Re: First language acquisition

Greg Lee wrote:

Brian M. Scott wrote:
...
Transmission fidelity here refers to the accuracy with which
genes are transmitted, and the whole point is that it
*isn't* 100%. But as John has been explaining, there does
not appear to be any way to reconcile the P&P model with the
fact that a child of any linguistic heritage can learn any
human language as its L1 *unless* the genetic complex that
determines the parameters -- not the settings, but the
parameters themselves, and the mechanisms by which they're
set -- is regularly transmitted without error.

I just don't follow that. What's the evidence that
it's transmitted without error? What if the transmission
fidelity (whatever that is!)

That comment in parentheses finally nails it for me. That and your
other comments convince me that you should perhaps learn a bit more
about basic evolutionary theory before attempting to jump into a
discussion that, essentially, requires at least a beginner's level
of familiarity.

The fact you aren't even familiar with the term "transmission"
to refer to the transfer of information (specfically genetic here,
since we're talking about genes in this thread, but it could be
cultural if we were having this discussion in alt.memetics, for
example) is not a good sign that you understand what this is about.

And as for not knowing the meaning of "fidelity" in the context
of evolutionary theory... Read almost any popular science book
on evolution and if it's one which places the emphasis on a
replicator-based system then you won't be able to avoid tripping
over the three requisites for replicator-based evolution: longevity,
fecundity, and copying-fidelity. First explained in layman's terms
in Dawkins's _The Selfish Gene_ (originally 1976, second edition
1989), and repeated many times in many books ever since. It's not
a difficult read, honest.

was 95% rather than 100%? What would we be observing that we don't
actually observe?

That would mean 5% of the parents' information contained in the genes
would be different in the next generation. If we're talking solely
about the proposed P&P part of the genome then that would mean 5% of
the P&P structure would be different. The surface effects? If any
of that 5% affected the characteristics or the behaviour of a Parameter
then the child's acquisition of language which depended on that
particular Parameter would be different compared to its parents.
Most likely, because of the nature of genetic mutation, the chances
are that this difference would be a detrimental one, meaning that the
child would be defective in whatever aspect of the language that
Parameter was responsible for.

What are you talking about?

Hmm.

I don't mind having discussions with people who aren't familiar with
the terms and concepts I'm using. As you can see from my messages
here, I don't mind taking time to explain in detail just what the hell
I'm talking about when I launch off into subject-specific jargon. But
if you're going to launch criticism at me without even taking the
time to find out what I *am* talking about and simply add dismissive
parenthetical comments rather than admitting that it's a piece of
jargon that you're unfamiliar with then I really don't see why I should
continue replying.

--
johnF
.

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