How would Chomsky most likely explain a young child saying,"I runned around the house?"
A) the child had previously been reinforced for saying "I run around the house"
B) the child learned the rule for making the past tense of verbs as a result of hearing the speech of others
C) the child imitated an ungrammatical sentence spoken by another child
D) the child imitated the ungrammatical speech of an adult

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Chomsky would likely explain the child's use of "runned" as a result of learning the rule for forming the past tense of verbs, rather than simply copying ungrammatical speech from others. Chomsky's theory of language acquisition suggests that humans have an innate ability to learn grammar and that they actively create rules for language based on the input they receive. Therefore, the child may have heard others say "I ran around the house" and formulated the rule for forming past tense by adding "ed" to the end of the verb.

How Would Chomsky Most Likely Explain a Young Child Saying,"I