ABSTRACT
This chapter considers some of the typical errors that have been observed in the early speech of children acquiring Romance languages, and then summarizes what is known about error-free acquisition and about the timing of acquisition—which constructions are typically acquired early and which late. It discusses the acquisition of articles and of possessives as examples of domains in which children organize and reorganize what they know as they learn more about how particular forms are used. The chapter explores what children know about lexical structure and word-formation, and how this knowledge is revealed by their attempts to extend the vocabulary they have at their disposal. It argues that children rely heavily on what they already know about the lexicon and about relations between words known to them in finding means to talk about categories for which they still lack the conventional vocabulary.
