<i>Wanna</i> contraction in first language acquisition, child second language acquisition, and adult second language acquisition

Abstract Contraction of want to wanna is sometimes possible (e.g., Who do you to/wanna stay with ___ ? ), but impossible to/*wanna stay? ). This contrast attributable the grammatical constraint that a wh -trace blocks contraction and . Most first language (L1) second (L2) acquisition studies testing learner knowledge this have used elicited production tasks focused on adult participants, inconsistent results. Using child-friendly acceptability judgment task, current study shows children as young 3;11 both child L2 learners target-like contraction. result in line position L1 acquisition, are qualitatively similar.