JLP315H1 Lecture Notes - Childes, Markov Chain, Iconicity
Document Summary
Something is guiding how children acquire language; all human infants exposed to language will automatically acquire the language of input; but do not know how. Any theory looked at can expect to be ultimately proven wrong. Clear prediction can assess clearly how something occurs need clear prediction, so can come to clear conclusion. What is the form of what is said = structuralism. Morphosyntax and word order and grammatical rules how is a question formed, what order do the words come in; if talking about functionalism not worried about structure, but concerned with function. Competence more concerned with what speakers know about their language what is your mental understanding of your language - ability. No special genetic property of the human devoted to language is necessary argued by nativists. Vs. empiricism general cognitive abilities are enough. Observations are open to interpretation, so may be skewed towards the theory of the researcher.
