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Nature 425, 768-769 (23 October 2003) | doi:10.1038/425768a

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Listen, learn and construct

Eve V. Clark1

BOOK REVIEWEDConstructing a Language: A Usage-Based Theory of Language Acquisition

byMichael Tomasello


Harvard University Press: 2003. 388 pp. $45, £29.95

In 1965, Noam Chomsky posited that linguistic theory should be able to account for how children acquire a first language. In so doing, he triggered debates that have lasted ever since.