生成语言学框架下的儿童语言习得研究:综述与展望

The Generative Approach to Child Language Acquisition:An Overview and Outlook

生成语言学框架下的儿童语言习得观又被称为“语言习得先天论”,是在Chomsky提出的生成语言学理论的基础上发展而来的。“语言习得先天论”的基本出发点是儿童习得母语过程中的“柏拉图问题”,即儿童早期获得的语言知识远超外界语言输入所能提供的信息,它强调语言的特殊性和儿童语言习得的先天性。本文通过梳理该理论框架下经典的儿童语言习得研究,探讨其发展的脉络、主要关注问题以及背后的动因,并在此基础上展望其发展趋势。

This paper gives an overview of the generative approach to child language acquisition that is based on the theory of Universal Grammar.This approach is also known as the nativist view on language acquisition which emphasizes the discrepancy between children’s abstract linguistic knowledge and the linguistic input they are being exposed to.This discrepancy constitutes the major concern of Plato’s Problem,the problem of explaining the linguistic knowledge quickly acquired by children in the first few years vastly exceeds the linguistic input available to them.The Plato’s problem invites the nativists to propose that children are born with innate linguistic knowledge that guides their language acquisition.