Explaining Language Universals

John A. Hawkins is Professor and Chairman of Department in Linguistics at the University of Southern California.

• Part 1 Introduction: explaining language universals, John A.Hawkins. Part 2 Innateness and Learnability: the innateness hypothesis, Teun Hoekstra and Jan G.Kooij Language acquisitions - schemas replace universal grammar, Michael A.Arbib and Jane C.HillThe "no negative evidence" problem - how do children avoid constructing an overly general grammar?, Melissa Bowerman. Max-Planck Institut fur Psycholinguistik, Nijmegen. Part 3 Semantic and Pragmatic Explanations: on semantics and the binding theory, Edward L.KeenanConcessive connecitves and concessive sentences - cross-linguistic regularities and pragmatic principles, Ekkehard KonigA discourse approach to the cross-linguistic category "adjective", Sandra A.ThompsonCoreference and conjunction reduction in grammar and discourse, Bernard Comrie. Part 4 Cognitive, Perceptual and processing explanations: language, perception and the world, Michael LeeParameterizing the language processing system - left-vs. right-branching within and across languages, Lyn Frazier and Keith RaynerPsycholinguistic factors in morphological asymmetry, John A.Hawkins, and Anne Cutler. Part 5 the diachronic dimension: integrating diachronic and processing principles in explaining the suffixing preference, Christopher J.HallThe diachronic dimension in explanation, Joan L.Bybee.