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Path: utzoo!utcsrgv!lgondor
From: lgondor@utcsrgv.UUCP (Les Gondor)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Creole grammars and contrived languages
Message-ID: <1804@utcsrgv.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 20-Jul-83 15:58:58 EDT
Article-I.D.: utcsrgv.1804
Posted: Wed Jul 20 15:58:58 1983
Date-Received: Wed, 20-Jul-83 16:07:27 EDT
Organization: CSRG, University of Toronto
Lines: 17

Given the assumption that a single innate grammar is used by children
when learning a language (with modifications to suit the native language's
grammar), wouldn't it be a worthwhile linguistic exercise to set up a
few contrived languages whose grammars differ progressively more from
a Creole grammar?  

One could then test the persistence of an innate grammar against the
pressure to learn one of the graded non-Creole contrived languages.
If the innate grammar hypothesis is valid, a very non-Creole grammar
would require the most time and effort to master (or even learn to a
significant extent).  The vocabularies of the languages would have to be
kept constant in order to eliminate that source of difficulty.

I have no idea how one would set up the experiment (controls, etc.),
since it involves very young human subjects.

Les Gondor, U of Toronto. {allegra,floyd,ihnp4,decvax!utzoo}!utcsrgv!lgondor