Open Accessacquisition of intensifiers versus reflexive pronouns
Author(s) -
Insa Gülzow
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
zas papers in linguistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1435-9588
DOI - 10.21248/zaspil.15.2000.31
Subject(s) - linguistics , german , reflexivity , action (physics) , psychology , reflexive pronoun , computer science , sociology , philosophy , physics , social science , quantum mechanics
The ultimate goal of the study is to examine the acquisition of intensifiers in English and German. In this paper an overview of the first results regarding four L1 English-speaking children will be given. Contrary to previous claims in the literature (e.g. Thomas 1990), it will be argued that intensifiers are used by children in early phases of language acquisition. Intensifiers play an important role in early phases of language acquisition since they can be used to express the wish either to be included or excluded in a certain action and thus contribute to structuring a central aspect of the child's discourse.