An argument that children are born to assign structures to their ambient language, which feeds a view of language variation not based on parameters defined at UG.

In this book, David Lightfoot argues that just as some birds are born to chirp, humans are born to parse--predisposed to assign linguistic structures to their ambient external language. This approach to language acquisition makes two contributions to the development of Minimalist thinking.

David W. Lightfoot is Professor of Linguistics, Director of the Communication, Culture, and Technology Program, and Codirector of the Interdisciplinary PhD Concentration in Cognitive Science at Georgetown University.