On Language Design

Summary. How the current study impacts traditional problems in linguistics, and how it leads to a simplification of the theory of UG and language learning, with a reduced role for domain-specific innate knowledge of language, leading to an arguably more plausible solution to the problem of language evolution.

The Logic of Evidence

A completely new conceptualization of the indirect negative evidence business in language acquisition, especially in syntax. Instead of thinking about retreating from over-generalization, a derivative application of the Tolerance Principle ensures that the child is much more careful before generalizing. Shows how the learner may acquire that adjectives such as “asleep” do not allow attributive in NPs (“*the asleep cat”), and how to resolve Baker’s classic problem of dative construction acquisition (“*I donated the museum a painting”). A critique of previous proposals, including Bayesian models of inference, is also included.

Signal and Noise

A very detailed study of the acquisition of English inflectional morphology and derivational morphology (nominalization). How, and when, children learn the regular and irregular past tense rules of English. How children learn to stress English words correctly, from an initial state of mislearning. The fine-grained analysis of German noun plurals where a very small rule (‘add -s’) can be productive. The entire discussion is driven by the equation, using child-directed language data.

When Language Fails

The theory predicts complete lexicalization when the number of exceptions to a rule exceeds the threshold, which leads to morphological gaps: without a productive rule, you only know the derived form if you hear it otherwise ineffability arises. Detailed numerical studies for gaps in Russian, English, Spanish, and Polish. The Tolerance Principle also directly bears on language variation and change, in that it provides/predicts the conditions under which language change is actuated. As a case study, the theory explains why—and when—the so-called dative sickness, and other instances of case substitution, took place in Icelandic in the 19th centuries.

The Tipping Point

Using the Elsewhere Condition as a basic principle of language, as well as a performance/processing model, this chapters derives the mathematical principle of productivity dubbed the Tolerance Principle. Psycholinguistic evidence, largely drawn from reaction time studies, for the proposed processing model. Schematic illustrations of how the Tolerance Principle is put into use during language acquisition.

The Inevitability of Rules

A review of statistical facts of language especially morphology and children’s acquisition of morphology with focus on productivity. Contrary to popular beliefs, productivity should be understood as a categorical notion in language, judging from the now extensive cross-linguistic studies of language acquisition. Why language must make use of a small set of wide-ranging rules, rather than memorized expressions, and why this is a difficult task for the child learner who acquires language in a few short years.

Border Wars

The tension between rules and exceptions, and productivity, in language. Why this has remained an unresolved question throughout the history of linguistics and how it has given rise to endless controversies. A brief summary of the empirical case studies that illustrates the scope of the current project.