Schaeffer (1997, 2000) argues that children lack knowledge of specificity because Dutch children omit determiners and fail to scramble pronouns. Avrutin & Brun (2001), however, find that Russian children place arguments correctly according to whether they are specific or non-specific. This paper investigates object agreement and specificity in…

This Outline is designed for students of the English language who have progressed beyond the introductory stage and are confronted by a variety of often conflicting texts. It is an attempt to provide a "comprehensive account of the fundamental coherence to be found among the major theories of linguistics" and an "appraisal of the cultural lags…

Language acquisition in children, ages 6 to 10 years, and their linguistic competence with respect to complex aspects of English syntax, are studied. The nature of specific disparities between adult and child grammar are discussed, and the gradual reduction of these disparities as the children's knowledge of language increases is traced. In all,…