Examines the status of the functional categories in child second language (L2) acquisition of English. Results from longitudinally-collected data are reported, presenting counterevidence for recent hypotheses on early L2 acquisition that assume the following: (1) structure building approach according to which the acquisition of functional categories follows an implicational sequence of development of VP-IP-CP; and (2) direct relationship between the acquisition of inflectional morphology and the development of functional categories. (Author/VWL)