Language Learning and Concept Acquisition: Foundational Issues

by Bloomsbury Academic

Overview

This volume features work on learning by researchers in various disciplines who share an interest in the systematic study of cognition and in the study of the formal and semantic aspects of language acquisition. A recurring theme is that language learning involves the acquisition of certain competencies and the formation of a system of beliefs which are significantly underdetermined by the linguistic and nonlinguistic inputs available to the learner. Theories of language learning must confront the epistemological problem of how it is possible to induce and fixate a belief-system on the basis of exposure to limited data. A typical strategy in dealing with this problem has been to specify various types of formal and empirical constraints on linguistic and conceptual development in terms of specific hypotheses about the character of what is learned and about the kinds of resources and strategies available to the learner. Most of the contributions in this volume are concerned with the specification and evaluation of such constraints.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780893913168
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	01/01/1986
Series:	Theoretical Issues in Cognitive Science
Pages:	218
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.62(d)

Table of Contents

List of Contributors
Preface
PART I. EMPIRICAL ASPECTS OF FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
Biological Dispositions to Learn Language, Lila Gleitman
Evidence from Great Apes concerning the Biological Bases of Language, Mark S. Seidenberg
Productivity and Conservatism in Language Acquisition, Steven Pinker
PART II. HYPOTHESIS LEARNING AND LANGUAGE LEARNING: FORMAL AND METHODOLOGICAL ASPECTS
Learning Machines, John Case
An Analysis of a Learning Paradigm, Daniel N. Osherson, Michael Stob, and Scott Weinstein
The Rise of Selective Theories: A Case Study and Some Lessons from Immunology, Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini
PART III. CONCEPT ACQUISITION
The Acquisition of Natural Kinds and Artifact Terms, Frank C. Keil
Constraints on Semantic Development, Susan Carey
Theories of Constraints and Constraints on Theories, Frank C. Keil and Michael H. Kelly
Children's Acquisition of Metalinguistic and Metacognitive Verbs, David R. Olson and Janet W. Astington
Author Index
Subject Index