On the Acquisition of Present Perfect " Have" in Normal Children

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Abstract
Thirty children between the ages of four and six responded to five language tasks designed to elicit the use of the present perfect have. Results demonstrate that the use of have is not stabilized by the age of six, even though the form begins to appear around age four. Intra- and inter-subject variation was high. The incidence of use of have varied according to the nature of the task and the syntactic form (question, statement, etc.) of the response. A variety of substitutions for the present perfect form was found. Results indicate that the number of different substitutions decreases with age, and the substitutions of the older children more closely resemble those of adults.

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