Eighteen-month-old infants represent nonlocal syntactic dependencies

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 118; no. 41; pp. 1 - 7
• Main Authors: Perkins, Laurel, Lidz, Jeffrey
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States National Academy of Sciences 12.10.2021
• Subjects: Cognition - physiology; Cognitive ability; Comprehension; Computer applications; Female; Human performance; Humans; Infant; Infants; Language Development; Male; Questions; Sentences; Social Sciences; Speech - physiology; Syntax; nonlocal dependencies; syntax; wh-questions; language acquisition

The human ability to produce and understand an indefinite number of sentences is driven by syntax, a cognitive system that can combine a finite number of primitive linguistic elements to build arbitrarily complex expressions. The expressive power of syntax comes in part from its ability to encode po...