ABSTRACT
W e have minds and in our minds we have th e means for producing and comprehending speech. But how did we learn to produ ce and comprehend speech? At birth we cann ot comprehe nd speec h, nor can we produce speech. Yet, by the age of 4 years we all learn th e basics of our Ianguage. W e acqu ire vocabulary and gramrnatical rul es for creating a variety of sent ence struc tu res including negatives, questions, and relative clauses. And although 4-year-o lds still have passives and some other elahorate syntactic struc tures to learn, along with a never-ending stock of vocabu lary items, by rhar age they will have overcome the most difficult obsracles in langnage learn ing. T his is tru e of children the world over, whatever the langu age may be.
