Talk’s title: The Development of Predication
Abstract:
While there has been a great deal of research on the acquisition of verbs and their meaning, there has been much less research on the development of predication. Even while the toddler is in the 1-word stage, his/her utterances provide evidence of predication. In the transitional 2-word stage, toddlers exhibit a diversity of single argument state predicates (monadic states) such as horse in, it broke(n). Subsequently, as toddlers develop a distinct lexical category of verb, monadic states combine with intransitive process verbs to form [process [result]] predicates (e.g. tower fall down, baby get dirty). The formulation of still more complex transitive process [initiation [process [result]]] verbs (e.g. put pajamas on, wash dishes all clean) lags significantly behind the earlier single-argument process + result predicates. This sequence of predicate development is currently being employed as a roadmap for treatment targets in a l