Constructing a Language: A Usage‐Based Theory of Language Acquisition. By Michael  Tomasello. Cambridge (Massachusetts): Harvard University Press. $45.00. ix + 388 p; ill.; index. ISBN: 0–674–01030–2. 2003.

2004 ◽  
Vol 79 (3) ◽  
pp. 339-340
Author(s):  
Janet L McDonald
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Harvard University ◽  
Theory Of Language

Sentence First, Arguments Afterward

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lila Gleitman
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Noam Chomsky ◽  
Theory Of Language ◽  
Developmental Psycholinguistics

This book collects the most significant papers written by Lila R. Gleitman, spanning 50 years of research on language and its acquisition. The book traces the roots of developmental psycholinguistics while presenting empirically driven arguments in favor of a rationalist theory of language acquisition. Gleitman’s work simultaneously shows how learners acquire knowledge richer than what can be found in the environment and how they use their input to acquire a specific language. The book also includes a foreword by Noam Chomsky and an introductory chapter by Jeffrey Lidz contextualizing Gleitman’s work in the transition from structuralism to mentalist architectures in linguistics.

The child's lexical representation: the ‘puzzle-puddle-pickle’ evidence

1980 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marlys A. Macken
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
Lexical Representation ◽  
Surface Form ◽  
Phonological Development ◽  
Mapping System ◽  
Theory Of Language ◽  
Formal Properties ◽  
Phonological Change ◽  
Do So

Smith (1973) presents a detailed analysis of his son's phonological development between the ages of two and four.1 The book is impressive, not only for the care with which the analysis was done but also, and more importantly, for the clarity with which central acquisition issues were stated. The analysis of the child's productions was done in two ways: first as a mapping from the adult system and second as a self-contained system. In his introduction, Smith raises seven issues that any theory of language acquisition must address; one of these concerns the nature of phonological change. Smith states that when changes occur in the child's output, they do so in an ‘across-the-board’ fashion. On the basis of this (and other) evidence, Smith concludes that the child must have the adult surface form as his underlying lexical representation. The implication is clear: the child must thus perceive in an adult-like fashion and the deviance of his/her output is due to the articulatory difficulty of certain sounds and sound sequences (and in some cases to certain formal properties of his mapping system).

The Impossibility of Language Acquisition (And How They Do It)

2020 ◽  
pp. 25-56
Author(s):  
Lila R. Gleitman ◽  
Mark Y. Liberman ◽  
Cynthia A. McLemore ◽  
Barbara H. Partee
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Research Community ◽  
Psychological Perspective ◽  
Theory Of Language

This autobiographical article, which began as an interview, reports some reflections by Lila R. Gleitman on the development of her thinking and her research—in concert with a host of esteemed collaborators over the years—on issues of language and mind, focusing on how language is acquired. Gleitman entered the field of linguistics as a student of Zellig Harris and learned first-hand of Noam Chomsky’s early work. She chose the psychological perspective, later helping to found the field of cognitive science. With her husband and long-term collaborator, Henry Gleitman, for more than 50 years, she fostered a continuing research community aimed at answering fundamental questions in the theory of language and its acquisition.

Linguistic experience modifies lexical stress perception

1983 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 535-549 ◽  
Author(s):  
George D. Allen
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Stress Pattern ◽  
Lexical Stress ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Stress Perception ◽  
Data Support ◽  
Comparison Groups ◽  
Theory Of Language ◽  
Similar Decrease

ABSTRACTSensitivity to differences in lexical stress pattern was examined in 4- and 5-year-old monolingual French-, German- and Swedish-speaking children. For most stimulus discriminations, the 5-year-olds outperformed their 4-year-old comparison groups. For a discrimination involving a trisyllabic distinction not found in French, however, the French 5-year-olds performed worse than their 4-year-old compatriots, suggesting that the older children had ‘learned’ not to hear the trisyllabic distinction. In follow-up testing of the French 4-year-olds six months later, half of them showed a similar decrease in performance specific to the trisyllabic stimuli. These data support an ‘attunement’ theory of language acquisition, in which potentially relevant abilities that are already partially or fully developed at birth may become attenuated or completely lost if they are inappropriate or irrelevant for the child's language.

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