The Acquisition of Articles: The Story So Far

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to provide a broad overview into studies that have focused on the acquisition of articles (the and a) and to tell the story of article acquisition, from early first language (L1) studies to recent second language (L2) studies. The overview specifically examines the possible cause of difficulties for L2 learners by focusing on different areas of core grammar (syntax, morphology, phonology and semantics) and how core grammar interacts with discourse / pragmatics.