Learning word order: early beginnings

We examine the beginning of acquisition relative order function and content words, a fundamental but cross-linguistically highly variable aspect grammar. A review existing empirical literature shows that infants as young 8 months age can distinguish between functors have rudimentary knowledge these two universal lexical categories in their native language. Furthermore, human adults non-human animals such rodents process same linguistic information differently from infants, emphasizing developmental relevance bootstrapping function/content word surface cues available input. discuss implications findings for synergistic view language acquisition, considering how grammar interacts with learning.