NORBERT DITTMAR & ZVI PENNER (eds), Issues in the theory of language acquisition: essays in honor of Jürgen Weissenborn. Berne: Peter Lang, 1998. Pp. xxiii+245. ISBN 3-906757-85-4

• Published in: Journal of Child Language Vol. 29; no. 1; p. 205
• Main Author: Pérez-Leroux, Ana T.
• Format: Journal Article Book Review
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge Cambridge University Press 01.02.2002
• Subjects: Bilingualism; Children & youth; Classroom Communication; Evidence; Hypotheses; Language acquisition; Linguistic Input; Linguistic Theory; Linguistics; Literature Reviews; Phonology; Semantics; Speech; Syntax; Theory; Translation
• ISSN: 0305-0009; 1469-7602
• DOI: 10.1017/S0305000902225222

Deuchar and Quay show in this chapter that M had the ability to make appropriate language choices before the age of [twooldstyle], both in one-word and in two-word utterances. [...]Ms language choice was inuenced by a number of sociolinguistic factors, especially the interlocutors and their communicative strategies and the location of the interaction. [...]the assertion does not include topics (because they are extracted) or word-internal material in compounds (because composition does not involve niteness). Children do not have access to Principle P, and, as a consequence, they allow co-reference in the context of contra-indexation quite generally. [...]Chien & Wexler concluded that their childrens representation of ([oneoldstyle]) was, in fact, ([twooldstyle]b) and consistent with Principle B. However, because of the absence of Principle P, the children were free to interpret ([twooldstyle]b) as involving co-reference. The childrens interpretation is accounted for by allowing them to rely on the guise in ([oneoldstyle][fouroldstyle]b), a strategy not normally available to adults in these circumstances. Since reference and co-reference are not issues for pronominals functioning as bound variables, childrens superior performance on sentences such as ([threeoldstyle]) continues to be accounted for by their knowledge of Principle B alone. [twooldstyle][oneoldstyle][sevenoldstyle] ([oneoldstyle][threeoldstyle]) [Csmall][Hsmall][Ismall][Lsmall][Dsmall] [Lsmall][Asmall][Nsmall][Gsmall][Usmall][Asmall][Gsmall][Esmall] A large number of issues arise at this point.