An extreme view of language acquisition sees base structures as innate, and acquisition of the grammar of a particular language as a process of learning the transformation rules needed to get from base structures to surface structures of adult native speakers. Base structures are understood to most resemble simple-active-affirmative-declarative…

THIS PAPER DISCUSSES THE SELECTION OF A PEDAGOGICAL NORM FOR FRENCH INTERROGATIVE STRUCTURES. SINCE THIS AREA OF FRENCH GRAMMAR IS PARTICULARLY POLYMORPHOUS, OBJECTIVE CRITERIA ARE SET UP TO MAKE THE SELECTION--FREQUENCY, COMPLEXITY, AND EXTENSIVITY. BECAUSE "EST-CE QUE" CAN BE APPLIED WITHOUT EXCEPTION TO ALL TYPES OF KERNEL SENTENCES, IT WAS…

The techniques of transformational grammar can be used effectively to identify and describe significant differences in the language competencies of children at several grade levels. The oral language responses of 150 elementary school children and 30 kindergartners (selected at random) to two silent, animated films of Aesop's "Fables" were…

The 13-year study reported in this monograph attempted to accumulate a mass of longitudinal data on every aspect of linguistic behavior in 211 students representing a cross-section of American urban children. Presented as the major objectives of the study, which followed the subjects from kindergarten through grade 12, are 11 hypotheses to be…