An examination of children's sentence structure in Korean argues for a verb phrase (VP) constituent in child grammar, but suggests that this does not necessarily support its existence in adult Korean grammar. Korean children, it is noted, generally restrict their sentences to one word order, subject-object-verb, despite the existence of another order in adult grammar. It is proposed that, as children acquire various word order possibilities and scope relations, they may realize that the VP constituent is no longer consistent with the word order facts of adult language and thus will abandon it. (MSE)