First Language Acquisition, Linguistic Theory of

Chomsky's theory of Universal Grammar (UG) is introduced to explain children's rapid convergence on the grammar of their local language. A system of innate principles and parameters guides children's acquisition of language. Children are shown to misset certain parameters causing them to hypothesize properties not observed in the language of the community. Children's temporary missteps are put aright with input from the surrounding language. The misset parameters are predicted by the theory of UG but not anticipated by usage-based theories of language acquisition.