On the Acquisition of French Argument Structure and SE-Cliticization

The study delves into the complex usage of the French clitic SE in various grammatical constructions, focusing on its role with animate and inanimate subjects. It introduces a new classification of Argument Structure Alternations and presents hypotheses regarding the acquisition order of different SE-constructions among children. Analyzing speech production data from over 170 children and conducting experimental tasks, the findings support theories on Semantic and Syntactic Bootstrapping, highlighting the implications for understanding ambiguous valency markers and syncretic morphemes in language learning.