In contrast to L2 acquisition, and despite a wealth of behavioural data, there exist only a limited number of studies that have used ERPs to examine language processing in children, and these have largely focused on phoneme discrimination (Kuhl, 2004) and conceptual semantics (Friederici, 2006). To my knowledge, only four studies have used ERPs to examine syntactic-level processing (pointing to a rather late development of syntax-related LAN and P600 components around 7 years; Hahne et al., 2004; Neville et al., unpublished data), and none has adequately examined either typical morpho-syntax or logical semantics. Together with linguists at the University of Montreal (Drs Valois and Royle), I plan to establish a Montreal-based cross-university ERP research group on L1 (and early L2) development whose overarching mission is to forge robust theoretical, methodological, and empirical connections between developmental electrophysiology and early language acquisition research conducted within the framework of generative (psycho)linguistic theory. Along with my work on SLA, this innovative research should answer important questions regarding the similarities and differences between early versus late, and first versus second, language acquisition, with a particular focus on (morpho-)syntax, but also considering (conceptual and logical) semantics and prosody. The relevant age range for these questions is 3-8 years. Once reliable baseline data from typically developing children have been collected, this ERP research will also (for the first time) investigate children with specific language impairment (SLI), for which morpho-syntactic processing difficulties are a characteristic symptom. We have already developed a picture-sentence matching paradigm in French which uses noun phrases (the first expressions acquired by children) and which takes age-specific constraints (movement artefacts, limited word knowledge) into account. The internal structure of noun phrases provides test cases for idiosyncratic knowledge (such as grammatical gender: la/*le maison) as well as for potentially rule-governed knowledge (la maison grise/*gris; la *grise maison; il y a une/*la maison grise). A corresponding SSHRC grant proposal (3 years) including specific methods and hypotheses was submitted in fall 2007. This project will establish a new and highly complementary line of research in Montreal and also enable me to extend my neurophysiological model to L1 acquisition.