OPERATING PRINCIPLES
A set of strategies used by an infant which enable it to analyse the utterances it encounters and to formulate its own utterances. Evidence of such strategies has been drawn from a number of languages.
The notion of operating principles (Slobin, 1970, 1985) accounts for the speed and apparent ease with which infants acquire language, but avoids the standard nativist assumption that infants are pre programmed with strong linguistic constraints which form part of a Universal Grammar. Slobin’s operating principles include:
Pay attention to the ends of words.
Words can be modified phonologically.
Pay attention to the order of morphemes and words.
Avoid interrupting or rearranging units.
Underlying semantic relations should be clearly marked.
Avoid exceptions.
The use of grammatical markers is meaningful and systematic.
Certain strategies are prioritised: for example, the child concentrates first on mapping speech on to objects and events. A more recent set of operating criteria (Table O1) extends the notion that acquisition occurs through prioritising certain features.
See also: Bootstrapping
Further reading: Aitchison (1998: 154–9); Taylor and Taylor (1990)
