On the Delayed Acquisition of Functional Categories

Abstract

According to the language acquisition studies in the generative tradition, all the various modules of Universal Grammar (UG) are hypothesized to be ready to activate from the very beginning, requiring only a limited amount of experience to make them operative (cf. Pinker, 1984). This view has been referred to as the Continuity Hypothesis. In contrast, the Maturational Hypothesis (cf. Borer and Wexler, 1987) argues that the modules of UG themselves develop gradually, in the sense that a certain UG Principle becomes available only after a certain period of maturation.