%0 Journal Article %1 Yang2004 %A Yang, Charles D. %D 2004 %J Trends in Cognitive Sciences %K acquisition,ling832,linguistics,syntax %N 10 %P 451--456 %R http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2004.08.006 %T Universal Grammar, statistics or both? %V 8 %X Recent demonstrations of statistical learning in infants have reinvigorated the innateness versus learning debate in language acquisition. This article addresses these issues from both computational and developmental perspectives. First, I argue that statistical learning using transitional probabilities cannot reliably segment words when scaled to a realistic setting (e.g. child-directed English). To be successful, it must be constrained by knowledge of phonological structure. Then, turning to the bona fide theory of innateness - the Principles and Parameters framework - I argue that a full explanation of children's grammar development must abandon the domain-specific learning model of triggering, in favor of probabilistic learning mechanisms that might be domain-general but nevertheless operate in the domain-specific space of syntactic parameters.

@article{Yang2004, abstract = {Recent demonstrations of statistical learning in infants have reinvigorated the innateness versus learning debate in language acquisition. This article addresses these issues from both computational and developmental perspectives. First, I argue that statistical learning using transitional probabilities cannot reliably segment words when scaled to a realistic setting (e.g. child-directed English). To be successful, it must be constrained by knowledge of phonological structure. Then, turning to the bona fide theory of innateness - the Principles and Parameters framework - I argue that a full explanation of children's grammar development must abandon the domain-specific learning model of triggering, in favor of probabilistic learning mechanisms that might be domain-general but nevertheless operate in the domain-specific space of syntactic parameters.}, added-at = {2011-03-27T17:20:41.000+0200}, author = {Yang, Charles D.}, biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/21993d17dca3f6e63d469e1da97ea426e/yevb0}, doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2004.08.006}, interhash = {895840313a47e008d494c378f017216e}, intrahash = {1993d17dca3f6e63d469e1da97ea426e}, journal = {Trends in Cognitive Sciences}, keywords = {acquisition,ling832,linguistics,syntax}, mendeley-tags = {acquisition,ling832,linguistics,syntax}, number = 10, pages = {451--456}, timestamp = {2011-03-27T17:21:14.000+0200}, title = {Universal Grammar, statistics or both?}, type = {Journal article}, volume = 8, year = 2004 }