Abstract
The question of how to explain the structure of language and its rapid acquisition — the ontogenesis problem — still remains (Luria (1975), Bruner (1978)). This paper is a brief report on research into a possible solution, in which language acquisition is understood in terms of structural growth*. The central theoretical proposal is that there is a recursive developmental procedure for the construction of syntactic patterns through which language structures of increasing complexity and semantic power are grown, starting from scratch in childhood and flowering into mature adult syntax. Though its effects are very complex, the developmental procedure itself is strikingly simple. The formal theory is parsimonious, expressing adult language structure as the natural outcome of development but without recourse to psychological or linguistic assumptions.
My sincere thanks to Robin Campell, University of Stirling, for his help and criticism in the course of this research.
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References
Bruner J.S. 1978. On prelinguistic prerequisites of speech. In “Recent Advances in the Psychology of language”, R.N. Campbell & P.T. Smeds (eds.), N.Y. and London. Plenum.
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© 1982 Plenum Press, New York
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Long, C. (1982). The Growth of Language Structure: A Report. In: Lowenthal, F., Vandamme, F., Cordier, J. (eds) Language and Language Acquisition. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-9099-2_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-9099-2_3
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
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