Language and the Learning Curve
A new theory of syntactic development
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Product details:
- Publisher OUP Oxford
- Date of Publication 2 November 2006
- ISBN 9780199299829
- Binding Paperback
- No. of pages224 pages
- Size 235x155x15 mm
- Weight 335 g
- Language English
- Illustrations 22 figures 0
Categories
Short description:
In Language and the Learning Curve, a leading researcher in the field offers a radical new view of language development, unusual in its combination of Chomskian linguistics and learning theory. Stimulating and accessible, it is an important new work that challenges many of our usual assumptions about syntactic development.
MoreLong description:
Language development remains one of the most hotly debated topics in the cognitive sciences. In recent years we have seen contributions to the debate from researchers in psychology, linguistics, artificial intelligence, and philosophy, though there have been surprisingly few interdisciplinary attempts at unifying the various theories. In Language and the Learning Curve, a leading researcher in the field offers a radical new view of language development. Drawing on formal linguistic theory (the Minimalist Program, Dependency Grammars), cognitive psychology (Skill Learning) computational linguistics (Zipf curves), and Complexity Theory (networks), it takes the view that syntactic development is a simple process and that syntax can be learned just like any other cognitive or motor skill.
In a thought provoking and accessible style, it develops a learning theory of the acquisition of syntax that builds on the contribution of the different source theories in a detailed and explicit manner. Each chapter starts by laying the relevant theoretical background, before examining empirical data on child language acquisition. The result is a bold new theory of the acquisition of syntax, unusual in its combination of Chomskian linguistics and learning theory. Language and the Learning Curve is an important new work that challenges many of our usual assumptions about syntactic development.
This is an important book for current language development researchers and graduate students, as well as those more closely involved in the controversies of theoretical linguistics. While clearly written, the book deals with highly complex issues and demands careful study. The empirical solidity of this work in conjunction with its strong theoretical claims poses a challenge to all.
Table of Contents:
Valency
Linguistic approaches to valency and syntactic structure
Implication for acquisition: syntax is simple
Developmental evidence: the earliest word combinations are syntactic mergers
Conclusions: children learn to merge two words according to their valency
The learning curve
The learning curve in cognitive psychology
Implication for acquisition: syntax should transfer right away
Developmental evidence: learning curves and generalizations in early syntax
Conclusions: lexical-specific syntactic frames facilitate others
Lexicalism
The linguistic basis to lexicalism
Implication for acquisition: no abstract schema formation
Developmental evidence: no change in the form of syntactic schemas
Conclusions: children learn a lexicalist syntax
Similarity
Similarity for transfer and generalization
Implication for acquisition: no role for semantic linking in learning syntax
Developmental evidence: no semantic effects in generalization and transfer
Conclusions: children utilize similarity of form to organize the process of acquisition
The growth of syntax
The language web
Implication for acquisition: learning means linking to the network
Developmental evidence: children recreate the global features of the maternal network
Conclusions: children join the language network
