Kenneth Wexler
Biographic Data
| ID | 809980 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Kenneth Wexler |
| GIVEN NAMES | Kenneth |
| FAMILY NAME | Wexler |
| SIGNATURE | WEXLER K |
| AFFILIATIONS | Institute of Cognitive and Brain Sciences |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 73 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 17 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1975 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
On Realizing External Arguments
We present an account of why disjoint reference effects obtain in verbal but not in adjectival passives. Passives in child language are independently argued to always be adjectival, which allows us to use a natural experiment in child grammar that is not available in the adult grammar: predicting the lack of a disjoint reference effect in even those passives that prima facie seem verbal. We conduct our discussion against the background of the dif…
Copula Omission in Down Syndrome
This paper explores the nature of copula omission in Cypriot Greek individuals with Down Syndrome (DS). Previous studies on DS have attributed high rates of copula omission to an overall grammatical/inflectional impairment without offering further analysis. In order to identify relevant conditioning factors, we examined copula productions and omissions from spontaneous and elicited experimental tasks under five levels of analysis: categorial type…
The morphosyntactic development of case in Down syndrome
That ’s not so different from the
This article investigates how adult Korean-speaking learners of English interpret English definite descriptions ( the book, the books) and demonstrative descriptions ( that book, those books). Korean lacks articles, but has demonstratives, and it is hypothesized that transfer leads learners to (initially) equate definites with demonstratives. Following J Hawkins (1991) , Roberts (2002) and Wolter (2006) , it is assumed that definite and demonstra…
Article Semantics in L2 Acquisition
Studies of second-language (L2) acquisition have often addressed the issue of parameter-setting among L2 learners. Much work has been done on the setting of syntactic parameters in L2 acquisition-e.g., the verb-raising parameter (see White (1990/1991), among others), the V2-parameter (see Robertson and Sorace (1999), among others), and the Governing Category Parameter (GCP) (see Finer and Broselow (1986), among others). A major question addressed…
Verbal Syntax and Morphology in Typically Developing Dutch Children and Children With Sli
This paper is a study of normal and impaired (SLI) linguistic development, especially in verbal morphology and syntax. The paper studies both linguistic development and how developmental phenomena provide evidence for adult linguistic theory. We use extensive developmental data to test models of normal and impaired development that have been applied to other languages-in particular, the Agr/Tense Omission Model (ATOM). We develop detailed models …
Why is ‘is’ easier than ‘-s’
This study of first-language (L1) Russian children acquiring English as a second language (L2) investigates the reasons behind omission of verbal inflection in L2 acquisition and argues for presence of functional categories in L2 grammar. Analyses of spontaneous production data show that the child L2 learners ( n = 20), while omitting inflection, almost never produce incorrect tense/agreement morphology. Furthermore, the L2 learners use suppletiv…
The Maturation of Grammatical Principles
This article tests the hypothesis that young children have a maturational difficulty with A-chain formation that makes them unable to represent unaccusative verbs in an adultlike fashion. We report the results of a test of children's performance on the genitive-of-negation construction in Russian, which, for adults, is an "unaccusativity diagnostic," since genitive case is allowed to appear on the underlying direct object argument of unaccusative…
Toward Tense as a Clinical Marker of Specific Language Impairment in English-Speaking Children
A critical clinical issue is the identification of a clinical marker, a linguistic form or principle that can be shown to be characteristic of children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI). In this paper we evaluate, as candidate clinical markers, a set of morphemes that mark Tense. In English, this includes - s third person singular, - ed regular past, BE , and DO . According to the Extended Optional Infinitive Account (EOI) of Rice, Wexler, …
Specific Language Impairment as a Period of Extended Optional Infinitive
English-speaking children with specific language impairment (SLI) are known to have particular difficulty with the acquisition of grammatical morphemes that carry tense and agreement features, such as the past tense -ed and third-person singular present - s . In this study, an Extended Optional Infinitive (EOI) account of SLI is evaluated. In this account, - ed, -s, BE , and DO are regarded as finiteness markers. This model predicts that finitene…
Children's development of long-distance binding in Chinese
The Full Competence Hypothesis of Clause Structure in Early German
We argue that young German children have the major functional sentential heads, in particular the inflectional and complementizer systems. The major empirical basis is natural production data from a 25-month-old child. We perform quantitative analyses which show that the full complement of functional categories is available to the child, and that what crucially distinguishes the child's grammar from the adult's is the use of infinitives in matrix…
Children's Knowledge of Locality Conditions in Binding as Evidence for the Modularity of Syntax and Pragmatics
We report three experiments concerning English-speaking children's knowledge of locality conditions in the binding of reflexives and pronouns (Principles A and B). The children tested were between the ages of 2;6 and 6;6. By age 6, children know that a reflexive must be locally bound. At the same age, however, they appear to not know that a pronoun may not be locally bound. We suggest that children are missing a pragmatic principle, not the synta…
The Maturation of Syntax
Parameters and Learnability in Binding Theory
Formal Principles of Language Acquisition
Learning-Theoretic Foundations of Linguistic Universals
Some aspects of a theory of grammar are presented which derive from a formal theory of language acquisition. One aspect of the theory is a universal constraint on analyzability known as the Freezing Principle, which supplants a variety of constraints proposed in the literature. A second aspect of the theory is the Invariance Principle, a constraint on the relationship between semantic and syntactic structure that makes verifiable predictions of s…
The Full Competence Hypothesis of Clause Structure in Early German
We argue that young German children have the major functional sentential heads, in particular the inflectional and complementizer systems. The major empirical basis is natural production data from a 25-month-old child. We perform quantitative analyses which show that the full complement of functional categories is available to the child, and that what crucially distinguishes the child's grammar from the adult's is the use of infinitives in matrix…
Why is ‘is’ easier than ‘-s’
This study of first-language (L1) Russian children acquiring English as a second language (L2) investigates the reasons behind omission of verbal inflection in L2 acquisition and argues for presence of functional categories in L2 grammar. Analyses of spontaneous production data show that the child L2 learners ( n = 20), while omitting inflection, almost never produce incorrect tense/agreement morphology. Furthermore, the L2 learners use suppletiv…
The Maturation of Grammatical Principles
This article tests the hypothesis that young children have a maturational difficulty with A-chain formation that makes them unable to represent unaccusative verbs in an adultlike fashion. We report the results of a test of children's performance on the genitive-of-negation construction in Russian, which, for adults, is an "unaccusativity diagnostic," since genitive case is allowed to appear on the underlying direct object argument of unaccusative…
Verbal Syntax and Morphology in Typically Developing Dutch Children and Children With Sli
This paper is a study of normal and impaired (SLI) linguistic development, especially in verbal morphology and syntax. The paper studies both linguistic development and how developmental phenomena provide evidence for adult linguistic theory. We use extensive developmental data to test models of normal and impaired development that have been applied to other languages-in particular, the Agr/Tense Omission Model (ATOM). We develop detailed models …
That ’s not so different from the
This article investigates how adult Korean-speaking learners of English interpret English definite descriptions ( the book, the books) and demonstrative descriptions ( that book, those books). Korean lacks articles, but has demonstratives, and it is hypothesized that transfer leads learners to (initially) equate definites with demonstratives. Following J Hawkins (1991) , Roberts (2002) and Wolter (2006) , it is assumed that definite and demonstra…
On Realizing External Arguments
We present an account of why disjoint reference effects obtain in verbal but not in adjectival passives. Passives in child language are independently argued to always be adjectival, which allows us to use a natural experiment in child grammar that is not available in the adult grammar: predicting the lack of a disjoint reference effect in even those passives that prima facie seem verbal. We conduct our discussion against the background of the dif…
Learning-Theoretic Foundations of Linguistic Universals
Some aspects of a theory of grammar are presented which derive from a formal theory of language acquisition. One aspect of the theory is a universal constraint on analyzability known as the Freezing Principle, which supplants a variety of constraints proposed in the literature. A second aspect of the theory is the Invariance Principle, a constraint on the relationship between semantic and syntactic structure that makes verifiable predictions of s…
Formal Principles of Language Acquisition
The Maturation of Syntax
Parameters and Learnability in Binding Theory
Children's Knowledge of Locality Conditions in Binding as Evidence for the Modularity of Syntax and Pragmatics
We report three experiments concerning English-speaking children's knowledge of locality conditions in the binding of reflexives and pronouns (Principles A and B). The children tested were between the ages of 2;6 and 6;6. By age 6, children know that a reflexive must be locally bound. At the same age, however, they appear to not know that a pronoun may not be locally bound. We suggest that children are missing a pragmatic principle, not the synta…
Children's development of long-distance binding in Chinese
The Full Competence Hypothesis of Clause Structure in Early German
We argue that young German children have the major functional sentential heads, in particular the inflectional and complementizer systems. The major empirical basis is natural production data from a 25-month-old child. We perform quantitative analyses which show that the full complement of functional categories is available to the child, and that what crucially distinguishes the child's grammar from the adult's is the use of infinitives in matrix…
Specific Language Impairment as a Period of Extended Optional Infinitive
English-speaking children with specific language impairment (SLI) are known to have particular difficulty with the acquisition of grammatical morphemes that carry tense and agreement features, such as the past tense -ed and third-person singular present - s . In this study, an Extended Optional Infinitive (EOI) account of SLI is evaluated. In this account, - ed, -s, BE , and DO are regarded as finiteness markers. This model predicts that finitene…
Toward Tense as a Clinical Marker of Specific Language Impairment in English-Speaking Children
A critical clinical issue is the identification of a clinical marker, a linguistic form or principle that can be shown to be characteristic of children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI). In this paper we evaluate, as candidate clinical markers, a set of morphemes that mark Tense. In English, this includes - s third person singular, - ed regular past, BE , and DO . According to the Extended Optional Infinitive Account (EOI) of Rice, Wexler, …
The Maturation of Grammatical Principles
This article tests the hypothesis that young children have a maturational difficulty with A-chain formation that makes them unable to represent unaccusative verbs in an adultlike fashion. We report the results of a test of children's performance on the genitive-of-negation construction in Russian, which, for adults, is an "unaccusativity diagnostic," since genitive case is allowed to appear on the underlying direct object argument of unaccusative…
Why is ‘is’ easier than ‘-s’
This study of first-language (L1) Russian children acquiring English as a second language (L2) investigates the reasons behind omission of verbal inflection in L2 acquisition and argues for presence of functional categories in L2 grammar. Analyses of spontaneous production data show that the child L2 learners ( n = 20), while omitting inflection, almost never produce incorrect tense/agreement morphology. Furthermore, the L2 learners use suppletiv…
Article Semantics in L2 Acquisition
Studies of second-language (L2) acquisition have often addressed the issue of parameter-setting among L2 learners. Much work has been done on the setting of syntactic parameters in L2 acquisition-e.g., the verb-raising parameter (see White (1990/1991), among others), the V2-parameter (see Robertson and Sorace (1999), among others), and the Governing Category Parameter (GCP) (see Finer and Broselow (1986), among others). A major question addressed…
Verbal Syntax and Morphology in Typically Developing Dutch Children and Children With Sli
This paper is a study of normal and impaired (SLI) linguistic development, especially in verbal morphology and syntax. The paper studies both linguistic development and how developmental phenomena provide evidence for adult linguistic theory. We use extensive developmental data to test models of normal and impaired development that have been applied to other languages-in particular, the Agr/Tense Omission Model (ATOM). We develop detailed models …
That ’s not so different from the
This article investigates how adult Korean-speaking learners of English interpret English definite descriptions ( the book, the books) and demonstrative descriptions ( that book, those books). Korean lacks articles, but has demonstratives, and it is hypothesized that transfer leads learners to (initially) equate definites with demonstratives. Following J Hawkins (1991) , Roberts (2002) and Wolter (2006) , it is assumed that definite and demonstra…
The morphosyntactic development of case in Down syndrome
Copula Omission in Down Syndrome
This paper explores the nature of copula omission in Cypriot Greek individuals with Down Syndrome (DS). Previous studies on DS have attributed high rates of copula omission to an overall grammatical/inflectional impairment without offering further analysis. In order to identify relevant conditioning factors, we examined copula productions and omissions from spontaneous and elicited experimental tasks under five levels of analysis: categorial type…
On Realizing External Arguments
We present an account of why disjoint reference effects obtain in verbal but not in adjectival passives. Passives in child language are independently argued to always be adjectival, which allows us to use a natural experiment in child grammar that is not available in the adult grammar: predicting the lack of a disjoint reference effect in even those passives that prima facie seem verbal. We conduct our discussion against the background of the dif…
Linguistics (16 works) · Psychology (16 works) · Language Development and Disorders (13 works) · Philosophy (12 works) · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation (12 works) · Computer Science (9 works) · Developmental psychology (5 works) · Verb (5 works) · Grammar (4 works) · Philosophy (4 works)