Approaches to the study of language acquisition differ in their fundamental epistemological assumptions. These assumptions underlie the choice of which questions researchers ask, and which methodologies they choose. Approaches may provide (a) developmental descriptions, such as in the research paradigm initiated by Roger Brown at Harvard (1973b), (b) formal logical or mathematical analyses of the language acquisition problem, (c) computational modeling of various language acquisition behaviors, or (d) psycholinguistic studies of language acquisition led by specific hypotheses derived from linguistic theory. The tensions reflected here have interested philosophers for many centuries.

Theoretical approaches to the study of language acquisition

Classical approaches to epistemology

Table 4.1 summarizes basic properties of two classically opposed approaches to the representation and acquisition of knowledge. They differ in their views of: (a) the ultimate source of knowledge (either external and led by environmental input or internal, led by the structure of the mind); (b) mechanisms of acquisition; (c) characteristics of the Initial State, i.e., whether or not innate “knowledge” of some form exists. A rationalist perspective proposes some innate competence (thus the term “nativist” is often used). In a classical empiricist paradigm, “learning” based on input explains all knowledge; the Initial State therefore is a tabula rasa. (See Wilson 1999 for overview.)