From Lexical to Functional Categories: New Foundations for the Study of Language Development

Autor/inn/en	Dye, Cristina; Kedar, Yarden; Lust, Barbara
Titel	From Lexical to Functional Categories: New Foundations for the Study of Language Development
Quelle	In: First Language, 39 (2019) 1, S.9-32 (24 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0142-7237
DOI	10.1177/0142723718809175
Schlagwörter	Child Language; Nouns; Verbs; Form Classes (Languages); Grammar; Syntax; Language Acquisition; Language Research; Word Order; Semantics; English; French; Language Processing + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? 'Children''s language'; Kindersprache; Analytischer Sprachbau; Grammatik; Sprachaneignung; Spracherwerb; Sprachforschung; Wortfolge; Semantik; English language; Englisch; Französisch; Sprachverarbeitung
Abstract	Scholars of language development have long been challenged to understand the development of functional categories. Traditionally, it was assumed that children's language development initially relies on lexical elements, while functional elements become accessible only at later periods; and that it is lexical growth which bootstraps grammatical development. Over the last decades, however, a growing body of empirical research has come to contradict the traditional view. This new research involves a wide range of methodologies (e.g. discrimination, comprehension, production, neurophysiological) and a variety of languages, and extends the study of functional categories throughout development, beginning in infancy. In this article, the authors review a transformation that has occurred in the field. While lexical categories have long been assumed to be foundational to language acquisition, now functional categories have been revealed to play a foundational role. The article selects highlights of critical evidence emerging from various methods, languages and developmental periods, and articulates leading questions that now confront our field. Evidence suggests that language acquisition in the child, which begins long before first words, includes a continuous acquisition of functional categories. Functional categories provide a skeleton for sentence construction and a foundation for grammatical organization throughout acquisition. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01