Dummy Auxiliaries in First and Second Language Acquisition

Contributors identified only by name, presumably linguists, investigate how language learners insert apparently meaningless auxiliary words into sentences where fluent native speakers would not. They cover dummy auxiliaries in monolingual first language acquisitions, simultaneous and successive child bilingualism, adult second language acquisition, and broader perspectives on dummy auxiliaries. Among specific topics are dummy auxiliaries in Dutch first language acquisition, reflections on dummy "do" in child learning and syntactic theory, from dummy auxiliary to auxiliary in Moroccan adult learners' production and comprehension of Dutch, dummy verbs and the acquisition of verb raising in second-language German and French, and whether a child's use of auxiliary plus infinitive in Dutch in an acquisition device or a reflection of the input. Annotation c2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Elma Blom,Josje Verhagen, Utrecht University, The Netherlands;Ineke van de Craats, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.