Language And The Learning Curve Paperback

Anat Ninio

Language development remains one of the most hotly debated topics in the cognitive sciences. In recent years we have seen contributions to the debate from researchers in psychology, linguistics, artificial intelligence, and philosophy, though there have been surprisingly few interdisciplinary attempts at unifying the various theories. In Language and the Learning Curve, a leading researcher in the field offers a radical new view of language development. Drawing on formal linguistic theory (the Minimalist Program, Dependency Grammars), cognitive psychology (Skill Learning) computational linguistics (Zipf curves), and Complexity Theory (networks), it takes the view that syntactic development is a simple process and that syntax can be learned just like any other cognitive or motor skill. In a thought provoking and accessible style, it develops a learning theory of the acquisition of syntax that builds on the contribution of the different source theories in a detailed and explicit manner. Each chapter starts by laying the relevant theoretical background, before examining empirical data on child language acquisition. The result is a bold new theory of the acquisition of syntax, unusual in its combination of Chomskian linguistics and learning theory. Language and the Learning Curve is an important new work that challenges many of our usual assumptions about syntactic development.

9780199299829

English

Oxford University Press

01-01-2007

224

Anat Ninio received a BA in Statistics & English Linguistics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1965 and a second BA in Psychology in 1969, followed by an MA in 1970 and a PhD in 1974, the latter two under the supervision of Professor Daniel Kahneman, specializing in Cognitive Psychology. She spent a year of post-doctoral studies with Professor Jerome Bruner at Oxford, studying early language development. Since 1970 she has been on the faculty of the Hebrew University. She has been a Visiting Scholar/Professor at Duke University, New School for Social Research, New York University, University of Quebec, Harvard University, Macquarie University and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She served as chair of the Graduate Developmental Program, the Dept of Psychology and the Sturman Human Development Center, and is currently serving as Chair of the Martin and Vivian Levin Center for the Normal and Psychopathological Development of the Child & Adolescent at the Hebrew University. She is an Associate of Behavioural and Brain Sciences and member of the Unesco Institute for Education Exchange Network on Functional Literacy in Industrialized Countries.

I used the book in one of my MSc courses where it was very popular. The students... were excited about the approach and welcomed it as interesting and refreshingly healthy in wedding well the theory and data and yielding specific predictions. This is one of the reasons I intend to keep using the book in the future! * Barbora Skarabela, Lecturer, Linguistics and English Language, University of Edinburgh * Anat Ninio has forged a unique role for herself in the field of language acquisition as a creative and innovative researcher... Ninio continuously thinks across theoretical and disciplinary divides in highly constructive ways. Her book presents challenges to received wisdoms in all parts of the field and really makes one think! * Elena Lieven, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany, and the University of Manchester, UK. * This book is very interesting for researchers of language acquisition and for specialists who work on how to make computers understand language and how to link language with broader knowledge networks. * Liu Haitao, Applied and Computational Linguistics, Communication University of China, Beijing * Language and the Learning Curve is a breakthrough achievement, elegantly and logically presented, solidly based on evidence from child language research and expertise in current theoretical linguistics. * Katherine Nelson, Department of Psychology, Graduate Center, City University of New York * Ninio draws together a substantial body of knowledge in an admirable attempt to combine current theories in language acquisition, While intergrating linguistic as well as psychological theories into her own framework ofsyntactic development, she rigorously disposes of cherished notions in both traditions. Her ideas are thought-provoking and critical. Thus, her theory invites students in the field of language acquisition to critically assess its central tenets with relation to usage-based accounts of language as well as generative linguistics... this is a fascinating volume that provides an intricate and stimulating read, recommended to everyone interested in integrative accounts of child language development. * Child Language Bulletin Vol 27, No. 1 * ...a very interesting and well-researched proposal for the acquisition of syntax. It is refreshing in its attempt to forge a framework for understanding language that goes beyond the traditional camps of 'innateness' versus 'statistical learning'. It is worth reading for anyone interested in formal modelling of language learning. * Int'l Journal of Language & Communication Disorders * This is an important book for current language development researchers and graduate students, as well as those more closely involved in the controversies of theoretical linguistics. While clearly written, the book deals with highly complex issues and demands careful study. The empirical solidity of this work in conjunction with its strong theoretical claims poses a challenge to all. * Lorraine McCune, Journal of Child Language *