On structure-dependent grammars: a reply to Mabry.

In a recent paper, Mabry (1993) examines various aspects of Skinner's (1957) treatment of grammar, and he compares it with cognitivist approaches. Mabry gives convincing reasons for concluding that Skinner's approach is superior. But Mabry virtually ignores one of the most important features of grammatical behavior, namely, its structure dependence. Since Chomsky's main argument against Skinner's treatment of verbal behavior is based on this feature, Mabry's analysis must be expanded to include a behavior-analytic treatment of it. Only then can real progress be made in bringing cognitivists closer to functional analyses of verbal behavior. A brief outline of a behavior-analytic explanation of structure dependence is given in the present paper.