THE ACQUISITION OF PREPOSITION STRANDING AND THE COMPOUNDING PARAMETER

Abstract

Stowell (1981, 1982) proposes that there is a parameter that determines the availability of both preposition stranding (P-stranding) and the V-particle-NP construction. While the V-particle-NP construction requires only the positive setting of the relevant parameter, P-stranding requires several additional properties to be identified. Stowell's analysis predicts the following: English-learning children should never acquire P-stranding significantly earlier than the V-particle-NP construction. The investigation of ten longitudinal corpora for English from CHILDES has borne out this prediction. Given the recent proposal by Snyder (1995, 2001) that the verb-particle construction follows from the Compounding Parameter, which determines the availability of various complex-predicate constructions, the findings suggest that P-stranding is also dependent on this parameter, and thus support its global nature.