What infants know about syntax but couldn't have learned: experimental evidence for syntactic structure at 18 months
What infants know about syntax but couldn't have learned: experimental evidence for syntactic structure at 18 months
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DOI：
10.1016/s0010-0277(03)00116-1
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发表时间：
2003-10-01
期刊：
影响因子：
3.4
通讯作者：
Freedman, J
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Lidz, J;Waxman, S;Freedman, J
生成语言学理论基于这样的假设：语法的习得不能仅仅基于对输入的分析，而是依赖于学习者内在的先天结构来指导习得过程。然而，这一假设来源于一个逻辑论证，其结果从未在幼儿学习者身上进行过实验检验。对这一假设的挑战，声称对输入的分析确实足以解释语法习得，最近引起了人们的关注。我们用新的实验证明了这种反驳观点的不足。我们将重点放在确定代词先行词所需的句法结构上，证明给儿童的输入不包含足够的信息来支持独立学习。尽管如此，我们证明了18个月大的婴儿确实掌握了其中一种语言的语法。由于这种句法知识不可能完全从输入中获得，婴儿对这方面语法的掌握构成了学习者内在先天结构对语法习得的贡献的证据。(C) 2003 Elsevier B.V.版权所有
Generative linguistic theory stands on the hypothesis that grammar cannot be acquired solely on the basis of an analysis of the input, but depends, in addition, on innate structure within the learner to guide the process of acquisition. This hypothesis derives from a logical argument, however, and its consequences have never been examined experimentally with infant learners. Challenges to this hypothesis, claiming that an analysis of the input is indeed sufficient to explain grammatical acquisition, have recently gained attention. We demonstrate with novel experimentation the insufficiency of this countervailing view. Focusing on the syntactic structures required to determine the antecedent for the pronoun one, we demonstrate that the input to children does not contain sufficient information to support unaided learning. Nonetheless, we show that 18-month-old infants do have command of the syntax of one. Because this syntactic knowledge could not have been gleaned exclusively from the input, infants' mastery of this aspect of syntax constitutes evidence for the contribution of innate structure within the learner in acquiring a grammar. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.