Investigations in Universal Grammar - A Guide to Experiments on the Acquisition of Syntax and Semantics

This introductory guide to language acquisition research is presentedwithin the framework of Universal Grammar, a theory of the human faculty forlanguage. The authors focus on two experimental techniques for assessing childrenslinguistic competence: the Elicited Production task, a production task, and theTruth Value Judgment task, a comprehension task. Their methodologies are designed toovercome the numerous obstacles to empirical investigation of childrens languagecompetence. They produce research results that are more reproducible and less likelyto be dismissed as an artifact of improper experimental procedure.In the firstsection of the book, the authors examine the fundamental assumptions that guideresearch in this area; they present both a theory of linguistic competence and amodel of language processing. In the following two sections, they discuss in detailtheir two experimental techniques.

List of contents

Summary

Introductory guide to language acquisition research presented within the framework of Universal Grammar, a theory of the human faculty for language. The two methodologies they use are designed to overcome the numerous obstacles to empirical investigation of children's language competence.

Product details

• Authors: Stephen Crain, Stephen Thornton Crain, Rosalind Thornton
• Publisher: The MIT Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 22.05.1998
• EAN: 9780262032506
• ISBN: 978-0-262-03250-6
• No. of pages: 360
• Series: Language, Speech, and Communication; Language, Speech, & Communicat; Investigations in Universal Grammar; Language, Speech, and Communication; Language, Speech, & Communicat
• Subject: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative linguistics