ABSTRACT
The field of language development has undergone several major changes in the course of its brief existence as a discipline. Among these are changes in the focus of study (from syntax, to semantics, to pragmatics), changes in the methods employed and subjects of study (adult intuitions, experiments with children, observations of children, experiments and observations of children with their caregivers), and changes in the training and background of the re searchers active in this work (from people who identify themselves as lin guists and psychologists to people who identify themselves as linguists, psy chologists, anthropologists, philosophers, sociologists, and others). Such changes have been well documented, along with some of the changes in the prevalent theoretical viewpoints on such issues as: Is there a biological basis for language? How much, if any, of language is innate? What is the relation ship between language and cognition through development?
