To, for, six, eight: Patterns in the acquisition of dative and benefactive verbs in English

This project follows the development of dative and benefactive verbs for children acquiring English. The major findings focus on the importance of segregating dative and benefactive verbs in acquisition studies, and the consequences for language acquisition theory. Double object constructions emerge before prepositional object constructions for dative verbs. This ordered emergence is not replicated in the benefactive condition. Independent of emergence, children tend to use more double object forms with dative verbs. However, children do not use more double object forms with benefactive verbs. Use of Themes and Goals also patterns differently in acquisition of dative and benefactive dyadic constructions. These distinguishing features in development appear early and remain constant. This study challenges conservativeness as a defining characteristic of child language. A critical contribution of this study is the parallel analysis of the adult data. Children resemble their parents for lexical measures, but not necessarily in their use of syntactic structure. The findings do not support a criteria approach to children's acquisition of syntactic structure. The data support a structural approach to language acquisition although not necessarily a parametric approach. Children distinguish between datives and benefactives on a structural basis, which may aid language acquisition.