Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!ll-xn!nike!oliveb!glacier!SU-Russell!goldberg
From: goldberg@SU-Russell.ARPA (Jeffrey Goldberg)
Newsgroups: net.nlang,net.ai
Subject: Re: Q:  How can structure be learned?  A:  PDP
Message-ID: <190@SU-Russell.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 19-Aug-86 14:03:03 EDT
Article-I.D.: SU-Russe.190
Posted: Tue Aug 19 14:03:03 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 20-Aug-86 23:10:30 EDT
References: <2814@sdcc6.ucsd.EDU>
Reply-To: goldberg@SU-Russell.UUCP (Jeffrey Goldberg)
Organization: Stanford University, CSLI
Lines: 37
Keywords: long but worth it
Xref: mnetor net.nlang:2129 net.ai:1093

I wish to make it clear that my onw opinions are not reflected by
the quote made...
In article <2814@sdcc6.ucsd.EDU> ix133@sdcc6.ucsd.EDU (Catherine L. Harris) writes:

>Jeffrey Goldberg says (in an immediately preceding article),
>
>> Chomsky has set him self up asking the question:  "How can children,
>> given a finite amount of input, learn a language?"  The only answer
>> could be that children are equipped with a large portion of language to
>> begin with.  If something is innate than it will show up in all
>> languages (a universal), and if something is unlearnable then it, too,
>> must be innate (and therefore universal).
>
In that paragraph, I was presenting the Chomsky view (and
ridiculing it).  For those of you who didn't not see my original
posting, it is in net.nlang.

I will refrain from presenting a lengthy response to Harris's
posting.  (I have work to do, and I sent more over the net in the
past week then I ahve in my entire life.)  But I will say that her
attack on language universals is an attack on Chomsky, and there
are people (linguists even) who believe in language universals, but
share her objections to the Chomsky line.  I realize that my
original posting was very long (and should have been edited down),
but I would suggest to Cathrine Harris that she make a hard copy of
it, and read it more carefully.  She will find that we agree more
than we disagree.

>Cathy Harris 	"Sweating it out on the reaction time floor -- what,
>		when you could be in that ole armchair theo-- ? Never mind;
>		it's only til 1990!"

-Jeff Goldberg {ucbvax, pyramid}!glacier!russell!goldberg
-- 
/* 
**  Jeff Goldberg (best reached at GOLDBERG@SU-CSLI.ARPA)
*/