Learning to produce complement predicates with shared semantic subjects

Many sentences of adult English are analytic constructions, namely clauses with a matrix verb complemented by a dependent predicate that does not have an expressed syntactic subject. Examples are subject and object control, raising to subject or object, periphrastic tense, aspect and modality, copular predication and do-support. In this article the authors test a suggestion derived from Dependency Grammar that despite differences in detail, all such constructions are governed by a common principle of structure sharing which young children master when they produce such sentences. Analytic sentences and telegraphic sentences were examined in the speech of 439 young children, mean age 2;3.11 (SD = 0;4.02). The production of different analytic constructions was significantly associated, raising the probability of each other by 32% on average. Telegraphic sentences overtly expressing the input’s covert predicate–argument relations also positively predicted the production of analytic sentences. These results suggest that children learn a general principle of sharing arguments, common to constructions with dependent predicates, making transfer and facilitation possible.