Nondiscreteness and Variation in Child Language: Implications for Principle and Parameter Models of Language Development

Within the idealizations of linguistic theory, language acquisition is viewed as an “instantaneous” process (Chomsky, 1965). One abstracts away from the effects of maturation as well as issues related to the presentation of data. Actual acquisition is of course not instantaneous. ¹ In normal development children progress through stages, they make errors (errors from the viewpoint of the adult language), and there are delays. The challenge for any developmental theory is to explain these stages, errors, and delays. It must specify those factors—learning, maturational, grammatical, and so forth—that extend the acquisition process beyond the idealized instant.