The Acquisition of Neg-V and V-Neg Order in Embedded Clauses in Swedish: A Microparametric Approach

Abstract

This article examines the acquisition of embedded verb placement in Swedish children, focusing on Neg-V and V-Neg order. It is proposed that a principle of economy of movement creates an overuse of V-Neg order in embedded clauses and that the low frequency of the target-consistent Neg-V order in child-directed speech obstructs children from revising their initial hypothesis about the verb placement in embedded clauses, creating a delay in the acquisition of Neg-V. However, it is also demonstrated that, despite the lack of clear evidence for the Neg-V order in Swedish children's input, the children distinguish between different types of embedded clauses in the acquisition of Neg-V and V-Neg order already between the age of 3 and 4 years, supporting a microparametric approach to language acquisition. Comparing child-directed Swedish and child-directed German, it is further proposed that the presence of clear evidence for verb-final in the input to German children aids error-free acquisition of embedded verb placement in German.