Treść książki

Przejdź do opcji czytnikaPrzejdź do nawigacjiPrzejdź do informacjiPrzejdź do stopki
distributionallearningtheories,childrenseekthesemanticorsyntactic
propertiesofwordsonthebasisoftheirdistribution,thatistherangeof
positionsinwhichtheyoccurinasentence.Theseapproachesvaryfromthose
whichrejectabstractsyntax(Kuczaj(1982a)),tootherswhichallowforthe
possibilityofitsgradualemergence(Maratsos&Chalkley(1980)).
Bloomfield(1933)hasstatedthatahypotheticallanguagelearnerpossesses
virtuallynoinnatelinguisticknowledgeapartfromtheabilitytohear,
distributionallyclassifywordsintowordclassesandformnewsentences
analogoustothoseheardbefore.Thisstrategyadoptedbythechildleads
eventuallytohabitformationbecausesuccessfulattemptsatspeechare
reinforcedandestablishedascorrectlanguageforms,whereasimperfect
attemptsarelost.
Learningunderstoodastheformationofhabitsiscentraltothe
behaviouristviewoflanguageacquisition(Skinner(1957),Thorndike(1932),
Watson(1924)),whichseeshumanbeingsasbeingexposedtoawidevariety
ofstimuliintheirenvironmentandequippedwithnothingbutimitationskills.
Skinner(1957)hasproposedthatlanguagecanbeacquiredthroughaprocess
calledinstrumentalconditioningwhichconsistsinestablishingalinkbetween
aparticular(linguisticorextralinguistic)stimulusandadesiredresponse(the
correctverbalisation).Inordertodevelopthisbonditisnecessarytoreinforce
everycorrectutteranceuntilitbecomesautomaticandinvoluntary,inother
words,untilitisestablishedasahabit.Hehasmaintainedthatlearningsyntax
consistsinimitatingpartsofsentencesheardbefore,which,positively
reinforced,becomesetsofassociationsbetweenwords(Skinner(1957)).
Grammar,fromthispointofview,isregardedasasetofclassesofwords
basedontheseassociations,occurringinaserial,predictableorder.
Unfortunately,whenseeninthislight,theroleofthechildisreducedtothatof
apassivereceiverofstimulicomingfromtheenvironment,capablemerelyof
reproducingafinitesetofpatternsanddeprivedofthepossibilitytoshapehis
languagebehaviourinaconsciousway.
Inspiteoftheseearlycriticalremarks,behaviourismcontinuedwithmajor
attempts,forexample,Mowrer(1960),tryingtoexplainlanguagein
behaviouristterms.Moreover,Jenkins&Palermo(1964)elaboratedon
Skinner’sideasonhowsyntaxcanbeacquiredwithoutresortingtoanyinnate
languagefaculty.
1.1.3.Alternativestobehaviourism
Attheendof1950sradicalbehaviourismwitnesseddecliningpopularity
whensomeresearchersbegantoclaimthatatbestbehaviourismcanexplain
16