ABSTRACT
In the usage-based approach grammatical development is based on (inductive) learning. Learning is crucially distinct from parameter setting and other mechanisms that in generative grammar explain how children ‘hook up’ their linguistic experience to innate universal grammar. This chapter discusses the most important differences between learning and Chomsky’s notion of growth. Learning requires robust data: children will be able to build up representations of grammatical patterns only if they are frequently exposed to the relevant data. In contrast to growth, learning requires repeated exposure to data over an extended period of time. By contrast, growth is basically independent of frequency: parameters can be fixed based on very little data: ‘The theory predicts that minimal exposure to data should be sufficient for parameter setting. Finally, learning and growth make different predictions about the nature of children’s grammatical categories. In the generative approach, it is assumed that children have the same grammatical categories as adult speakers.
