ABSTRACT
The main question to be addressed in this chapter is the following: Is Universal Grammar (UG) reflected in the earliest two-word utterances produced by children? In particular, is the categorial component (Chomsky, 1981) available to the child, so that words can be assigned to lexical categories such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, and prepositions? This question is relevant for the current issue of continuity versus maturation: Are UG principles given from the beginning, or do they have to mature? Many theorists (e.g. Hyams, 1992; Pinker, 1984) adopt a continuity approach, according to which UG principles are available to the language learner from the very earliest stage. Those who argue against continuity (e.g., Borer & Wexler, 1987; Radford, 1990), on the other hand, advocate a maturational approach, according to which various principles of UG are made available to the child at various points in her development, rather than all being available at the very beginning.
