This study is based on naturalistic speech samples produced by one child learning Cree as her first language (2;01-4;03) and presents the first investigation into the development of preverbs in the language. Preverbs are an optional class of morpheme which precede the lexical verb stem, dividing into grammatical, lexical and directional (deictic) subclasses. Of nine preverb types in the child’s inventory, 47/48 tokens are grammatical. We argue that these appear early because they exhibit phonological transparency (do not alternate in form) and positional predictability (are restricted to preverb position). Lexical and directional preverbs, however, alternate in form and may appear in either preverb position or within the lexical stem. Furthermore, the child first began to use preverbs with the grammatically simpler independent (default) inflection (2;04), and 7 months later with the more syntactically restrictive conjunct inflection (2;11). She also used each preverb with one inflection type only, even where a choice of inflections was available, and she never produced more than one preverb per verb complex although multiple preverbs are common. In sum, grammatical complexity appears to be a driving factor in determining the child’s development pattern.

这项研究基于一个孩子学习 Cree 作为她的第一语言 (2;01-4;03) 所产生的自然主义语音样本，并首次调查了该语言中前置词的发展。前置词是一种可选的语素类，位于词汇动词词干之前，分为语法、词汇和定向（指示）子类。在孩子清单中的九种前置动词类型中，有 47/48 个标记是符合语法的。我们认为这些出现较早，因为它们表现出语音透明（形式不交替）和位置可预测性（仅限于动词位置）。然而，词汇和方向性的前置动词在形式上是交替的，可以出现在前置动词的位置或词干内。此外，孩子首先开始使用语法更简单的独立（默认）屈折变化（2;04）的前置动词，7个月后开始使用语法上更严格的连词屈折变化（2;11）。她也只使用一种变形类型的每个前置动词，即使在可以选择变形的情况下，她也从不为每个动词复合体产生超过一个前置动词，尽管多个前置动词很常见。总之，语法复杂性似乎是决定孩子发展模式的驱动因素。