to noun phrases, and considers possible ways of accounting for the relative ordering of structures containing multiple adnominal adjectival phrases. 3.5 proposes a related analysis of adnominal prepositional phrases and relative clauses as NP adjuncts. The recursive nature of adjunction and the nature of constraints on adjunction are also discussed. The chapter concludes with a summary (3.6), and a set of bibliographical notes (3.7). Accompanying free-to-download materials include a Workbook and Answerbook for students, and an Answerbook and set of PowerPoints for teachers.