Marcus and his colleagues found that infants can recognize and generalize simple language-like rules. Of course, babies of this age don't literally know nouns, verbs, and adjectives. But our results show that they understand the algebra of how to put words together into sentences.
Abstract rules form the core of everything from computer programs to grammars.
Far from being passive, babies are active learners, constantly trying to understand the world around them, always analyzing the world and looking for regularities. Our results may have important implications for the diagnosis and treatment of language disorders. If we can spot children at risk for language problems while they are still infants, we may be able to keep problems from developing. For each infant, all the sentences within the set followed a uniform structure. Each infant was then presented with a new set of 3-word sentences.