ABSTRACT
The field of language development has undergone several 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 researchers active in this work (from people who identify themselves as linguists and psychologists to people who identify themselves as linguists, psychologists, 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 relationship between language and cognition through development?
