Knowledge and Learning in Natural Language (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780199254156)

It is a simple observation that children make mistakes when they learn a language. Yet, to the trained eye, these mistakes are far from random; in fact, they closely resemble perfectly grammatical utterances by adults--who speak other languages. This type of error analysis suggests a novel view of language learning: children are born with a fixed set of hypotheses about language--Chomsky's Universal Grammar--and these hypotheses compete to match the child's ambient language in a Darwinian fashion. The book presents evidence for this perspective from the study of children's words and grammar, and how language changes over time.

Author: Charles D. Yang
ISBN-10: 019925415X
ISBN-13: 9780199254156
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Language: English
Published: 03/27/2003
Pages: 188
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.70lbs
Size: 9.38h x 6.18w x 0.56d