Language Acquisition and the Form of the Grammar
Language Acquisition and the Form of the Grammar attempts to re-think the ideal organization of the grammar, given its need to be learned. The book proposes a fundamental connection between the form of the adult grammar and the sequence of grammars which the child adopts in first language acquisition. Challenging the conventional division between language acquisition and syntax, this influential work constructs a new understanding of phrase structure, bringing syntactic data to bear on phrase structure composition. Two new phrase structure composition operations are proposed, Adjoin-α, which adjoins adjuncts into the structure, and Project-α, which fuses open class and closed class structures. The author also introduces the novel concept of subgrammars, successively larger grammars that take the child from the initial state to the adult grammar. This work will be of interest to those in the areas of syntax, language acquisition, learnability, and cognitive science in general.
[Not in series, 97] 2000. xxx, 277 pp.
Publishing status: Available
Published online on 21 October 2008
Published online on 21 October 2008
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Table of Contents
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Acknowledgments | p. xi
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Preface | p. xiii
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Introduction | p. 1
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1. A Re-Definition of the Problem | p. 7
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2. Project-α, Argument-Linking, and Telegraphic Speech | p. 31
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3. Adjoin-α and Relative Clauses | p. 91
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4. Agreement and Merger | p. 145
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5. The Abrogation of DS Functions: Dislocated Constituents and Indexing Relations | p. 183
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Index | p. 273
“A recognized classic in the field since its appearance as a doctoral dissertation, a fount of highly productive ideas and insights that has inspired very important work. That it will be available as a book is very welcome news for anyone working in the wide range of fields that Lebeaux explored in this really outstanding contribution.”
Noam Chomsky, MIT
“[...] a watershed in acquisition theory. No other work has so elegantly used acquisition data to bring clarity to intuitional data, and thereby to revise core aspects of linguistic theory. [...] In addition [Lebeaux] offers an important perspective on how lexical structure develops into syntactic structure, and how we should refashion the concept of learnability. It is a model of how acquisition theory and linguistic theory can advance together.”
Tom Roeper, UMASS, Amherst
“Lebeaux’s core ideas [...] are now central to the Minimalist Program. His elaboration of these ideas, however, provides a challenge to current theories of Minimalist phrase structure.”
Margaret Speas, UMASS, Amherst
“Given the pole position (in both formal approaches to language acquisition and the refining of grammatical theory) that K's dissertation has held since the late 1980s, this book is a welcome publication, finally making this fine piece of work easily accessible to a wider audience.”
Kleanthes K. Grohmann, University of Cyprus, in Language Vol. 79:4 (2003)
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Lazarova-Nikoska, Ana
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Subjects
Main BIC Subject
CF: Linguistics
Main BISAC Subject
LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General