The learning of lexis and the development of grammar: The learning of verbs, morphological acceleration and syntactical complexity

Abstract

This paper studies the initial development of certain language components. More precisely, we analyse the relation between three aspects that are closely involved in the grammar of the verb: morphological productivity, syntactic complexity, and verb vocabulary learning. The study is based on data about the relationship between lexical development and grammatical development, and also on proposals that a critical mass of
vocabulary is needed in order to develop a grammatical component. The sample comprised six subjects who are monolingual or bilingual in Catalan and/or Spanish. Results show a morphological spurt some time after the learning of a certain quantity of verbs. Moreover, syntactic complexity is only evident some months after this morphological spurt.