Hostname: page-component-6766d58669-bkrcr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-18T17:52:39.336Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Language acquisition in the absence of experience

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 May 2011

Stephen Crain
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, Electronic mail: crains@uconnvm.bitnet

Abstract

A fundamental goal of linguistic theory is to explain how natural languages are acquired. This paper describes some recent findings on how learners acquire syntactic knowledge for which there is little, if any, decisive evidence from the environment. The first section presents several general observations about language acquisition that linguistic theory has tried to explain and discusses the thesis that certain linguistic properties are innate because they appear universally and in the absence of corresponding experience. A third diagnostic for innateness, early emergence, is the focus of the second section of the paper, in which linguistic theory is tested against recent experimental evidence on children's acquisition of syntax.

Information

Type
Target Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable