This paper relies on a functionalist and an emergentist perspective of the language acquisition process, in which grammatical patterns are designed as structures that emerge from the lexicon. It aims at reflecting on how the acquisition of verbal lexicon and the grammaticalization phenomenon occur. The results support the model "from reference to predication to grammar" and the hypothesis of "critical mass" proposed by Bates et al (1994, 1997) and Bates and Goodman (1999).
