ABSTRACT

In the present and next chapters, I address the acquisition of verbs against background assumptions on the lexicon-syntax interface as defined by the chess mapping conditions in Chapter 4. 1 In this chapter I argue that if verbs are characterized in the lexicon with their event types, so-called light verbs are easy verbs to acquire, because they are pure event type denoters. A longitudinal study of four Dutch children supports this prediction. From early on, these children produce a great variety of light verb constructions, including also some overgeneralized ones. Analyzing their light verb constructions, I have compared instances with the same complement but with different light verbs; these pairs denote different event types of the same kind of event. Furthermore, I have evaluated the nature of their overgeneralized constructions. The results lead to the conclusion that in child Dutch, verbs are lexically characterized in terms of their event types. Child language data thus provide another source of data that point to the role of event structure in lexical specification and in the interface between lexicon and syntax.