Psychology Library Editions: Child Development Ser.: Language Learning : A ...

Taylor & Francis

Language LearningA Special Case for Developmental Psychology?\nAuthor(s): Christine J. Howe\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd, United Kingdom\nImprint: Routledge\nISBN-13: 9781138064287, 978-1138064287\nSynopsis\nOriginally published in 1993, the starting place for this book is the notion, current in the literature for around 30 years at that time, that children could not learn their native language without substantial innate knowledge of its grammatical structure. It is argued that the notion is as problematic for contemporary theories of development as it was for theories of the past. Accepting this, the book attempts an in-depth study of the notions credibility. \n\nCentral to the books argument is the conclusion that the innateness hypothesis runs into two major problems. Firstly, its proponents are too ready to treat children as embryonic linguists, concerned with the representation of sentences as an end in itself. A more realistic approach would be to rega.