
Subject ellipsis in early child English
Author(s) -
Karina Gomes Bertolino
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
ilha do desterro
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.223
H-Index - 6
eISSN - 2175-8026
pISSN - 0101-4846
DOI - 10.5007/2175-8026.2020v73n3p81
Subject(s) - ellipsis (linguistics) , parametric statistics , linguistics , phenomenon , subject (documents) , grammar
English-speaking children are known to omit subjects. Parametric analyses of the phenomenon have the advantage to give a simple answer to why children omit subjects and how they reach an adult grammar: the problem is reduced to a matter of parameter misseting and resetting. However, early parametric analyses of missing subjects were challenged by empirical findings. In this paper, I present a parametric analysis of null subjects in finite clauses. In this analysis, three parameters interact to explain the pattern of subject omission in adult and child language.