The Notion of Source in Language Acquisition

Abstract

When children describe an event, they do not always make use of the conventional means for marking oblique arguments. In early attempts at passive constructions, for example, children often mark oblique agents with from instead of conventional by , as in He isn't going to get hurt from those bad guys. They also make use of from instead of because , as in From I put it under there. Such uses of from typically appear prior to by and because for agency and cause. We argue that these uses of from stem from children's conceptualization of agents and causes as types of source. If so, children should extend a similar analysis to other types of source as well. There is evidence that they do, both in longitudinal records of single children and in experiments on imitations and repairs.