
acquisition of language
although the work of bullowa, jones, and bever has some of its greatest
promise in the light it may shed on the development of functions of language
in children, the promise cannot be realized unless the authors give
a great deal of explicit attention to the framework of such analysis, for there
is not, as may be the case for phonological and grammatical development,
anything like a satisfactory body of linguistic theory and method as to the
terminal state.  while a good deal may be learned without such a theory, and
necessarily must be so learned, since the work in progress cannot be suspended
until such an unpredictable millenium, it still would be a pity if the
chance were lost for the interaction of the acquisition of data and the
improvement of theoretical notions.
let me complete my discussion by developing my argument in two
ways: (a) by briefly stating the nature of the problem with regard to the
terminal state of verbal development, (b) and by indicating what present
and future contribution such fields as anthropology, sociology, and social
psychology may be able to make to the solution of the problem.
