Little linguist: summary

[Matthew Saxton]

Many thanks to those people who took the trouble to address my
question about the provenance of 'child as little linguist.'

The responses were many, varied and interesting. My own
suspicion was Chomsky, and I was not alone in this, but Robin
Campbell and Patrick Griffiths, trace it back further: Sully, J.
(1895). Studies of Childhood. London: Longmans, Green & Co.
(Chapter V).

For linguistic train spotters (all of us?), you will observe that the
date differs from the one offered by Robin in his posting. The
catalogue at Senate House library in London was my source here.

However, the "little linguist" may be even older than this. Isabelle
Barrière suggests I track down the writings of Jan Amos
Komensky from the 17th century (I'll try!).

More recent incarnations suggested to me include: (1) Lila
Gleitman from an early Cognition article and (2) Virginia Valian
from her work in the early 1980s.

Finally, the child has also made its appearance as a "little
scientist", for example, in: Gopnik, A. & Meltzoff, A. (1997).
Words, thoughts and theories. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.