On the Semantics of the Subset Principle

Abstract

Virtually all generative accounts of language development assume that syntactic acquisition is guided by a learnability constraint called the Subset Principle (SP). In essence, SP forces learners to initially select the value of a parameter that generates the smallest possible language. Recent work on the acquisition of semantics suggests that there also are semantic subset problems; therefore, one needs a Semantic Subset Principle (SSP) to solve these problems. This article shows that (a) to the extent that semantic subset problems exist, the SSP is not the correct solution to them and (b) that semantic subset problems most likely do not exist in the first place. These conclusions have important implications for theories of the acquisition of semantic knowledge and for the study of language acquisition more generally. First, they provide a basis for delimiting the class of problems that theories of the acquisition of semantics ought to be responsible for. Second, these conclusions underscore the fact that data from empirical investigations of child language can be brought to bear on the formulation of linguistic theory.