Verb adverb and verb particle constructions: Their syntax and acquisition

Using syntactic tests (action nominalizations, gapping, degree adverbial insertion, contrastive stress, conjoining and negation) so called verb particle constructions can be divided into 2 types: verb adverb constructions (VACs) (ex: Jane let her dog out) and real verb particle constructions (VPCs) (ex: Jack dropped his daughter off). The two types have been distinguished previously, but recent studies treat them as one group.; The literature offers two views on the structure of the VAC/VPC construction. Under one view the "particle" and verb form a complex verb. Under the second view the "particle" heads an ergative small clause which is the complement of the verb. The surface object starts out as the object of the particle. The analysis offered in this dissertation argues that the "particle" in VACs is really an adverb which takes the surface object as its subject.; The fact that the VAC and VPC are different constructions is further supported by the observation that the children studied treat these structures differently from early on, in spite of the fact that the syntactic evidence mentioned above is unlikely to be in their input in any substantial amount.; This dissertation investigates longitudinal data for 4 children between 1;6--7;9 and cross-sectional data for 80 children between 5;0 and 7;4. Children treat VACs and VPCs differently. They use VACs far more frequently than VPCs. A larger variety of verbs and adverbs are used than verbs and particles. 'Up' is dominant only in VPCs. The quantifier 'all' appears in a large percentage of VPCs, but not VACs. Children favor pronoun objects in VPCs. VAC errors are overwhelmingly syntactic, while VPC errors are predominantly lexical. One syntactic error (dropping the object) accounts for 79% of all split VAC errors in children under 5. This crucially supports the analysis proposed, where apparent objects function as subjects of a small clause.