Argument structure and the child’s contribution to language learning

whether children are able to learn language (or any-thing) because they are equipped with a very powerful general-purpose learning mechanism or because they are equipped with a domain-specific constrained langu-age acquisition device. Recent advances in statistical approaches to language learning seem to boost the plausibility of general-purpose learning. However, in this article we propose that in the domain of verb learn-ing, children rely more on their internally generated pre-conceptions about linguistic structure than on robust cues in the input, suggesting that at least in this aspect of language learning, domain-specific grammatical knowledge guides linguistic development. A much-debated question in the literature of language learning concerns who is in the driver’s seat. Is th