We are particularly interested in the acquisition of functional categories as it relates to the acquisition of syntax. A number of techniques are used including the analysis of spontaneous speech transcripts to determine the order of acquisition of various syntactic and morphological processes and the types of errors that children do and do not make in spontaneous speech. Ongoing projects involve investigations of diverse syntactic phenomena such questions, datives, passives, do-support, auxiliaries, tense, agreement, and negation.
Languages being studied include English, German, and Turkish.
The acquisition of language of children with various developmental language disorders is compared with language acquisition by normal children. This study is unusual for two reasons. First, we are collecting spontaneous speech data as well as elicited data and standardized test data. Second, half of the children in the study were under 2.5 years when we began studying them. These studies investigate the cognitive bases of language processing.