The Price of Linguistic Productivity: How Children Learn to Break the Rules of Language

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Charles Yang (University of Pennsylvania)

The Price of Linguistic Productivity

How Children Learn to Break the Rules of Language

Charles Yang (University of Pennsylvania)

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Hardback

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English

MIT Press
14 October 2016

Language acquisition; Grammar, syntax

Series: The MIT Press

An investigation of howchildren balance rules and exceptions when they learn languages.

All languages have exceptions alongside overarching rules and regularities. How does a young child tease them apart within just a few years of language acquisition? In this book, drawing an economic analogy, Charles Yang argues that just as the price of goods is determined by the balance between supply and demand, the price of linguistic productivity arises from the quantitative considerations of rules and exceptions. The learner postulates a productive rule only if it results in a more efficient organization of language, with the number of exceptions fallingbelow a critical threshold.

Supported by a wide range of cases with corpus evidence, Yang's Tolerance Principle gives a unified account of many long-standing puzzles in linguistics and psychology, including why children effortlessly acquire rules of language that perplex otherwise capable adults. His focus on computational efficiency provides novel insight on how language interacts with the other components of cognition and how the ability for language might haveemergedduring the course of human evolution.

By: Charles Yang (University of Pennsylvania)
Imprint: MIT Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 21mm
Weight: 499g
ISBN: 9780262035323
ISBN 10: 0262035324
Series: The MIT Press
Pages: 280
Publication Date: 14 October 2016
Recommended Age: From 18
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Charles Yang teaches Linguistics and Computer Science and directs the Program in Cognitive Science at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author ofKnowledge and Learning in Natural LanguageandThe Infinite Gift, and is currently writing a book on language change.