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In:Perspectives on Input, Evidence, and Exposure in Language Acquisition: Studies in honour of Susanne E. Carroll
Edited by Lindsay Hracs
[Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 69] 2024
► pp. 16–51

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Chapter 2
Linguistic approaches to language acquisition

Looking back at the formative years of a unified language acquisition theory

 | University of Hamburg
Published online: 26 August 2024
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https://doi.org/10.1075/lald.69.02mei
Abstract
Acquisition research is an integral part of contemporary linguistic theorizing. 50 years ago, this was not the case. Change came about following a theoretical reorientation that established linguistics as a cognitive science, defining mental grammars as the prime object of study. Here I review an early proposal for developmental psycholinguistics and show how it shaped subsequent research, inspired by grammatical and acquisition theory. Summarizing analyses of German verb placement by L1 and L2 learners, I argue that this research of the 1970–80s achieved important insights into properties of learner grammars, discovered acquisition orders and established similarities as well as differences between L1 and L2 acquisition.
Article outline
  • Avant-propos
  • 1.Beginnings
  • 2.The cognitive turn
  • 3.Developmental psycholinguistics
  • 4.Towards a unified language acquisition theory
  • 5.Linguistic approaches to language development
    • 5.1Grammatical properties to be acquired: An illustrative example
    • 5.2First language acquisition
    • 5.3Second language acquisition
  • 6.The developmental problem
  • 7.Closure
  • Notes
  • References
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