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From: ok@quintus.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.ai,sci.lang
Subject: Re: Language Learning (anecdotes)
Message-ID: <435@cresswell.quintus.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 4-Dec-87 22:24:50 EST
Article-I.D.: cresswel.435
Posted: Fri Dec  4 22:24:50 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 8-Dec-87 07:29:22 EST
References: <1966@uwmacc.UUCP> <12400009@iuvax> <1117@uhccux.UUCP> <2048@uwmacc.UUCP>
Organization: Quintus Computer Systems, Mountain View, CA
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Xref: utgpu comp.ai:1122 sci.lang:1653
Summary: children don't learn their native language

Maybe it's my ignorance showing, but everyone seems to be asking the
question "children can learn their native language perfectly (as in:
without an accent), can adults learn languages perfectly too, and if
not why not?".  It seems to me that the first part of this question
is false:  children do NOT learn to speak the same language as their
parents.  This is particularly clear in the case of slang and metaphor
(I *still* don't know what "twenty-three skidoo" meant), but I quite
certainly haven't got the same accent as my parents, and in my own
country "age dialects" seemed more obvious to me than "regional" dialects.
Speakers of a language where "silly" once meant "happy" shouldn't rush
to assume that children have some magical skill lost to adults.