The Richness of thePoverty of the Stimulus

Julie Anne LegateUniversity of DelawareCharles YangYale UniversityGolden Anniversary of LSLTLSA Institute, Harvard/MITJuly 16th 2005

The Argument from thePoverty of the Stimulusin LSLT

“In LSLT the `psychological analogue’ tothe methodological problem of constructinglinguistic theory is not discussed, but itlay in the immediate background of my ownthinking.”“To raise the issue seemed to me, at thetime, too audacious.” Introduction

LSLT

“a grammar is justified by showing that itfollows from a given abstract theory oflinguistic structure.”“The abstract theory must have the propertythat for each language, the highest-valued grammar for that language meets theexternal criteria of adequacy” p65