Can input explain children's me-for-I errors?

Kirjavainen, Minna; Theakston, Anna; Lieven, Elena

Abstract

English-speaking children make pronoun case errors producing utterances where accusative pronouns are used in nominative contexts (me do it). We investigate whether complex utterances in the input (Let me do it) might explain the origin of these errors. Longitudinal naturalistic data from seventeen English-speaking two- to four-year-olds was searched for 1psg accusative-for-nominative case errors and for all 1psg preverbal pronominal contexts. Their caregivers' data was also searched for 1psg preverbal pronominal contexts. The data show that the children's proportional use of me-for-I errors correlated with their caregivers' proportional use of me in 1psg preverbal contexts. Furthermore, the verbs that children produced in me-error utterances appeared in complex sentences containing me in the input more often than verbs that did not appear in me-for-I errors in the children's speech. These findings are discussed in the context of current explanations for children's case marking errors.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 1, 2008
• Online Publication Date: Feb 16, 2009
• Publication Date: Nov 30, 2009
• Journal: Journal of Child Language
• Print ISSN: 0305-0009
• Electronic ISSN: 1469-7602
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 36
• Issue: 05
• Pages: 1091-1114
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000909009350
• Keywords: first language acquisition, me-for-I errors, pronoun case errors
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/990402
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0305000909009350