In Syntactic Development, its input and output Anat Ninio offers a fresh look at language acquisition in young children through the lenses of network science. A wonderful and lucid addition to the literature on syntax development that challenges and expands the tools of complexity theory.
Albert-László Barabási, Professor of Physics, Director, Center for Complex Network Research, Northeastern University
Ninio's remarkable synthesis of developmental pragmatics, syntactic minimalism, and complex systems theory provides a new paradigm for the study of child language development. A groundbreaking achievement by one of the most innovative thinkers in the field!
Patricia J. Brooks, Professor of Psychology, College of Staten Island and the Graduate Center, City University of New York
The result of its author's valuable effort to build bridges across theories by testing them against a large data-base of spontaneous adult-child interactions is impressive, provocative, stimulating and sets an example for all researchers in the field.
Aliyah Morgenstein, Professor of Linguistics, Institut du Monde Anglophone, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3
This volume is a must-read for anyone grappling with the intriguing questions of how very young children, with immature brains, manage the communicative breakthrough into simple multiword sentences.
Keith Nelson, Professor of Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University
Ninio provides an intriguing and convincing alternative to nativist explanations of how children arrive at grammar. [...] The book is a tour-de-force of both the contemporary and classic literature on how children develop language, and on techniques ranging from corpus linguistics and developmental psychology to statistical physics.
Twila Tardif, Professor of Psychology, Director, Center for Human Growth and Development, University of Michigan
Compared with other monographs of this type, it is well written and relatively easy to understand. Those with an adequate background, particularly those working in the area of construction grammar, will find Syntactic Development to be a worthwhile purchase.
Shelia M. Kennison, PhD PsychCRITIQUES