bound roots

[Tom Roeper]

Dear All,
    I think the important point is that the status can change
in the course of acquisition.  At some point, a child tries
to decompose whatever can be decomposed---and then
accepts or rejects the analysis, as the child who said:

     "I have a hammer because I like to ham"

Presumably the child rejects this analysis eventually.
At the initial point, the child may not link -er to
verbs at all, but just have an agent, as in

    "I'll be the listener, and you be the storier"
    "you're a mistaker"

The interesting question again, is how the child
decides to drop this.

Tom Roeper

>