ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to compare the acquisition of subject pronouns in French and English. The status of the class of subject pronouns in French known as weak forms is controversial. The cliticization of subject pronouns is thought to be a motivating factor in a syntactic reanalysis that took place between Old French and Middle French, when French lost the property of being verb-second. Subject pronouns are by far the most frequently used type of subject in English and French. Tests of the relationship between subject type and finite status produced highly significant results for each of the four children, showing that, although weak subject pronouns distribute almost always with finite verbs, strong form pronouns distribute in a significantly different manner in that they occur with both finite and nonfinite verbs. In the case of French, the conjunction of tensed clauses with a pronominal subject invariably involves repetition of the subject pronoun.
