A sample stimulus item from an experiment testing children's knowledge of pronoun reference. (Drawing by Prof. Ken Wexler.)
Course Highlights
What is it that someone knows, when we say that he or she knows a language? This is the question addressed by linguists and psycholinguists exploring the structure of a language. This course features an extensive
reading list. The
assignments are in the form of problem sets with solutions. A detailed overview of the subject as well as reviews of the course are located in the
study materials.
Course Description
Covers the major results in the study of first language acquisition concentrating on the development of linguistic structure, including sentence structure and morphology. Universal aspects of development are discussed, as well as a variety of cross-linguistic phenomena. Theories of language learning are considered, including parameter-setting and maturation.
*Some translations represent previous versions of courses.