Signal to Syntax
In the beginning, before there are words, or syntax, or discourse, there is speech. Speech is an infant''s gateway to language. Without exposure to speech, no language--or at most only a feeble facsimile of language--develops, regardless of how rich a child''s biological endowment for language learning may be. But little is given directly in speech--not words, for example, as anyone who has ever l...
In the beginning, before there are words, or syntax, or discourse, there is speech. Speech is an infant''s gateway to language. Without exposure to speech, no language--or at most only a feeble facsimile of language--develops, regardless of how rich a child''s biological endowment for language learning may be. But little is given directly in speech--not words, for example, as anyone who has ever l...