Young children's overgeneralizations with fixed transitivity verbs

The present study examined English-speaking children's tendency to make arg ument structure overgeneralization errors (e.g., I disappeared it). Childre n were exposed to several English verbs of fixed transitivity (exclusively intransitive or exclusively transitive) and then asked questions that encou raged them to overgeneralize usage of the verbs. Seventy-two children (24 i n each of three age groups: 3, 4/5, and 8 years of age) experienced four ac tions performed by puppets. Each action had two verbs of similar meaning as sociated with it in the context of the experimental action: one more famili ar to young children and one less familiar. Children at all ages were more likely to overgeneralize usage of verbs that were less familiar to them, su pporting the hypothesis that children's usage of verbs in particular constr uction types becomes entrenched over time. As children solidly learn the tr ansitivity status of particular verbs, they become more reluctant to use th ose verbs in other argument structure constructions.