Using Chomsky's minimalist program as a framework, this volume explores the role of formal (or functional) features in current descriptions and accounts of language acquistion. In engaging, up-to-date articles, distinguished experts examine the role of features in current versions of generative grammar and in learnibility theory as it relates to native, non-native, and impaired acquisition.

This edited volume dealing with formal features in Second Language Acquisition is defined within current generative grammatical theory, such as the Principles and Parameters Theory and the Minimalist Program. Formal features are essential to any account of language acquisiton because they are basic components of lexical and functional categories. This is a subject of much current research as evidenced by the number of published articles in journals and in conference proceedings. The papers address the role of features in the current versions of generative grammar and explore the role of features for learnability theory as it relates to native and non-native acquisition. To our knowledge, the volume represents the first scholarly contribution specifically devoted to features in language acquisition.

In recent linguistic theory, there has been an explosion of detailed studies of language variation. This volume applies such recent analyses to the study of child language, developing new approaches to change and variation in child grammars and revealing both early knowledge in several areas of grammar and a period of extended development in others. Topics dealt with include question formation, subjectless sentences, object gaps, rules for missing subject interpretation, passive sentences, rules for pronoun interpretation and argument structure. Leading developmental linguists and psycholinguists show how linguistic theory can help define and inform a theory of the dynamics of language development and its biological basis, meeting the growing need for such studies in programs in linguistics, psychology, and cognitive science.

This book examines the language abilities of persons with Down Syndrome who are able to read. The text defends the 'delayed but not deviant view' of linguistic abilities by examining a range of syntactic phenomena that develop at different points for typically developing children, and for which a similar overall pattern is found for persons with Down Syndrome. The volume also defends the 'delayed but not deviant view' against challenges arising from studies of the comprehension of definite pronouns. The study fits within a picture of linguistic abilities that is modular: skills with language do not emerge from other cognitive functions. It is an important source of information for readers in the departments of linguistics, speech and language therapy, and cognitive science.

This textbooks introduces the main arguments for an innate, domain specific capacity to learn human language. It guides you through the growth of language in a typically developing child and also discusses a range of viewpoints, introducing the central controversies in the field of language acquisition. Taking models and analyses from generative phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics, the author describes children's language acquisition using examples from a wide variety of languages. She explores the connections between language and other aspects of human cognition, the role of environment in learning, and the role in language development of mechanisms for speech production and speech comprehension. Extensively illustrated with models and figures, each chapter is also followed by a summary box, exercises and questions for discussion. An appendix of research techniques and suggestions for further reading is also included, to provide a Chomskyan introduction to language acquisition for advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students in linguistics and cognitive science.

This textbooks introduces the main arguments for an innate, domain specific capacity to learn human language. It guides you through the growth of language in a typically developing child and also discusses a range of viewpoints, introducing the central controversies in the field of language acquisition. Taking models and analyses from generative phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics, the author describes children's language acquisition using examples from a wide variety of languages. She explores the connections between language and other aspects of human cognition, the role of environment in learning, and the role in language development of mechanisms for speech production and speech comprehension. Extensively illustrated with models and figures, each chapter is also followed by a summary box, exercises and questions for discussion. An appendix of research techniques and suggestions for further reading is also included, to provide a Chomskyan introduction to language acquisition for advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students in linguistics and cognitive science.