Constructing a language : a usage-based theory of language acquisition / Michael Tomasello.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Tomasello, Michael.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Language acquisition.

Cognition in children.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (viii, 388 p. ) ill.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2003.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The author presents a comprehensive usage-based theory of language acquisition, based on evidence that children possess a linguistic ability interwoven with other cognitive abilities, rather than a self-contained 'language instinct'.

Drawing together a vast body of empirical research in cognitive science, linguistics, and developmental psychology, Michael Tomasello demonstrates that we don't need a self-contained "language instinct" to explain how children learn language. Their linguistic ability is interwoven with other cognitive abilities. Tomasello argues that the essence of language is its symbolic dimension, which rests on the uniquely human ability to comprehend intention. Grammar emerges as the speakers of a language create linguistic constructions out of recurring sequences of symbols, children pick up these patterns in the buzz of words they hear around them. Constructing a Language offers a compellingly argued, psychologically sound new vision for the study of language acquisition.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [331]-371) and index.

ISBN:

9780674044395

0674044398