This book examines the acquisition of verb placement in Swiss German. In Swiss German, as in the case of German and other verb-second languages, the finite verb occurs in the second position (i.e., C position) in matrix clauses but in the final position in embedded clauses, although verb movement in certain embedded contexts such as complements of bridge verbs and indirect questions is optionally permitted. The child Swiss-German data, collected by the author, come primarily from two children—Moira (age: 3;10–6;01) and Eliza (age: 3;10—6;01)—who were acquiring the Lucerne variant of Swiss German. A positive aspect of this research is that it is based on a vast amount of spontaneous production data gathered longitudinally as well as on elicited data. These data are supplemented by data elicited experimentally from Moira's peers in her kindergarten class in Lucerne. A significant finding of Schönenberger's research is that children acquiring the Lucernese variant of Swiss German make a high number of verb placement errors in embedded clauses, in striking contrast to what has been observed in the case of children acquiring German. Specifically, the two children in Schönenberger's study move the finite verb in any type of embedded clause even when there is an overt complementizer present in these clauses. Although the embedded clauses produced by the Lucernese children do not match those in the adult grammar, Schönenberger argues convincingly that their underlying grammar is only minimally different from that of the adult grammar.

The preliminary sections of the book include a preface, acknowledgments, and a detailed description of the notational conventions and abbreviations used in the book. There is also an introduction that provides a useful overview of the book. The first of the six chapters presents a broad overview of Swiss-German syntax in general and verb placement in particular. Chapters 2–4 deal with the production aspects of the Swiss-German language acquisition data. Chapter 2 focuses on the natural production data on verb placement in embedded clauses in Lucernese. Chapter 3 discusses the evidence from the elicited data on verb placement in Lucernese, which supplement the natural production data. Chapter 4 examines natural production data on matrix clauses from one of the two Lucernese children (Moira). A positive aspect of chapters 2–4 is the wealth of information and the clear and detailed presentation of the various aspects of the child data. However, one drawback is the lack of information about the contexts in which the natural production data were collected, methods for transcribing and coding the data, and the criteria adopted for inclusion of data for the analyses.

Chapter 5 is the most theoretical and syntax oriented and focuses on the analysis of the acquisition data on embedded clauses. Based on an analysis of an input sample for Moira, the author presents convincing evidence that the input data are not ambiguous in relation to verb placement. The author critically examines a previous analysis that she had proposed to account for the verb placement errors, which involves children's misanalysis of complementizers as maximal projections in the specifier of CP. Schönenberger rejects that analysis because of its serious flaws and proposes a new, more complex analysis, based on a minimally split CP approach, which allows leftward verb movement to target different heads in the C-domain. This analysis is more successful in accounting for the mismatch between child and adult embedded clauses in relation to verb placement, although there is no explanation provided as to how Lucernese children eventually recover from the nonadultlike grammar in relation to verb placement in embedded clauses. An assumption behind this analysis is that the canonical subject position in Swiss German is [Spec,IP]. Additionally, Schönenberger assumes that IP and VP in child and adult Swiss German are both head final. Unfortunately, no consideration is given to alternative analyses of the child verb placement errors, based on different assumptions—namely, a head-initial structure for IP and the lexical projections below it and a VP-internal subject position. Chapter 6 presents a summary, conclusions, and suggestions for further research. The final sections of the book include four detailed appendixes and a subject index.

Overall, the book is a valuable contribution to language acquisition research in general and to research on the acquisition of verb placement in verb-second languages in particular. It should be of interest to language acquisition researchers and theoretical linguists and serve as useful resource material for advanced courses in language acquisition and syntax.