The Acquisition of Phonology and Syntax: A Preliminary Study

Abstract

Several aspects of the study of language acquisition are very intriguing for their potential application to other studies. As language acquisition is one of the very few primary, nonmediated forms of human learning, it should contribute significantly to the psychological study of learning. As it is also one of the few bodies of data on the English language from nonliterate informants, it cannot be ignored in the formulation of linguistic theories. This paper discusses a new approach to the study of language acquisition data and draws some conclusions relevant to the fields of learning and linguistics. It is an attempt to draw together the previously distinct fields of syntax acquisition and phonology acquisition: the concepts which the child must discover in order to assimilate primary linguistic data are shown to be more relevant to the process of language acquisition than are postulated ‘innate’ structures. The acquisition process is shown to be one of language creation rather than one of learning (imitation); i.e., the child learns (discovers) the relevant concepts and then applies them to create a language. This process occurs repeatedly, and with each new occurrence the created language is a bit closer to the adult language (in a sense which will be discussed later).

Since I wrote this paper in 1969–70, many of the points brought up herein have been revised and expanded upon considerably. I would like to refer readers to my The acquisition of phonology, Project on Linguistic Analysis Reports, Phonology Laboratory, Berkeley, 1972. This more recent account includes a fuller discussion of some important issues only touched on here, e.g., the function of partial reduplication, acquisition of segments and distinctive features, phonological idioms, the role of babbling in language acquisition, and others; the theory is there exemplified with more data.