Abstract for Jacqueline van Kampen's talk

Two acquisition paradoxes: the effectiveness of the input
Jacqueline van Kampen (Utrecht Institute of Linguistics)
September 2, 2008 (Tuesday)
6:30 PM - 8:00 PM; Room 7102, The CUNY Graduate Center

In child language, some properties of the target grammar are acquired before others. Moreover, the early acquisition steps have typological significance. How does the child make the right data selection? Even if, somehow, the child would know the major typological parameters, it is not clear how she/he may apply the categories and configurations such parameters are stated in (Dresher 1999). Another method recommends itself. The child might use natural decoding procedures (Jakobson 1942). Rather than trying out innate major frames, the child derives them from input. This view on the acquisition procedure holds a switch from an evaluation procedure to a decision procedure. To get this working in syntax, one must find the order of acquisition steps and explain it by means of the decoding procedure. I will give two examples.