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The item-based nature of children's early syntactic development
1Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Inselstrasse 22, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany.
Trends in Cognitive Sciences
|March 31, 2000
Summary
Young children learn language through concrete examples, gradually building abstract structures. This supports a usage-based model over nativist theories of language acquisition.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Linguistics
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Children's early language acquisition is a key area in developmental psychology.
- Nativist theories propose innate linguistic structures, while usage-based models emphasize learning from input.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the organizational principles of young children's early language.
- To evaluate the explanatory power of different models of language development.
Main Methods:
- Utilized both naturalistic observation and experimental research designs.
- Analyzed the linguistic output of young children.
Main Results:
- The majority of early child language is structured around concrete, item-based linguistic schemas.
- Abstract linguistic constructions develop gradually and incrementally.
Conclusions:
- Current data challenge nativist accounts that rely on adult-like linguistic categories.
- A usage-based model, emphasizing imitation and cognitive generalization, best explains children's language development.