Functionalist linguistic theory and language acquisition

Most theoretical work in developmental psycholinguists has been informed by ideas from formalist linguistic theories, and this paper argues that functionalist linguistic theories, in particular Role and Reference Grammar, have much to contribute to theories of language acquisition. The contrasts between formalist and functionalist linguistic theories and their differing implications for acquisition are characterized, and then specific areas of acquisition are discussed: the acquisition of tense, aspect, modality and negation, and the learning of the constraints on extraction phenomena known as ‘island constraints’ or ‘subiacency’ from evidence readily available to the child. Finally, the consequences of this account of extraction constraints for the issue of modularity are explored.