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Published 1999 | public
Book Section - Chapter

The Role of Universal Grammar in Language Learning

Cowie, Fiona

Abstract

In contrast to what others may commonly believe, reflecting on the poverty of the stimulus does not sustain or reinforce the notion of learning a language within nativism. Also, although initially opposed, there are a lot more explanatory resources to empiricism than it is given credit for, particularly on issues regarding the domain-neutral mechanism for learning. While the enlightened empiricist would believe that the mechanism for language learning is general in purpose and that the theory choices of learners would be attributed to the knowledge about language that they have already obtained through experience, enlightened empiricism supports the nativist view that learning is restricted by task-specific knowledge and the constraints involved are not fixed. This chapter focuses on linguistics and examines how universal grammar is important in the processes involved in learning a language.

Additional Information

c1999 Oxford University Press. Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: October 2011: DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195159783.003.0010.

Additional details

Created:
August 19, 2023
Modified:
January 13, 2024