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The Development of Language: Acquisition, Change, and Evolution

ISBN: 978-0-631-21060-3

December 1998

Wiley-Blackwell

300 pages

Description
A language develops over time, it develops in a child, and the capacity for language has evolved in the human species.
About the Author
David Lightfoot is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Maryland, College Park where he is also Associate Director of the program in Neural and Cognitive Science. His books include The Language Lottery and How to Set Parameters.
Features
* Major theorist develops new theories of language change and language acquisition.
* Questions existing theories of the evolution of language.
* Challenges conventional understanding by showing that language change is essentially contingent.
* Offers new cue-based theory of language acquisition.