Studies in the Acquisition of Anaphora

Viac o knihe

Today, a fundamental set of issues confronts both the linguistic theory of 'Universal Grammar' and the psychological study of human cognition, particularly regarding how the human mind is biologically "programmed" to acquire complex language knowledge. Anaphora plays a critical role in this inquiry, being essential to language knowledge yet largely underdetermined by available evidence. Previous research has typically approached these issues through either linguistic or psychological analyses, focusing on the roles of innateness or experience in language acquisition. This volume, alongside its predecessor, aims to integrate these approaches and develop a research paradigm for their joint study. While the first volume emphasized the content and nature of the initial state of the language faculty, this second volume focuses on how experience interacts with this faculty in language acquisition. The introduction argues that the issues explored in this volume are necessary complements to those in Volume I, as a comprehensive model of language acquisition requires this integration. Additionally, a valid definition of the content of 'the initial state' may depend on understanding this interaction.