A sample stimulus item from an experiment testing children's knowledge of pronoun reference. (Drawing by Prof. Ken Wexler.)
Instructor(s)
Prof. Ken Wexler
MIT Course Number
9.57J / 24.904J
As Taught In
Fall 2001
Level
Undergraduate
Translated Versions
Course Description
Course Highlights
What is it that someone knows, when we say that he or she knows a language? This is the question addressed by linguists and psycholinguists exploring the structure of a language.
Course Description
Covers the major results in the study of first language acquisition concentrating on the development of linguistic structure, including sentence structure and morphology. Universal aspects of development are discussed, as well as a variety of cross-linguistic phenomena. Theories of language learning are considered, including parameter-setting and maturation.