Book review of, Child language acquisition: Contrasting theoretical approaches. Ben Ambridge and Elena V. M. Lieven

Aliyah Morgenstern (1)

1 PRISMES - PRISMES - Langues, Textes, Arts et Cultures du Monde Anglophone - EA 4398

This paper is a four page review of the Abridge-Lieven book on child language acquisition. The authors of this impressive book have taken up the challenge of opening a fruitful dialogue between generative and constructivist approaches to child language. Their work makes careful analyses of opposing theories and the results of a great body of research papers in a range of fields (phonology, including both perception and production; word meaning and word learning; grammar acquisition; inflection; simple and complex syntax; binding). The volume presents a remarkable state of the art review and is an outstanding contribution to the field; it will be useful to teachers and students, as well as members of the scientific community. Indeed, whether readers are newcomers to the field of language acquisition, versed in only one theoretical approach, knowledgeable in only one of the domains explored in the book, or seeking to put different theoretical approaches into perspective, they will find enough here to fulfil their needs.

Mots clés: Language acquisition; generative grammar; constructivist approach

Domaines: Linguistique

Aliyah Morgenstern. Book review of, Child language acquisition: Contrasting theoretical approaches. Ben Ambridge and Elena V. M. Lieven. First Language, 2013, 33 (3), pp.321-325. ⟨10.1177/0142723712454953⟩. ⟨halshs-01350589⟩