Language Learnability and Language Development : : With New Commentary by the Author / / Steven Pinker.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter HUP eBook Package Archive 1893-1999
• VerfasserIn: Pinker, Steven,
• Place / Publishing House: Cambridge, MA : : Harvard University Press, , [2009]; ©1996
• Year of Publication: 2009
• Language: English
• Series: Cognitive Science Series ; 7
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (473 p.)

In this influential study, Steven Pinker develops a new approach to the problem of language learning. Now reprinted with new commentary by the author, this classic work continues to be an indispensable resource in developmental psycholinguistics.Reviews of this book: "The contribution of [Pinker's] book lies not just in its carefully argued section on learnability theory and acquisition, but in its detailed analysis of the empirical consequences of his assumptions." --Paul Fletcher, Times Higher Education Supplement "One of those rare books which every serious worker in the field should read, both for its stock of particular hypotheses and analyses, and for the way it forces one to re-examine basic assumptions as to how one's work should be done. Its criticisms of other approaches to language acquisition.often go to the heart of the difficulties." --Michael Maratsos, Language"[A] new edition, with a new preface from the author, of the influential monograph originally published in 1984 in which Pinker proposed one of the most detailed (and according to some, best) theories of language development based upon the sequential activation of different language-acquisition algorithms. In his new preface, the author reaches the not very modest conclusion that, despite the time elapsed, his continues to be the most complete theory of language development ever developed. A classic of the study of language acquisition, in any case." --Infancia y Aprendizaje [Italy]

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Preface -- Contents -- Language Learnability and Language Development Revisited -- 1. Introduction -- 2. The Acquisition Theory: Assumptions and Postulates -- 3. Phrase Structure Rules -- 4. Phrase Structure Rules: Developmental Considerations -- 5. Inflection -- 6. Complementation and Control -- 7. Auxiliaries -- 8. Lexical Entries and Lexical Rules -- 9. Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- Index