Abstract
This response argues against the proposal that novel utterances are formed by analogy with stored exemplars that are close in meaning. Strings of words that are similar in meaning or even identical can behave very differently once inserted into different syntactic environments. Furthermore, phrases with similar meanings but different underlying syntactic structures can give rise to disparities in meaning in particular contexts. In short, analogy falls short of explaining both adult knowledge of language and children’s syntactic development.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 596-599 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| Journal | First Language |
| Volume | 40 |
| Issue number | 5-6 |
| Early online date | 6 Feb 2020 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Oct 2020 |
Keywords
- analogy
- formal linguistics
- hierarchical structure
- linguistic principles
- Universal Grammar