Investigations in Universal Grammar: A Guide to Experiments on the Acquisition of Syntax and Semantics (Language, Speech, and Communication) (Language, Speech, and Communication Series) - Softcover

Crain, Stephen; Thornton, Rosalind

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0262531801 ISBN 13: 9780262531801

Publisher: Bradford Books, 2000

Synopsis

This introductory guide to language acquisition research is presented within the framework of Universal Grammar, a theory of the human faculty for language. The authors focus on two experimental techniques for assessing children's linguistic competence: the Elicited Production task, a production task, and the Truth Value Judgment task, a comprehension task. Their methodologies are designed to overcome the numerous obstacles to empirical investigation of children's language competence. They produce research results that are more reproducible and less likely to be dismissed as an artifact of improper experimental procedure.

In the first section of the book, the authors examine the fundamental assumptions that guide research in this area; they present both a theory of linguistic competence and a model of language processing. In the following two sections, they discuss in detail their two experimental techniques.

About this title

About the Author

Stephen Crain is Professor of Linguistics and Rosalind Thornton is Assistant Professor of Linguistics, both at the University of Maryland at College Park.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bradford Books
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0262531801
• ISBN 13: 9780262531801
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 360