Today I was pondering the issue of head directionality of languages – does the head of a phrase come before or after the remaining portion of the phrase. This parameter has been largely disregarded because most languages are inconsistent its use.
However, it occurred to me that infants could rely on the heavy weighting of head directionality when they are first learning a language. By choosing the direction that is predominant and ignoring the incoming utterances of the opposite direction, it would simplify the initial learning phase.
Perhaps someone has already proposed this little insight into child language acquisition.
As I was pondering this, it also occurred to me that the single most important characteristic of a language is that it can be learned by an infant. If the majority of infants in a culture can’t learn the language of their parents, then that language will not persist. It will die out.
Perhaps someone else has already proposed this little insight as well.