Abstract
Recent studies of child Russian have offered some interesting insights into the phenomenon of Root Infinitives (RIs) in early child language. This paper offers a new perspective on the RI phenomenon in child Russian by arguing that the RI production consists of three developmental stages, which cannot be accounted for by the theories that propose optional projection of Tense/Agreement (Wexler, 1998) or underspecification of NumberP (Hoekstra, Hyams & Becker, 1997) or AspectP (Gavruseva, 2003). It is proposed that stage 1 results from underspecification/open value of AspP, TP and ModalP, while stage 2 results from underspecification/open value of ModalP only. Full specification of ModalP during stage 3 accounts for decrease in RI production.
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