Article Title：The acquisition of finite complement clauses in English: A corpus-based analysis
Abstract：
This article examines the development of finite complement clauses in the speech of seven English-speaking children aged 1;2 to 5;2. It shows that in most of children's complex utterances that seem to include a finite complement clause, the main clause does not express a full proposition; rather, it functions as an epistemic marker, attention getter or marker of illocutionary force. The whole construction thus contains only a single proposition expressed by the apparent complement clause. As children grow older, some of the 'main clauses' become more substantial and new complement-taking verbs emerge that occur with truly embedded complement clauses. However, since the use of these constructions is limited to only a few verbs, we argue that they are not yet licensed by a general schema or rule; rather, they are 'constructional islands' organized around individual verbs.
Keywords: complement clause; performative speech act; grammaticalization; construction; cognitive grammar
DOI: 10.1515/cogl.12.2.97
Source：COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS
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