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From: srt@CS.UCLA.EDU
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Why can't my cat talk?
Message-ID: <8966@shemp.UCLA.EDU>
Date: Tue, 3-Nov-87 01:04:34 EST
Article-I.D.: shemp.8966
Posted: Tue Nov  3 01:04:34 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 7-Nov-87 04:25:38 EST
References: <11967@decwrl.DEC.COM> <1697@cognos.UUCP> <849@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU>
Sender: root@CS.UCLA.EDU
Reply-To: srt@CS.UCLA.EDU (Scott Turner)
Organization: UCLA Computer Science Department
Lines: 19

In article <849@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU> ruffwork@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU.UUCP (Ritchey Ruff) writes:
>>If it can be shown that feral children re-introduced into society *cannot*
>>acquire natural language skills after they are a certain age...
>
>It seems that Helen Keller would be a counter-example to the 
>"crystallization period" theory, as she was a deaf and blind "feral"
>child but was "educated" LONG after the normally 
>hypothesized "crystallization period".  She could have just been an
>exception, but...

Languages learned after a certain age (by feral children or simply as a second
language by an adult) seem to be learned in a different manner than "native"
languages.  This is not to say that they can't be learned; just that they aren't
learned with the proficiency of a native language.
 
    Scott R. Turner
    UCLA Computer Science     "I wanna be sedated"
    Domain: srt@cs.ucla.edu
    UUCP:  ...!{cepu,ihnp4,trwspp,ucbvax}!ucla-cs!srt