Clitics in Child Spanish

Abstract

This paper investigates the knowledge young children have about clitic pronouns. In particular, it examines whether children ever make mistakes that suggest discontinuity between child and adult Spanish. An elicited imitation task and spontaneous data are used to study children's responses to a number of constructions involving clitics. Results indicate that, from the earliest testable age, children have the grammatical competence for clitic placement and never make certain logical, but unattested, errors.