Endogenous sources of variation in language acquisition

Area of Science:

• Linguistics
• Psycholinguistics
• Language Acquisition

Background:

• The study of human language acquisition debates the roles of learner experience versus innate knowledge.
• Understanding the source of grammatical structures is key to explaining language development.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate children's independent contribution to language acquisition.
• To identify and analyze unpredictable grammatical variation within a language.
• To determine the relationship between parental and child grammatical knowledge.

Main Methods:

• Examined grammatical variation in Korean, focusing on verb position in clause structure.
• Analyzed parent-child grammatical knowledge independence.
• Investigated how grammatical variation impacts interpretation across constructions.

Main Results:

• Identified unpredictable grammatical variation in Korean verb placement.
• Demonstrated that grammatical knowledge is independent between parents and children.
• Showed this variation is consistent within speakers but differs across speakers.

Conclusions:

• Learners acquire a single, systematic grammar even when exposure allows for multiple possibilities.
• Internal, learner-driven processes significantly contribute to grammatical development.
• Grammatical features are abstract, influencing multiple linguistic constructions.