Here's a structure that's not so simple: Revisiting the acquisition of relative clauses

is study revisits the construction-based incremental account of relative clause acquisi- tion presented in Diessel and Tomasello (2005) by reexamining the subset of presentational rel- ative constructions (PRCs) from their data. I demonstrate that trends of incremental develop- ment within this construction rely on the assumption that "amalgams" ("at's my doggy turn around,") are precursors to standard PRC forms ("at's my doggy that turns around.") I argue that amalgams are not related to PRCs in terms of form or function, and that once amalgams are removed from this data set, no paerns of incremental development appear in ildren's PRC productions. e results suggest that in order to maintain a constructional view of relative clause acquisition, a wider range of forms and functions must be considered.