[Corpora-List] No poverty of the stimulus

[John F. Sowa]

I agree with that point:

> I would add that the claims made by "poverty of stimulus" linguists
> about missing evidence in the language case are often just factually
> wrong (and I have documented this at length in various of my own
> writings).  But it is not necessary to make that point in order to
> defeat the "poverty of stimulus" argument for innate knowledge of
> language.  The comparison with natural science is enough on its own.

But I would also add that children do get plenty of negative feedback.
During the learning process, two kinds of data must be considered:
the utterances children hear and the reactions to the utterances they
generate.

A parent's suggested corrections, which some studies indicate are not
significant, are just a tiny fraction of the total number of reactions
to poorly formed utterances.  More common examples include blank stares,
inappropriate responses, repeated requests to repeat, or even ridicule.

John Sowa


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