Most learning theories agree that the productivity of a rule or a pattern relies on regular
exemplars being dominant over exceptions; the threshold for productivity is, however …

This study traces the development of discrete, combinatorial structure in Zinacantec Family
Homesign ('Z Sign'), a sign language developed since the 1970s by several deaf siblings in …

General principles of human cognition can help to explain why languages are more likely to
have certain characteristics than others: structures that are difficult to process or produce will …

Albanian comprises two main dialects, Gheg and Tosk, as well as a Tosk-based standard
variety. The study was concerned with the extent to which the vocalic system of Southern …

ABSTRACT A growing body of evidence suggests children acquire linguistic variation and
follow grammatical constraints on its use from a young age. While prior research …

We begin by thanking the commentators for their insightful and critical commentaries on our
keynote article Children's Acquisition of Morphosyntactic Variation. In the keynote article, we …

How does the preference for dependency length minimization (DLM) develop in early child
language? This study takes up this question with the dative alternation in English as the test …

Previous research has shown that spatial language is sensitive to the effects of delayed
language exposure. Locative encodings of late-signing deaf adults varied from those of …

While the ability of recursion is considered universally available, there are considerable
cross-and with-linguistic differences regarding the rules for recursive embedding, which …

Language contact implies more variation in language use, both in the individual and in the
community. This increased variation can accelerate language change, but it can also halt it …