Children's Syntax: An Introduction to Principles and Parameters Theory (Blackwell Textbooks in Linguistics) - Hardcover

Atkinson, Martin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 063117267X ISBN 13: 9780631172673

Publisher: Blackwell Pub, 1992

Synopsis

This book is an introduction to the principles and parameters theory of language acquisition. The approach, as developed by Chomsky and his associates, has recently come to play an important role both in empirical work with children and in theoretical explorations of the nature of language acquisition. The introductory chapters contrast the modular principles and parameters theory of language acquisition with older rule-based theories. Atkinson goes on to discuss in detail the application of the theory to questions in acquisition, covering such topics as the syntax of null subjects and the pro drop parameter, the subset principle and its role in parameterized binding theory, experimental investigations of x-bar principles, binding principles, the empty category principle, control theory, theta theory and argument structure, and functional categories and the functional parameterization hypothesis. The book also reviews more general concepts such as the nature of developmental mechanisms, the need to constrain theories of linguistic structure, and the questions of whether language development is a continuous process, and whether early structured speech is symptomatic of a linguistic system.

Edition details

• Publisher: Blackwell Pub
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 063117267X
• ISBN 13: 9780631172673
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 325