pivot grammar

One of the earliest prominent characterizations of child language production was Braine's (1963; 1971) notion of a pivot grammar. This description of child's early language considered it to be largely composed of pivot words and open words which could occur as arguments of pivot words.

The idea that grammar begins in piecemeal fashion, with some words enjoying growing flexibility of usage through incorporating other classes of words as arguments, did not die with pivot grammars. Tomasello's (2003) recent book on language acquisition presents a very similar picture: ...