Publisher's Synopsis
This book offers a unique overview of the current literature of language development. Beginning with an outline of the maturational changes that occur in linguistic knowledge in the period from birth to adulthood, it goes on to discuss the suggested causes for the changes and the controversies about the suggested causes.The theory of generative grammar advanced by Noam Chomsky was responsible for much of the excitement and interest that the study of language development has enjoyed over the past decade. Inevitably, however, some linguists have questioned whether Chomsky's hypothesis of an innate mechanism for language learning, distinct from other types of learning, is a valid model of the way children actually do acquire language competence. Present efforts are directed towards finding an explanation of development and processing of language in the cognitive and social functioning of the human being, but a clear understanding of the ba
