Two Observations of E. Bates

[Elizabeth Bates]

Does the U-shaped function, then, mean nothing more to P&P than
the claim that errors come and go?  If so, I see little here that cries
out for unique qualitative mechanisms and/or representations, above
and beyond garden-variety learning.  However, even allowing the
weak version of the U that P&P describe, it is still not inevitable
that children begin with irregulars, then over-regularize.  My own
daughter, for example, passed directly into over-regularizations
of "go" and "come" as her first-ever past tense forms.  It seems
to me that the question re whether unitary mental categories are
required (to account for the irregular/regular contrast) ought
to revolve around the presence of evidence for a *qualitative@
difference between the two.  Otherwise, we are merely haggling
over the price.....-liz