Edited by F. Nihan Ketrez, Aylin C. Küntay, Şeyda Özçalışkan and Aslı Özyürek
[Trends in Language Acquisition Research 21] 2017
► pp. 3–18
The language-learning child is challenged to determine why there are alternate ways of expressing content, performing speech acts, and directing attention to inner states. Acquisition of syntax is driven by social cognition and by attention to linguistic constructions. This chapter presents an in-depth case study of one English-speaking 3-year-old, focusing on modals, conditionals, hypotheticals, and causal and temporal expressions. Underlying the acquisition of these forms is a concern with normativity – regularities in the social world and the child’s position in that world. Without the linguistic forms, it would be difficult for the child to focus on these issues; without an ability to cognize social interaction, the forms would remain opaque. The co-acquisition of form and function is a dialectical process.