ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a glimpse into the problem of verb learning. It explores the two most influential verb learning theories, both of which addressed how children initially link a single event with a new verb. The two theories are syntactic bootstrapping and the verb island/usage-based account. The chapter asks how children go beyond this initial link to productively and appropriately extend a new verb to new situational or syntactic contexts. In syntactic bootstrapping theory, children start with universal grammar, setting parameters as they hear key sentences in their native language, probably completing most of their parameter setting by 3 or 4 years. Strengths of the verb island view are that it describes how children could build up a verb vocabulary specific to their language, and it predicts conservative verb productions that fit production data. The chapter explores several emerging theories that verb researchers are beginning to test to deal with the question of cross-situational processing.
