Abstract
Data from longitudinal and cross-sectional samples are reported in regard to Brown's (1973) hypothesis that uncontractiblebe is an earlier acquisition than contractiblebe. It is concluded that this may not be so and that the discrepancy in the literature between Brown's findings and those of the Villiers and de Villiers (1973) is probably due to sampling variables. Problems with scoring speech samples in regard to the distinction between contractiblebe and uncontractiblebe are also discussed, as are the implications of these problems.
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References
Brown, R. (1973).A First Language: The Early Stages, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.
de Villiers, J., and de Villiers, P. (1973). A cross-sectional study of the acquisition of grammatical morphemes in child speech.J. Psycholing. Res. 2:267–278.
Labov, W. (1969). Contraction, deletion, and inherent variability of the English copula.Language 45:715–762.
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This article is based on a part of the author's Ph.D. dissertation done at the University of Minnesota under the guidance of Michael Maratsos.
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Kuczaj, S.A. Influence of contractibility on the acquisition ofBe: Substantial, meager, or unknown?. J Psycholinguist Res 8, 1–11 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01067126
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01067126