Genesis of the first person

Between the ages of 1;6 and 3;0, various markers are used by children to designate themselves: the null form, preverbal vowels, third person, second person, and first person pronouns (il/elle, moi, tu, je.). Between 2;6 and 3;0, the use of “je” is stabilized and the other markers tend to disappear in the subject position when the child refers to himself. At the same time, children start manipulating aspects and modalities and they make narratives. We analyze selfwords in the longitudinal data of two French-speaking children and one English speaking child in order to elaborate hypotheses on the progression of children's use of selfwords and to make correlations with other factors in children's development