Functional organization of speech across the life span: A critique of generative phonology

Abstract

Generative (Chomskyan) linguistics has a number of conceptual problems impeding its acceptance into modern cognitive science. A major issue centers on Uniformitarianism, the assumption that the supposed innate core of language - Universal Grammar - has remained the same since its instantaneous origin and remains basically the same (exhibits continuity) throughout ontogeny. Other problems, noted by George Miller, are emphasis on structure rather than function, on competence rather than performance, as well as the tendency to regard simplifications as explanations. We illustrate these problems in the domain of speech acquisition, which, rather than exhibiting continuity, involves a progression from a syllable reduplication mode to an opposite syllable variegation mode. We present an alternative Neodarwinian conceptualization -the Frame/Content theory - in which the time domain is central for both phylogeny and ontogeny. According to this theory the reduplication-to-variegation progression in the ontogeny of speech (from syllabic Frames to segmental Content) is considered to recapitulate its phylogeny.