Documenting Mayan Language Acquisition
نویسنده
چکیده
Chomsky (1965; 1986) has long stressed the significance of the fact that children can acquire any human language. This linguistic phenomenon is a central motivation in the search for language universals. The claims of generative grammar underline the importance of documenting the full range of language diversity while typologically distinct languages still exist. Such documentation is necessary to understand the nature of children’s linguistic accomplishments. The goal of this project is to establish a comparative acquisition database for the Mayan languages to facilitate comparison between processes of historical change and language acquisition. This goal includes the development of resources and procedures for recording and analyzing Mayan acquisition data.
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