Less is Less in Language Acquisition

A principal observation in the study of language acquisition is that people exposed to a language as children are more likely to achieve fluency in that language than those first exposed to it as adults, giving rise to the popular notion of a critical period for language learning (Lenneberg, 1967; Long, 1990). This is perhaps surprising since children have been found to be inferior to adults in most tests of other cognitive abilities. A variety of explanations have been put forth to account for the benefit of early language learning. Possibly the most prevalent view is that children possess a specific “language acquisition device” that is programmatically deactivated prior to or during adolescence (Chomsky, 1965; McNeill, 1970). Important to this view is that knowledge or processes necessary for effective language learning are only available for a limited period of time. But this theory has trouble accounting for continued effects of age-of-acquisition after adolescence (Bialystok & Hakuta, 1999) and evidence that some adult second language learners are still able to reach fluency (see Birdsong, 1999). An alternative account is provided by Newport’s (1990) “less-is-more” hypothesis. Rather than attributing the early language advantage to a specific language learning device, this theory postulates that children’s language acquisition may be aided rather than hindered by their limited cognitive resources. According to this view, the ability to learn a language declines over time as a result of an increase in cognitive abilities. The reasoning behind this suggestion is that a child’s limited perception and memory may force the child to focus on smaller linguistic units which form the fundamental components of language, as opposed to memorizing larger units which are less amenable to recombination. While this is an attractive explanation, for such a theory to be plausible, the potential benefit of limited resources must be demonstrated both computationally and empirically. The strongest evidence for Newport’s theory comes