caa a22 4500 386359512 CHVBK 20180307111911.0 cr unu---uuuuu 161130e198910 xx s 000 0 eng 10.1017/S0305000900010795 doi S0305000900010795 pii (NATIONALLICENCE)cambridge-10.1017/S0305000900010795 Gathercole Virginia C. Florida International University Contrast: a semantic constraint? [Elektronische Daten] [Virginia C. Gathercole] This article challenges the position of Clark (1988) with regard to Contrast. The evidence cited in support of this theory from adult languages is far from clear, and the evidence coming from child language admits of alternative explanations. In addition, the ‘logic' of assuming Contrast leads to insurmountable difficulties in the acquisition of irregular forms and allomorphs. An alternative to Contrast is proposed. This draws on the drive towards the adult system, the development of non-linguistic concepts, the acquisition of language in context, and the use of the Co-operative Principle by participants in conversational exchanges to account for those features of language and language acquisition that Contrast was designed to explain. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989 Journal of Child Language Cambridge University Press 16/3(1989-10), 685-702 0305-0009 16:3<685 1989 16 JCL https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000900010795 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000900010795 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Gathercole Virginia C. Florida International University NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Journal of Child Language Cambridge University Press 16/3(1989-10), 685-702 0305-0009 16:3<685 1989 16 JCL CC0 http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0 nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-cambridge