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Development of the concept of “the poverty of the stimulus”
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Margaret Thomas
Published/Copyright:
February 27, 2008
Abstract
‘The poverty of the stimulus’ is a key concept within generative linguistics. This article attempts in three ways to better understand the nature of that concept and the context of its use: first, by narrating its history from the late 1950s to the present day; second, by analyzing the properties of a family of terms (including “the poverty of the stimulus”) which generativists have developed to refer to the relationship between input to language learners and their linguistic competence; and third, by examining some examples of how “the poverty of the stimulus” has been differently construed in recent discourse about linguistics and about language acquisition.
Published Online: 2008-02-27
Published in Print: 2002-06-26
© Walter de Gruyter
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Articles in the same Issue
- Introduction
- Empirical assessment of stimulus poverty arguments
- Development of the concept of “the poverty of the stimulus”
- Exploring the richness of the stimulus
- Understanding stimulus poverty arguments
- On the poverty of the challenge
- Empirical re-assessment of stimulus poverty arguments
- Why language acquisition is a snap
- Searching for arguments to support linguistic nativism
Articles in the same Issue
- Introduction
- Empirical assessment of stimulus poverty arguments
- Development of the concept of “the poverty of the stimulus”
- Exploring the richness of the stimulus
- Understanding stimulus poverty arguments
- On the poverty of the challenge
- Empirical re-assessment of stimulus poverty arguments
- Why language acquisition is a snap
- Searching for arguments to support linguistic nativism
