Reviewed by Liang Chen, University of Georgia

The acquisition of complex sentences presents a usage-based approach to the acquisition of complex sentences in English. It consists of eight chapters plus a substantial appendix. Two conclusions are drawn from a detailed examination of some 12,000 multiple clause utterances from five English speaking children. First, ‘the development of complex sentences originates from simple nonembedded sentences that are gradually “transformed” to multiple-clause constructions’ (3). Second, ‘children’s early complex sentences are organized around concrete lexical expressions. More schematic representations of complex sentences emerge only later when children have learned a sufficient number of lexically specific constructions to generalize across them’ (3).

The introduction (Ch. 1) includes a discussion of the methodology of the study and the two hypotheses behind it, the structure of the book, and the definition of complex sentences—sentences with a matrix and a finite or nonfinite subordinate clause (either complement, relative, or adverbial), or sentences with coordinate clauses.

Ch. 2, ‘A dynamic network model of grammatical constructions’, presents a rationale for carrying out the study within a functional cognitive framework and briefly introduces construction grammar and the usage-based approach to grammar.

Ch. 3, ‘Towards a definition of complex sentences and subordinate clauses’, defines complex sentences as ‘grammatical constructions that express a specific relationship between two (or more) situations in two (or more) clauses’ (41). The chapter ends with a summary of the features of prototypical subordinate clauses.

Ch. 4, ‘Infinitival and participial complement constructions’, examines the acquisition of nonfinite complement constructions. Diessel claims that the earliest nonfinite complement constructions in child speech constitute propositions that made reference to a single situation and thus do not actually involve embedding. Through a process of clause expansion, the nonembedding nonfinite complement constructions develop into truely embedding ones that can be considered two propositions.

In Ch. 5, ‘Complement clauses’, D suggests that the acquisition of finite complement clauses is also accomplished through the process of clause expansion, whereby a single proposition expressed in early complement clauses expands in later development into two independent propositions. D observes that early complement clauses are typically accompanied by formulaic matrix clauses, which are performative (e.g. as epistemic markers or attention getters) rather than assertive. He suggests that the development complement clauses go through a process whereby first formulaic constructions occur, then performative matrix clauses, then assertive matrix clauses.

Ch. 6, ‘Relative clauses’, discusses the development of relative clauses from simple, lexically specific constructions into full-fledged biclausal structures. The earliest relative clause (i.e. predicate nominal amalgams as D calls them) is not independent of the matrix clause. Only later do children produce fully biclausal structures in which two independent propositions are expressed. The development of relative clauses is therefore very similar to the development of finite and nonfinite complement clauses since each involves an incremental development from simple to more complex clauses via a process of clause expansion.

Ch. 7, ‘Adverbial and co-ordinate clauses’, suggests that adverbial and coordinate clauses, which D subsumes under the term ‘conjoined clauses’, are developed through the common process of clause integration, whereby two independent clauses are integrated in a biclausal construction.

In the conclusion (Ch. 8) D relates the findings about the development of the various complex sentences to the usage-based model and cognitive grammar. It highlights the two claims made throughout the book that complex sentences start as simple clauses, and that complex sentences emerge as lexically specific constructions and develop into constructional schemas.

1Each chapter of the book can be read independently. The language is concise and fairly comprehensible. I would highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in language acquisition and the syntax of complex sentences.