3 395 rules g vanden wyngaerd writes 3 387 martti arnold nyman manyman finuha bitnet writes 1 man tall _ _ room b man _ _ tall room would less random distribution 1a 1b expectable acquisition stage speakers unfailingly pattern children base inductive generalizations produce 1a assumption implicit nyman question children produce hear plainly incorrect children hear forms like buyed eated goed yet go stage produce forms make generalisations rules like go beyond hear given main source evidence yesno questions child disposal overwhelmingly consist simple sentences form man _ _ room child could make generalisation either way terms linear precedence front first finite verb yielding 1b terms hierarchical structure front finite verb follows subject yielding 1a fact children make mistakes respect ie form 1b clearly shows rule one learned experience relevant experience rich enough determine nature rule able explain absence mistakes number interesting things wyngaerd statement 1 forms like buyed goed eated may occur child speech minority vast majority attempts irregular verbs produced correctly gary marcus colleagues mit monograph yet children tend produce least statistically 2 assumption made absence data children rarely hear adults produce sentences like 1a amazing claim doubt true 3 even true wyngaerd making generalizations learning absence theory learning last two things unfortunately common think ok say data sure would x expect people take seriously theory learning sure would nt predict x phonologist nt kept changes syntactic theory sure would nt allowed get away statements like reasonable formal theory syntax sure could nt accommodate subjaux inversion theories formal syntax must wrong statement different kind ones one last statement implicit much work linguistics theory genetics ontogeny evolutionary biology sure modern linguistic assumptions innateness would fit real well maybe ask bit often joe stemberger