A Root Infinitive Analogue in Malagasy

In this paper, we present evidence for a root infinitive (RI) stage in Malagasy, an Austronesian language typologically distinct from previously studied RI languages. Drawing on a longitudinal corpus of three Malagasy-speaking children, we show that children frequently produce bare verb forms in root contexts not attested in adult input. These bare forms pattern with null subjects, default pronouns (notably first person izaho instead of aho ), and avoid negation and stative predicates, aligning closely with properties observed with RIs in other languages supporting the existence of an RI analogue in Malagasy. Our findings challenge input-based and constructivist models, which predict that RI forms should be reflected in the input, as Malagasy children’s RI forms emerge despite a near-total absence in caregiver speech. These results reinforce a universalist account of grammatical development and provide new empirical support for syntactic explanations of the RI phenomenon, including use of the aspectual properties of verbs in the temporal anchoring of clauses in child language.