It is possible to construct a case for the child's interpretation of "of" in "must of been" as the preposition "of" in the process of language acquisition. Assuming the familiar concept that linguists should construct the simplest analysis compatible with a phenomenon, it is suggested that some children construct a simplest analysis of such utterances as inevitably containing "of," using a grammar allowing such a structure. Evidence supporting such a structure comes from such constructions as the infinitive, where the word "to," a word with certain unambiguously prepositional functions, occurs ("to do"). If the learner eventually acquires standard English and demonstrates this by writing "must have been," he has replaced this earlier grammatical guesswork with a structure more normally and traditionally considered appropriate for the mature standard dialect. (MSE)
Authors
- Peer Reviewed
- F
- Publication Type
- Reports - Evaluative
- Published in
- United States of America
Table of Contents
- 1837 see the numerous quotations in OED Supplement 1933 and 2
- Emonds 1985 89-90 although the view 5
- I shall argue now that trees like 4 instantiate 5
- Our point of departure is the familiar view that linguists should 5
- 4 really was an instance of the preposition of in the might reasonably resist the admission of homonymous items to the 6
- Analyses which bring together senses of lexical elements which are 6
- 5 You ought to Re do it. 7
- Notice tiat to like of displays a full form RIO and a reduced 7
- Pullum 1982 191-5 brings forward ten good arguments why 7
- Bailey R.F. 1976. A Survival Kit for Writing English. Melbourne 9
