These operating principles do seem to provide a description of what children do. However, the question of how the child comes to know these principles remains. Some would claim that these principles, which are used only for language, reflect innate knowledge of the human infant. Claiming that the child has complex, language- specific innate knowledge is fairly common in the field of developmental psycholinguistics (e.g., McNeill, 1970). However, often this is equivalent to saying that, since we do not understand the processes of syntax acquisition, we can "account" for it by postulating innate knowledge. This is avoiding questions rather than attempting to answer them.

Slob in also presents a very general principle in regard to the relationship of semantic intentions or "functions" and the means or linguistic "forms" of expressing them: "New forms first express old functions, and new functions are first expressed by old forms" (1971, p. 317). This principle appears to fit neatly into Piaget's processes. First the child acquires a function, that is, a conceptualization which he intends to express. Then he acquires the linguistic means of expressing it, the form. Soon the child acquires a new function. Not yet having the form necessary to express this new function, he uses the old form. However, the old form is not satisfactory for expressing the new function, since others do not always understand what the child intends to communicate. That is, the new functions cannot be fully assimilated to the old forms; a state of disequilibrium exists. Therefore, the forms must develop further to accommodate the new functions and the child's linguistic abilities progress.

These processes of assimilation and accommodation, and the striving to attain a level of equilibrium, are considered by Piaget to be the basic processes involved in cognitive development. Our view attempts to fit language acquisition into the same framework. We see language acquisition as resulting from the child's interaction with his environment, and as being integrated with his other cognitive processes. It seems quite plausible that there are similar processes underlying both cognitive development and language acquisition; it seems quite plausible that assimilation and accommodation capture the essential nature of these processes. With the present state of our knowledge, this is how we view the acquisition of languaging ability.