Do you speak grammar?[1]

The study of language acquisition raises questions such as these: what is the place of grammar? How can it help in the acquisition process? What kinds of linguistic knowledge and structure do we need in speaking?

The framework adopted here to answer these questions is the generative theory of universal grammar (Chomsky, 1986). According to this theory, human beings are innately endowed with a system of richly structured linguistic knowledge, which guides infants for instance, in analysing incoming linguistic stimuli.

To know a language means to possess a system of knowledge called grammar. A grammar is a finite system since it is somehow represented in the mind/ brain. As Chomsky showed in the 1950s it is a mental generative procedure that uses finite means to generate an indefinite number of sentences. The term grammar, as used here, refers to a “psychological entity, not to an inventory of sounds, morphemes, inflectional paradigms, and syntactic constructions”.

The text of course provides a comprehensive introduction to current thinking on language acquisition. Following an introductory chapter that discusses the foundations of linguistic inquiry, the book covers the acquisition of specific aspects of language from birth to age six. Topics include the language abilities of newborns, the acquisition of phonological properties of languages, the lexicon, syntax, pronoun and sentence interpretation, control structures, specific languages impairments, and the relationship between language and other cognitive functions.

[1] Maria Teresa Guasti, Language Acquisition: The Growth of Grammar, MIT paperback edition, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2004

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