Question on Syntactic Bootstrapping

[Doug Harris]

Speaking of _bootstrapping_, I heard an interesting variation
of that (source) word the other day, I believe it was on
NPR, while I was _so_ otherwise engaged I couldn't make a
written note to myself on it:
A man was talking about, I believe, how his town would struggle
together after some disaster or other and "pull its bootstrings
up" and work toward recovery, or whatever.
I'm sorry I can't be more precise on the source.
(the other) doug

-----Original Message-----
From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org [mailto:info-childes at mail.talkbank.org]
On Behalf Of bartsch at zas.gwz-berlin.de
Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2007 5:37 AM
To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org
Subject: Question on Syntactic Bootstrapping

Dear all, 

I have a question on the Syntactic Bootstrapping approach which I surely 
could clarify myself by checking the relevant literature, but for reasons of

time, I thought I could ask you, in the hope some of you out there have the 
answer at hand and/or can indicate some references where I can find it. 

The question is: Is the supposition right that the Syntactic Bootstrapping 
hypothesis posits unlearned (innate) syntactic-semantic correlations and 
mappings (e.g., transitivity --> causality), just as Semantic Bootstrapping 
does, only the other way round (e.g., subject <-- agent)? Or is it the case 
that in Synt. Boot. these categories are learned? Or yet is it the case that

this issue is viewed differently by proponents of Synt. Boot? Or.? 

Thank you very much in advance! 

Best
Susanna 

 

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Susanna Bartsch
https://www.zas.gwz-berlin.de/mitarb/homepage/bartsch/
bartsch at zas.gwz-berlin.de
Zentrum fuer Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, Typologie
und Universalienforschung (ZAS)
Centre for General Linguistics, Typology, and Universals Research
Schuetzenstr. 18
10117 Berlin
Germany
Tel. +49 (0)30 20192562
Fax  +49 (0)30 20192402
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