Crosslinguistic research

Abstract

There is considerable variation among the languages of the world in terms of how the grammar is organized. Crosslinguistic research in child language compares developmental patterns in children acquiring differently organized languages. This comparative approach is crucial for testing universalist proposals about how children learn language in addition to demonstrating language- specific learning challenges and patterns. It is a flexible research framework: all the techniques covered in this book can be implemented crosslinguistically; children of any age and adults can be study participants; many domains of language development can be covered. Data from individual languages count as crosslin-guistic research, especially if findings expand or challenge our knowledge about the acquisition of well-studied languages such as Indo-European. Recently, guided by linguistic typology, typologically comparative language development research has been especially prolific. In this chapter crosslinguistic research is exemplified in two domains of child language: (1) morphosyntactic development, and (2) pragmatic development.