Systematicity and Arbitrariness In Language

This chapter reassesses two traditional ideas about the nature of language—Saussurean arbitrariness and Humboldtian infinity—in light of the modern study of linguistic productivity, language acquisition, and cognitive science. It reviews evidence from child language that productivity is categorical, which enables the language user to overcome the arbitrariness of words with systematic generalizations. Such a conception of productivity place severe constraints on the language learning mechanism that children use to form productive generalizations from a finite number of examples. Special focus is given to the Tolerance Principle, which appears to underlie the acquisition of rules in phonology, morphology, and syntax. The connection between a learning-theoretic approach to language and the structural theory of language is discussed, which may also elucidate the role of language acquisition in children’s conceptual development.