Language Acquisition After Puberty

319 Pages·1994·1.18 MB·English

by  Judith R. Strozer

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title: Language Acquisition After Puberty
author: Strozer, Judith R.
publisher: Georgetown University Press
isbn10 | asin: 0878402446
print isbn13: 9780878402441
ebook isbn13: 9780585161549
language: English
subject Language acquisition, Child development, Innateness hypothesis
(Linguistics) , Principles and parameters (Linguistics) , Language
and languages--Study and teaching.
publication date: 1994
lcc: P118.S78 1994eb
ddc: 418
subject: Language acquisition, Child development, Innateness hypothesis
(Linguistics) , Principles and parameters (Linguistics) , Language
and languages--Study and teaching.
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Notes

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Language Acquisition After Puberty
Judith R. Strozer
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY PRESS/WASHINGTON, D.C.

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Georgetown University Press, Washington, D.C.
© 1994 by Georgetown University Press. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 1994
THIS VOLUME IS PRINTED ON ACID-FREE OFFSET BOOK PAPER
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Strozer, Judith R.
Language acquisition after puberty / Judith R. Strozer.
p. cm. (Georgetown studies in Romance linguistics)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Language acquisition. 2. Child development. 3. Innateness
hypothesis (Linguistics) 4. Principles and parameters (Linguistics)
5. Language and languagesStudy and teaching. I. Title.
II. Series.
P118.S78 1994
418dc20
ISBN 0-87840-244-6 (cloth) ISBN 0-87840-245-4 (paper) 94-5106

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Contents
Preface ix
1
Introduction: Of chimps, children, and grown-ups 1
3
1.1 Language as a defining human attribute
3
1.1.1 Diverse semiotic systems
8
1.1.2 The uniqueness of human language
11
1.2 Native language as childhood language
15
Notes
2
Nature and nurture: The poverty of the stimulus 18
18
2.1 Language and nurture: The contribution of the environment
22
2.2 Language and human nature: Phenotype from genotype
28
2.3 Human nature and nature: A deep parallel between ontogenesis
and speciation
31
Notes
3
Human nature and culture: Concept labeling 34
34
3.1 Language and thought: Speechless rational animals
35
3.2 The conceptual system: A common heritage of apes and
humans?
38
3.3 Increasing vocabularies: Label learning
38
3.3.1 "A rose by any other name . . . ": Saussurean arbitrariness
40
3.3.2 Numbers and colors versus smells
45
3.4 Unlabeled and labeled inborn concepts
46
3.4.1 A parallel with the immune system
47
3.4.2 Genetically programmed semantic fields
51
Notes

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4
Culture and language: Civilization and its progress 55
55
4.1 Knowing and doing: Diverging humanities and postmodern
humanists
59
4.2 Interpretation and translation: Not just indeterminacy
60
4.2.1 Semantic connections: Truths of meaning
64
4.2.2 New words and enriched notions (with an excursus on
Newspeak)
68
4.2.3 Intertranslatability and cultural wealth: Levels of
understanding
74
4.3 Semantic roles: Conceptual and linguistic structure at the
interface
78
Notes
5
Language explanation: The growth of a child's mind 81
81
5.1 Some elementary properties of human language
82
5.1.1 The creative aspect of language use: Descartes's Problem
85
5.1.2 The recursive property of linguistic knowledge:
Humboldt's Problem
86
5.1.3 The logical problem of knowledge acquisition: Plato's
Problem
87
5.2 Chomsky's solution: The development of transformational
generative grammar
90
5.2.1 The first thirty years (194979): An updated revival of a
classical tradition
94
5.2.2 The radical departure of 1980: A principles-and-
parameters framework
97
Notes
6
Linguistic knowledge: Universals and particulars 100
100
6.1 Language invariance: Part of the genetic endowment
100
6.1.1 Phrase structure: Two-level binary branching
114
6.1.2 Transformations: Structure-dependent operations
119
6.2 Language variation: The newborn's questionnaire
120
6.2.1 Morphology as paradigmatic grammar
125
6.2.2 The syntagmatic grammar and its interfaces
126
Notes

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7
Language maturation and beyond: A new look at the Critical Period
Hypothesis 130
130
7.1 Language and puberty: A parallel between linguistic maturity
and sexual maturity
133
7.2 From Skinner to Chomsky: Lenneberg's Problem
137
7.3 An embryological solution: Blame the brain
139
7.3.1 The active language organ: Lifelong innate knowledge
143
7.3.2 Unsettable switches: Lifelong patchwork
156
7.4 Other hypotheses
161
Notes
8
Language research and language teaching: A renewed promise 172
173
8.1 Language theory and methods of instruction
177
8.2 Scientific grammars and pedagogic grammars
183
8.3 A range of options for language programs
192
Notes
9
Overview: New prospects for the study of language 198
198
9.1 Baby or beast: Human language and other semiotic systems
203
9.2 Child or grown-up: Language universals and language
particulars
204
9.3 Design or randomness: A new kind of language program
211
9.4 Conclusion: A modest proposal
214
Notes
Bibliography 218
Index 267

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Notes

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