Hostname: page-component-74656f9884-npj9w Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-09T05:57:36.169Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Parameter-setting in second language acquisition – explanans and explanandum

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2010

Susanne E. Carroll
Affiliation:
Institute for English and American Studies, Universitaet Potsdam, PF 60 15 53, 14415 Potsdam, Germany. carroll@rz.unl-potsdam.de

Abstract

Much second language acquisition (SLA) research confuses the representational and the developmental problems of language acquisition, assuming that attributes of a property theory will explain the transitions between the stages of a psychogrammar, or that induction will explain the properties of the representational systems which encode language. I argue that Principles and Parameter-setting theory deals only with the representational problem, and that induction must play a role in explaining the developmental problem. The conclusion is that both Epstein et al. and the papers they criticize are right; they are just not right about the same issues.

Information

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable