Download or read book Aspects of Argument Structure Acquisition in Inuktitut written by Shanley Allen and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 1996-01-01 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book discusses the first language acquisition of three morphosyntactic mechanisms of transitivity alternation in arctic Quebec Inuktitut. Data derive from naturalistic longitudinal spontaneous speech samples collected over a nine-month period from four Inuit children. Both basic and advanced forms of passive structures are shown to be used productively by Inuktitut-speaking children at an early age relative to English-speaking children, but consistent in age with speakers of non-Indo-European languages reported on in the literature; potential explanations of this difference include frequency of caregiver input and details of language structure. Morphological causatives appear slightly later in the acquisition sequence, and their first instances reflect use of unanalyzed routines. Lexical causatives are present from the earliest ages studied. Evidence of a period of overgeneralization of lexical causatives in one subject at the same time as the morphological causative shows signs of being productively acquired suggests that the seeming overgeneralization may reflect nothing more than as yet unstable use of the morphological causative. Noun incorporation structures are shown to be used productively by Inuktitut-speaking children at an early age relative to Mohawk-speaking children; potential explanations of this difference include details of language structure and relative language use in the environments of the learners. Findings are considered in light of current debates in the literature concerning continuity versus maturation of grammatical structure, and concerning the functional categories available to the child at early stages of acquisition. Data presented argue against late maturation, and suggest that all functional categories may be accessed by the Inuktitut-speaking child early in the acquisition process.
Download or read book Aspects of Argument Structure Acquisition in Inuktitut written by Shanley Allen and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 1996-11-22 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book discusses the first language acquisition of three morphosyntactic mechanisms of transitivity alternation in arctic Quebec Inuktitut. Data derive from naturalistic longitudinal spontaneous speech samples collected over a nine-month period from four Inuit children. Both basic and advanced forms of passive structures are shown to be used productively by Inuktitut-speaking children at an early age relative to English-speaking children, but consistent in age with speakers of non-Indo-European languages reported on in the literature; potential explanations of this difference include frequency of caregiver input and details of language structure. Morphological causatives appear slightly later in the acquisition sequence, and their first instances reflect use of unanalyzed routines. Lexical causatives are present from the earliest ages studied. Evidence of a period of overgeneralization of lexical causatives in one subject at the same time as the morphological causative shows signs of being productively acquired suggests that the seeming overgeneralization may reflect nothing more than as yet unstable use of the morphological causative. Noun incorporation structures are shown to be used productively by Inuktitut-speaking children at an early age relative to Mohawk-speaking children; potential explanations of this difference include details of language structure and relative language use in the environments of the learners. Findings are considered in light of current debates in the literature concerning continuity versus maturation of grammatical structure, and concerning the functional categories available to the child at early stages of acquisition. Data presented argue against late maturation, and suggest that all functional categories may be accessed by the Inuktitut-speaking child early in the acquisition process.
Download or read book Language Competence Across Populations written by Yonata Levy and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2003-01-30 with total page 467 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This unique, edited book bridges studies in language disorders and linguistic theory with timely contributions from leading scholars in language development. It presents an attempt to define Specific Language Impairment, relating it to children of normal and disordered language capabilities. The chapter presentations examine language development across a variety of populations of children, from those with Specific Language Impairment to second language learners. The contributors discuss criteria for the definition of SLI, compare and contrast SLI with profiles of children with other disorders and dialects, and offer a comprehensive look at the Whole Human Language, which ties together spoken and signed languages. Methodological concerns that affect the credibility and generalizability of the findings are discussed and controversies between opposing linguistic approaches to language acquisition are presented. The conceptual thread that gradually reveals itself as the chapters unfold is a theoretical issue of central importance to cognitive theory, as well as to our understanding of the biological correlates of language--it concerns the variability that linguistic competence can manifest in children under different biological conditions and life circumstances. Language Competence Across Populations: Toward a Definition of Specific Language Impairment is an essential volume for advanced students and scholars in linguistics and psychology who have an interest in language acquisition and language disorders, as well as for the clinical professionals dealing with children with language impairments.
Download or read book Child and Adolescent Development written by William Damon and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2012-06-29 with total page 1089 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This advanced text for psychology, human development, and education provides students with state-of-the-art overviews of the discipline in an accessible, affordable format. Unique both in the depth of its coverage and in the timeliness of the research that it presents, this comprehensive text conveys the field of child and adolescent development through the voices of scientists who themselves are now shaping the field.
Download or read book Directions in Sign Language Acquisition written by Gary Morgan and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2002-01-01 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the second volume in the series 'Trends in language acquisition research'. The unusual combination in one volume of reports on various different sign languages in acquisition makes this book quite unique.
Download or read book The Acquisition of Spanish written by Silvina Montrul and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2004-01-01 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first book on the acquisition of Spanish that provides a state-of-the-art comprehensive overview of Spanish morphosyntactic development in monolingual and bilingual situations. Its content is organized around key grammatical themes that form the empirical base of research in generative grammar: nominal and verbal inflectional morphology, subject and object pronouns, complex structures involving movement (topicalizations, questions, relative clauses), and aspects of verb meaning that have consequences for syntax. The book argues that Universal Grammar constrains all instances of language acquisition and that there is a fundamental continuity between monolingual, bilingual, child and adult early grammatical systems. While stressing their similarities with respect to linguistic representations and processes, the book also considers important differences between these three acquisition situations with respect to the outcome of acquisition. It is also shown that many linguistic properties of Spanish are acquired earlier than in English and other languages. This book is a must read for those interested in the acquisition of Spanish from different theoretical perspectives as well as those working on the acquisition of other languages in different contexts.
Download or read book Language Acquisition Across Linguistic and Cognitive Systems written by Michèle Kail and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2010 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How and why do all children learn language? Why do some have difficulties while others are early language learners? What are the consequences of early bilingualism? Is it possible to reach native-like competence in a foreign language? Although we still cannot fully answer these questions, research during the last two decades has begun to solve some pieces of the puzzle. This book proposes an interdisciplinary collection of writings from some of the best specialists across several fields in cognitive science, offering a wide sample of recent advances in the study of first language acquisition, bilingualism, second language acquisition, and disorders of oral language. It is addressed to all researchers and students interested in language acquisition, as well as to teachers, clinicians and parents, who will find therein many new findings and varied methodological approaches, as well as challenging questions that are still debated and in need of further research.
Download or read book The Inheritance and Innateness of Grammars written by Myrna Gopnik Professor of Linguistics McGill University and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1997-06-05 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is language somehow innate in the structure of the human brain, or is it completely learned? This debate is still at the heart of linguistics, especially as it intersects with psychology and cognitive science. In collecting papers which discuss the evidence and arguments regarding this difficult question, The Inheritance and Innateness of Grammars considers cases ranging from infants who are just beginning to learn the properties of a native language to language-impaired adults who will never learn one. These studies show that, while precursors of language exist in other creatures, the abilities necessary for constructing full-fledged grammars are part of the biological endowment of human beings. The essays that comprise this volume test the range and specificity of that endowment, while also contributing to our understanding of the intricate and complex relationship between language and biology.
Download or read book The Inheritance and Innateness of Grammars written by Myrna Gopnik and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1997 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on an annual conference at Simon Fraser University, this volume collects together papers that discuss the evidence and arguments regarding the inheritability and innateness of grammar, and shows that whole precursors of language exist in other creatures. In the VANCOUVER STUDIES IN COGNITIVE SCIENCE series.
Download or read book Williams Syndrome across Languages written by Susanne Bartke and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2004-06-22 with total page 403 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Williams Syndrome (WS), aka Williams Beuren Syndrome, is a developmental disorder that we have known about for some forty years. The cause for WS was detected only recently: a micro deletion on chromosome 7, more specifically at the region of chromosome 7q11.23. The cognitive and behavioral profile in WS is characterized by a marked discrepancy between verbal and non-verbal skills combined with relatively spared linguistic skills. Recent research has shown considerable progress defining the areas of intactness in linguistic abilities. This volume builds on that research, giving an overview of the psycholinguistic research undertaken and opening up new perspectives and insights through new data and analyses. This book is of interest to researchers of applied cognitive science and to linguists more occupied with theoretical research.
Download or read book Research in Second Language Processing and Parsing written by Bill VanPatten and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2010 with total page 363 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is the first dedicated to the growing field of theory and research on second language processing and parsing. The fourteen papers in this volume offer cutting-edge research using a number of different languages (e.g., Arabic, Spanish, Japanese, French, German, English) and structures (e.g., relative clauses, wh-gaps, gender, number) to examine various issues in second language processing: first language influence, whether or not non-natives can achieve native-like processing, the roles of context and prosody, the effects of working memory, and others. The researchers include both established scholars and newer voices, all offering important insights into the factors that affect processing and parsing in a second language.
Download or read book Incomplete Acquisition in Bilingualism written by Silvina A. Montrul and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2008-09-17 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Age effects have played a particularly prominent role in some theoretical perspectives on second language acquisition. This book takes an entirely new perspective on this issue by re-examining these theories in light of the existence of apparently similar non-native outcomes in adult heritage speakers who, unlike adult second language learners, acquired two or more languages in childhood. Despite having been exposed to their family language early in life, many of these speakers never fully acquire, or later lose, aspects of their first language sometime in childhood. The book examines the structural characteristics of "incomplete" grammatical states and highlights how age of acquisition is related to the type of linguistic knowledge and behavior that emerges in L1 and L2 acquisition under different environmental circumstances. By underscoring age of acquisition as a unifying factor in the study of L2 acquisition and L1 attrition, it is claimed that just as there are age effects in L2 acquisition, there are also age effects, or even perhaps a critical period, in L1 attrition. The book covers adult L2 acquisition, attrition in adults and in children, and includes a comparison of adult heritage language speakers and second language learners.
Download or read book Portraits of the L2 User written by Vivian Cook and published by Multilingual Matters. This book was released on 2002-08-06 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Portraits of the L2 User treats second language users in their own right rather than as failed native speakers. It describes a range of psychological and linguistic approaches to diverse topics about L2 users. It thus provides an innovative overview of current second language acquisition theories, results and methods, seen from a common perspective.
Download or read book Biology and Knowledge Revisited written by Sue Taylor Parker and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2014-04-04 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on the Annual Symposium of the Jean Piaget Society, Biology and Knowledge Revisited focuses on the classic issue of the relationship between nature and nurture in cognitive and linguistic development, and their neurological substrates. Contributors trace the history of ideas concerning the relationship between evolution and development, and bring powerful new conceptual systems and research data to bear on understanding the problem of experience-contingent brain development and evolution. They focus on processes of phenotype construction - which fill the gap between genes and behavior - and demonstrate that evolutionary psychological models of innate mental modules are incompatible with what is known about these processes. This book presents exciting new approaches to the development and evolution of cognitive and linguistic abilities. Returning to the broad evolutionary theme of a previous meeting, the symposium focused on specifically constructivist approaches to neurogenesis and language acquisition, and their evolution. It was organized around ideas about the relationship between development and evolution raised in Piaget's books. Research in this arena has yielded cutting-edge insight into behavioral influences on brain plasticity. Two of its subthemes run throughout - a critique of modularity models popular among evolutionary psychologies and the prescient yet flawed nature of Piaget's critique of the modern synthesis of evolution. As a result, Biology and Knowledge Revisited is intended for developmental psychologists, psycholinguists, biological anthropologists, evolutionary psychologists, and philosophers of science.
Download or read book The Languages of Native North America written by Marianne Mithun and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2001-06-07 with total page 800 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides an authoritative survey of the several hundred languages indigenous to North America. These languages show tremendous genetic and typological diversity, and offer numerous challenges to current linguistic theory. Part I of the book provides an overview of structural features of particular interest, concentrating on those that are cross-linguistically unusual or unusually well developed. These include syllable structure, vowel and consonant harmony, tone, and sound symbolism; polysynthesis, the nature of roots and affixes, incorporation, and morpheme order; case; grammatical distinctions of number, gender, shape, control, location, means, manner, time, empathy, and evidence; and distinctions between nouns and verbs, predicates and arguments, and simple and complex sentences; and special speech styles. Part II catalogues the languages by family, listing the location of each language, its genetic affiliation, number of speakers, major published literature, and structural highlights. Finally, there is a catalogue of languages that have evolved in contact situations.
Download or read book The L2 Acquisition of Tense Aspect Morphology written by M. Rafael Salaberry and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2002-10-24 with total page 499 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The present volume provides a cross-linguistic perspective on the development of tense-aspect in L2 acquisition. Data-based studies included in this volume deal with the analysis of a wide range of target languages: Chinese, English, Italian, French, Japanese, and Spanish. Theoretical frameworks used to evaluate the nature of the empirical evidence range from generative grammar to functional-typological linguistics. Several studies focus on the development of past tense markers, but other issues such as the acquisition of a future marker are also addressed. An introductory chapter outlines some theoretical and methodological issues that serves as relevant preliminary reading for most of the chapters included in this volume. Additionally, a preliminary chapter offers a substantive review of first language acquisition of tense-aspect morphology. The analysis of the various languages included in this volume significantly advances our understanding of this phenomenon, and will serve as an important basis for future research.
Download or read book Bilingual Sentence Processing written by Eva M. Fernández and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2003-03-27 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The cross-linguistic differences documented in studies of relative clause attachment offer an invaluable opportunity to examine a particular aspect of bilingual sentence processing: Do bilinguals process their two languages as if they were monolingual speakers of each? This volume provides a review of existing research on relative clause attachment, showing that speakers of languages like English attach relative clauses differently than do speakers of languages like Spanish. Fernández reports the findings of an investigation with monolinguals and bilinguals, tested using speeded ("on-line") and unspeeded ("off-line") methodology, with materials in both English and Spanish. The experiments reveal similarities across the groups when the procedure is speeded, but differences with unspeeded questionnaires: The monolinguals replicate the standard cross-linguistic differences, while bilinguals have language-independent preferences determined by language dominance — bilinguals process stimuli in either of their languages according to the general preferences of monolinguals of their dominant language.
