How Known Constructions Influence the Acquisition of Other Constructions: The German Passive and Future Constructions

This article suggests evidence for and reasons why prior acquisition may either facilitate or inhibit

acquisition of a new construction. It investigates acquisition of the German passive and future constructions

which contain a lexical verb with either the auxiliary sein “to be” or werden “to become,” and are

related through these to potential supporting constructions. We predicted that a supported construction

should be acquired earlier, faster, and unusually rapidly. An inhibited construction should show an extended

depressed usage.We analyzed a dense corpus of a German boy between 2;0 and 5;0. He acquired

the sein- before the werden-passive. The former was supported by his prior acquisition of the sein copula,

whereas the werden-passive itself supported one werden copula construction. He acquired the

werden-future extremely slowly due to the hindrance of a semantically identical construction. These results

fit with an emergentist approach in which apparently “sudden” acquisition is still due to gradual

learning mechanisms.