On the Distribution and Acquisition of the West Germanic ‘Need’-Verbs: German between Dutch and English

Abstract

This paper investigates three verbs expressing necessity in the three West Germanic languages: Dutchhoeven, Englishneed, and Germanbrauchen. These three verbs are all categorized as negative polarity items(npis). However, there are differences in their distribution as NPIs, which posit Germanbrauchenbetween Englishneedand Dutchhoeven.By analyzing two factors that may influence acquisition, namely, opacity and input frequency, this paper moreover presents a similar pattern for the acquisition of these NPIs: The Dutch NPIhoevenemerges earlier in child language than its German counterpart, which in turn arises earlier than the English NPIneed.