Okay for content words, but what about functional items?
Though Bloom makes a good case that learning content-word meanings requires no task-specific apparatus, he does not seriously address problems inherent in learning the meanings of functional items. Evidence from creole languages suggests that the latter process presupposes at least some task-specific mechanisms, perhaps including a list of the limited number of semantic distinctions that can be expressed via functional items, as well as default systems that may operate in cases of impoverished input.
Bickerton
Derek
D
Department of Linguistics, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96822 derek@hawaii.edu.