The issue of domain-specificity in language learning is central to current theoretical debates in the cognitive and linguistic sciences. In my talk, I will review recent studies that seem, at first glance, to contradict one another: sometimes language learning appears to engage domain-specific mechanisms, and sometimes it does not. I will then attempt to integrate these findings into a theory that makes predictions about when one might expect to see apparently domain-specific processes versus domain-general processes. I will conclude with implications for investigations of language disorders and other developmental disabilities.
