3. In the 1950’s, Skinner correlated
behaviourism and learning.
Stimulus response
reinforcement habit formation.
Child learns a language through
imitation and repetition.
The complexity of innumerable
human languages are variations on a
single theme.
4. poverty of the stimulus
Production of infinite sentences
despite having heard only a finite no.
of sentences.
Innate learning of constraints and
principles
Single word- age of 1
Sentence formation- age of 6
Produce grammatically sound
sentences without understanding
grammar as a system.
Patterns of development are
universal
When children develop their
language, they learn the various
aspects of language in a very similar
order.
5. L.A.D is a function of the brain that
is specifically for learning language.
It is an innate biological function of
human beings just like learning to
walk.
1. It accounts for the striking
similarities among human
languages.
2. It accounts for the speed, ease
and regularity with which children
learn their first language.
If the sequence order is the same
in all children, it is then quite
normal to speak about language
universals.
9. Similarities in deep structures
revealed properties common to all
languages which were concealed
by the surface structures.
THEORIES OF GRAMMAR
Competence- linguistics
Performance- speaking,
understanding dependent on one’s
linguistic knowledge.
10. I- language
Syntactic (mental representation)
E- language
Body of knowledge, behaviour habits
shared by a community ( all other
notions of language)
Competence can be studied only
when languages are treated as
mental objects.
Abandoned original notion of deep
and surface structures.
New program- MINIMALISM
Logic form phonetic form
