An argument that children are born to assign structures to their ambient language, yielding a view of language variation not based on parameters defined at UG In this book, David Lightfoot argues that just as some birds are born to chirp, humans are born to parse-predisposed to assign linguistic structures to their ambient external language. This approach to language acquisition makes two contributions to the development of Minimalist thinking. First, it minimizes grammatical theory, dispensing with three major entities- parameters; an evaluation metric for the selection of grammars; and any independent parsing mechanism. Instead, Lightfoot argues, children parse their ambient external language using their internal language. Universal Grammar is "open," consistent with what children learn through parsing with their internal language system. Second, this understanding of language acquisition yields a new view of variable properties in language-properties that occur only in certain languages. Under the open UG vision, very specific language particularities arise in response to new parses. Both external and internal languages play crucial, interacting roles- unstructured, amorphous external language is parsed and an internal language system results. Lightfoot explores case studies that show such innovative parses of external language in the history of English- development of modal verbs, loss of verb movement, and nineteenth-century changes in the syntax of the verb to be. He then discusses how children learn through parsing; the role of parsing at the syntactic structure's interface with the externalization system and logical form; language change; and variable properties seen through the lens of an open UG.

Born to Parse: How Children Select Their Languages

Reference

Lightfoot, David W.

Words, Language & Grammar

The MIT Press

How to Set Parameters: Arguments from Language Change

Over the past decade, generative grammarians have viewed language acquisition as a process of fixing option points or parameters defined in Universal Grammar. Here David Lightfoot addresses the crucial question of what it takes to set a parameter - of what kind of experience is needed to trigger the emergence of a natural kind of grammar. Lightfoot asserts that parameter setting is not sensitive to embedded material, and that it is triggered only by robust elements that are structurally simple. He observes that morphological properties play a significant role in setting parameters which have widespread syntactic effects. Using evidence from data on diachronic changes and from current work in syntactic theory, Lightfoot makes precise claims about the triggering experience that can explain a number of historical puzzles. He argues that the changes could have taken place in the way they did only if language acquisition proceeds on the basis of simple, unembedded experiences.

MIT Press]

The Language Organ: Linguistics as Cognitive Physiology

This study treats human language as the manifestation of a faculty of the mind, which is seen as a mental organ whose nature is determined by human biology and whose functional properties should be explored as physiology explores the functional properties of physical organs. The book surveys the nature of the language faculty in its various aspects: the systems of sounds, words, and syntax, the development of language in the child and historically, what is known about its relation to the brain.

Anderson, Stephen R.

Cambridge University Press

This study treats human language as the manifestation of a faculty of the mind, which is seen as a mental organ whose nature is determined by human biology and whose functional properties should be explored as physiology explores the functional properties of physical organs. The book surveys the nature of the language faculty in its various aspects: the systems of sounds, words, and syntax, the development of language in the child and historically, what is known about its relation to the brain.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Lightfoot, David W.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Lightfoot, David W.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Lightfoot, David W.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Born to Parse: How Children Select Their Languages

How to Set Parameters: Arguments from Language Change

The Language Organ: Linguistics as Cognitive Physiology

The Language Organ: Linguistics as Cognitive Physiology