Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utcsrgv.UUCP 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