Approaches to first language acquisition

A bilingual child’s development of word order in German and English subordinate clauses was followed between three and five years of age, and a number of diversions from the development of word order in such clauses by monolingual children was noted. Of particular interest is the fact that incorrect dependent clause structures in German were more likely to be due to intra-language influences from German main clause structures than from English. The findings are discussed in the light UG claims made by Clahsen (1988) concerning the word order development in monolingual children.