Properties of parameters and their connection to language acquisition

Properties of parameters and their connection to language acquisition PDF Author: Jens Stuhlemer
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3668578028
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 29

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Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 2,3, University of Cologne, language: English, abstract: This paper is mainly investigating the properties of parameters and their connection to language acquisition. One of the core questions will be, in how far Chomsky ́s assumption of parameters being generally equipped with a default value can be validated. In order to obtain a more detailed account of parameters in language acquisition, a chronological analysis of relevant study areas will be made, moving from a broad perspective to more and more detailed descriptions. This analysis contains a brief overview of the Faculty of Language and the LAD as well as of Universal Grammar, simply because the parameters in question derive from these systems. Afterwards a detailed look will be taken on specific features of parameters, taking Meisel ́s text `Parameters in Acquisition ́ as a basis. To become more specific in order to further question certain features of parameters that have occurred by then, further linguistic fields will be taken into account, namely bilingual studies, neurolinguistics, and computational linguistics.

Properties of parameters and their connection to language acquisition

Properties of parameters and their connection to language acquisition PDF Author: Jens Stuhlemer
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3668578028
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 29

Get Book

Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 2,3, University of Cologne, language: English, abstract: This paper is mainly investigating the properties of parameters and their connection to language acquisition. One of the core questions will be, in how far Chomsky ́s assumption of parameters being generally equipped with a default value can be validated. In order to obtain a more detailed account of parameters in language acquisition, a chronological analysis of relevant study areas will be made, moving from a broad perspective to more and more detailed descriptions. This analysis contains a brief overview of the Faculty of Language and the LAD as well as of Universal Grammar, simply because the parameters in question derive from these systems. Afterwards a detailed look will be taken on specific features of parameters, taking Meisel ́s text `Parameters in Acquisition ́ as a basis. To become more specific in order to further question certain features of parameters that have occurred by then, further linguistic fields will be taken into account, namely bilingual studies, neurolinguistics, and computational linguistics.

Language Acquisition and the Theory of Parameters

Language Acquisition and the Theory of Parameters PDF Author: Nina Hyams
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400946384
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 186

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Book Description
This book is perhaps the most stunning available demonstration of the explanatory power of the parametric approach to linguistic theory. It is akin, not to a deductive proof, but to the discovery of a footprint in a far-off place which leaves an archeologist elated. The book is full of intricate reasoning, but the stunning aspect is that the reasoning moves between not only complex syntax and diverse languages, but it makes predictions about what two-year-old children will assume about the jumble of linguistic input that confronts them. Those predictions, Hyams shows, are supported by a discriminating analysis of acquisition data in English and Italian. Let us examine the linguistic context for a moment before we discuss her theory. The ultimate issue in linguistic theory is the explanation of how a child can acquire any human language. To capture this fact we must posit an innate mechanism which meets two opposite constraints: it must be broad enough to account for the diversity of human language, and narrow enough so that the child does not make irrelevant hypotheses about his own language, particularly ones from which there is no recovery. That is, a child must not posit a grammar which permits all of the sentences of a language as well as other sentences which are not in the language. In a word, the child must not create a language in which one cannot make adult discriminations between grammatical and ungrammatical.

Parameter Setting in Language Acquisition

Parameter Setting in Language Acquisition PDF Author: Dalila Ayoun
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1847143369
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
This book provides a broad overview of parameter-setting theory in first and second language acquisition and refines the theory by revisiting and challenging the traditional assumptions that underlie it, based on cross-linguistic language data that cover a range of syntactic and phonological phenomena. From an historical perspective on parameter-setting theory to an introduction to its role in computational linguistics, neurolinguistics, and language change, the reader will find a critique of the most commonly made arguments, as well as an index of all the syntactic, phonological, lexical, and morphological parameters presented in the literature to date. A closer look at the theory itself addresses the following questions: What does a parameter-setting approach to language acquisition entail? What are the underpinnings of the theory? What issues and problems remain to be solved? The empirical studies carried out to test the null subject parameter and verb movement parameter are reviewed to re-examine long-standing theoretical assumptions as well as the learnability implications for first and second language acquisition.

Second Language Acquisition

Second Language Acquisition PDF Author: Susan M. Gass
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135602239
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 612

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Book Description
A clear and accessible introductory textbook on second language acquisition research, focusing on methodological issues, L1 influence, theories of second language research, interlanguage issues, L2 input, nonlinguistic factors, affecting L2 acquisition, instructed SLA, and the role of the lexicon. It is intended for UG or G students who have little or no background in SLA research but do have a basic grounding in general linguistics. Each chapter has exercises and a list of references.

The Cambridge Handbook of Biolinguistics

The Cambridge Handbook of Biolinguistics PDF Author: Cedric Boeckx
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107354536
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Biolinguistics involves the study of language from a broad perspective that embraces natural sciences, helping us better to understand the fundamentals of the faculty of language. This Handbook offers the most comprehensive state-of-the-field survey of the subject available. A team of prominent scholars working in a variety of disciplines is brought together to examine language development, language evolution and neuroscience, as well as providing overviews of the conceptual landscape of the field. The Handbook includes work at the forefront of contemporary research devoted to the evidence for a language instinct, the critical period hypothesis, grammatical maturation, bilingualism, the relation between mind and brain and the role of natural selection in language evolution. It will be welcomed by graduate students and researchers in a wide range of disciplines, including linguistics, evolutionary biology and cognitive science.

Language Acquisition Beyond Parameters

Language Acquisition Beyond Parameters PDF Author: Anahí Alba de la Fuente
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN: 9027266263
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
The chapters in this volume take different approaches to the exploration of language acquisition processes in various populations (monolingual and bilingual first language acquisition, L2 acquisition) and address issues in syntax, morphology, pragmatics, language processing and interface phenomena. This volume is a tribute to Juana M. Liceras’ fundamental and enduring contribution to the field of Spanish Second Language Acquisition (SLA). All the chapters in the volume are linked to or inspired by Juana’s extensive body of work, and, like Juana’s research, they all stand at the crossroads of formal and experimental linguistics. Together, the studies presented in this volume are a reflection of Juana’s impact both as a mentor and as a collaborative researcher while at the same time showcasing current trends and new directions in the field of generative SLA.

Cross Currents in Second Language Acquisition and Linguistic Theory

Cross Currents in Second Language Acquisition and Linguistic Theory PDF Author: Thom Huebner
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027281807
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 435

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Book Description
The term “crosscurrent” is defined as “a current flowing counter to another.” This volume represents crosscurrents in second language acquisition and linguistic theory in several respects. First, although the main currents running between linguistics and second language acquisition have traditionally flowed from theory to application, equally important contributions can be made in the other direction as well. Second, although there is a strong tendency in the field of linguistics to see “theorists” working within formal models of syntax, SLA research can contribute to linguistic theory more broadly defined to include various functional as well as formal models of syntax, theories of phonology, variationist theories of sociolinguists, etc. These assumptions formed the basis for a conference held at Stanford University during the Linguistic Institute there in the summer of 1987. The conference was organized to update the relation between second language acquisition and linguistic theory. This book contains a selection of (mostly revised and updated) papers of this conference and two newly written papers.

Crosscurrents in Second Language Acquisition and Linguistic Theories

Crosscurrents in Second Language Acquisition and Linguistic Theories PDF Author: Thom Huebner
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027224633
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 444

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Book Description
The term “crosscurrent” is defined as “a current flowing counter to another.” This volume represents crosscurrents in second language acquisition and linguistic theory in several respects. First, although the main currents running between linguistics and second language acquisition have traditionally flowed from theory to application, equally important contributions can be made in the other direction as well. Second, although there is a strong tendency in the field of linguistics to see “theorists” working within formal models of syntax, SLA research can contribute to linguistic theory more broadly defined to include various functional as well as formal models of syntax, theories of phonology, variationist theories of sociolinguists, etc. These assumptions formed the basis for a conference held at Stanford University during the Linguistic Institute there in the summer of 1987. The conference was organized to update the relation between second language acquisition and linguistic theory. This book contains a selection of (mostly revised and updated) papers of this conference and two newly written papers.

The Handbook of Historical Linguistics, Volume II

The Handbook of Historical Linguistics, Volume II PDF Author: Richard D. Janda
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 111873226X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 640

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Book Description
An entirely new follow-up volume providing a detailed account of numerous additional issues, methods, and results that characterize current work in historical linguistics. This brand-new, second volume of The Handbook of Historical Linguistics is a complement to the well-established first volume first published in 2003. It includes extended content allowing uniquely comprehensive coverage of the study of language(s) over time. Though it adds fresh perspectives on several topics previously treated in the first volume, this Handbook focuses on extensions of diachronic linguistics beyond those key issues. This Handbook provides readers with studies of language change whose perspectives range from comparisons of large open vs. small closed corpora, via creolistics and linguistic contact in general, to obsolescence and endangerment of languages. Written by leading scholars in their respective fields, new chapters are offered on matters such as the origin of language, evidence from language for reconstructing human prehistory, invocations of language present in studies of language past, benefits of linguistic fieldwork for historical investigation, ways in which not only biological evolution but also field biology can serve as heuristics for research into the rise and spread of linguistic innovations, and more. Moreover, it: offers novel and broadened content complementing the earlier volume so as to provide the fullest available overview of a wholly engrossing field includes 23 all-new contributed chapters, treating some familiar themes from fresh perspectives but mostly covering entirely new topics features expanded discussion of material from language families other than Indo-European provides a multiplicity of views from numerous specialists in linguistic diachrony. The Handbook of Historical Linguistics, Volume II is an ideal book for undergraduate and graduate students in linguistics, researchers and professional linguists, as well as all those interested in the history of particular languages and the history of language more generally.

Universal Grammar and Second Language Acquisition

Universal Grammar and Second Language Acquisition PDF Author: Lydia White
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027281815
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
This book explores the relationship between linguistic universals and second language acquisition. Although no knowledge of generative grammar is presupposed, the theoretical framework underlying the work is the principles and parameters approach to Universal Grammar (UG), as realized in Chomsky's Government and Binding theory. In recent research, the question has arisen as to whether the principles and parameters of UG remain available in language acquisition that is non-primary. Within second language acquisition theorizing, hypotheses have ranged from UG playing no role at all to UG operating exactly as in primary language acquisition. In this work the theoretical arguments and data from the whole spectrum are reviewed.