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principlesbecomeavailabletothechildatsomegeneticallydeterminedtime.
ThisassumptionisthemajorpointofdivergencebetweenChomskyandPiaget
becausetheconstructivistviewdoesnotseelinguisticdevelopmentastheresult
ofmaturationbut,ascanbeseen,accountsforallthechangesinlinguistic
developmentbyproposingthatlinguisticstructureisbuiltupstepbystepby
younglanguagelearners.IntheUGapproach,whenfacedwiththebodyof
speech,childrenaregeneticallyprogrammedtodiscovergrammaticalrules
underlyinglanguageandguidedbytheirlinguisticknowledgeastowhatthese
rulesshouldlooklike.SinceChomsky’stheorygaveastrongstimulusto
psycholinguistics,especiallyinthefieldoffirstlanguageacquisition,nowIam
goingtopresentitsmainassumptions.
Firstofall,accordingtotheUniversalGrammar(UG)theory,allhuman
beingsarebiologicallyendowedwithauniversalsetofprinciplesand
parameterswhichdeterminetheformofhumanlanguageandatthesametime
makealllanguagessimilartooneanother.TheGovernmentandBinding
theoryproposedbyChomsky(1981,1986a,1986b)arguesthatthesetwo
elementsareessentialtothecoreofhumanlanguage.Principlesareunvarying
andapplytoallnaturallanguages,underlyingtheirstructure,whereas
parametersarelanguagespecificandbecauseofthattheydeterminethe
differencesbetweenparticularlanguages.Chomsky(1981:4)statesthat[ł]
whatweexpecttofind,then,isahighlystructuredtheoryofUGbasedon
anumberoffundamentalprinciplesthatsharplyrestricttheclassofattainable
grammarsandnarrowlyconstraintheirform,butwithparametersthathaveto
befixedbyexperience.
Obviously,thisisnotsufficienttoexplaintheprocessoffirstlanguage
acquisition.Inaddition,Chomskyproposestheexistenceofagenetically
transmittedlanguagefaculty,whichguideschildrenintheacquisitionoftheir
nativelanguageandwhichisbiologicallytriggeredaccordingtoapredetermined
timetable.
AnotherissueinseparablyconnectedwiththeUGapproach,isthatitisnot
concernedwithperformance,i.e.abouthowlanguageisusedinreallifeand
influencedbyinterferingfactors,suchastimeconstraintsorrestrictionsonthe
brain’sinformation-processingfacilities.Instead,itdealsexclusivelywiththe
abstractmentalrepresentationoflanguagewhichallhumanbeingspossess,
whichisreferredtoascompetence.Therefore,letusreviewbrieflycompetence
factors,thatis,principlesconcernedwithhowthechildconstructsgrammatical
rulesandchangesthemovertime.
Whenassessinglanguageacquisitiondata,itisimmediatelyobviousthat
childrenovergeneralisemorphologicalinflectionalsuffixestoirregularforms,
sayingwords,suchas:footsandbreaked.Stern(1983)referstotheseformsas
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