Input Variability

It is obvious that the input a child receives ultimately determines that language they will end up acquiring: children exposed to English learn English, and children exposed to Japanese learn Japanese. Beyond that truism, however, lie interesting questions about how the properties of the input shape the child’s scquisition process. We are interested in two main questions regarding the role of the input on the acquisition process:

• How does variability in the input affect acquisition?
• How does (un)reliability of the input affect acquisition?