Download or read book Reformulation and Acquisition of Linguistic Complexity written by Claire Martinot and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2019-03-07 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reformulation and Acquisition of Linguistic Complexity proposes a new answer to the question of the appropriation or acquisition of a mother tongue – a complex object, one that is both stable and perpetually evolving. This answer is based on the reformulating principle that children spontaneously apply; a principle that is illustrated here with children retelling the same story. These children are all 6, 8 or 10 years old and speak French, Italian, Croatian or Polish as a first language. This book demonstrates that the acquisition of any mother tongue is explained by the application of various reformulation procedures between source predications and reformulated predications. These procedures are comparable from one language to another, and different from one age group to another. This book also studies certain complex phenomena at the lexical and syntactical levels, and analyzes how children, depending on their age, treat these phenomena. Finally, we show that the acquisition of a mother tongue is a fundamentally linguistic activity.
Download or read book Reformulation and Acquisition of Linguistic Complexity written by Claire Martinot and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2019-03-04 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reformulation and Acquisition of Linguistic Complexity proposes a new answer to the question of the appropriation or acquisition of a mother tongue – a complex object, one that is both stable and perpetually evolving. This answer is based on the reformulating principle that children spontaneously apply; a principle that is illustrated here with children retelling the same story. These children are all 6, 8 or 10 years old and speak French, Italian, Croatian or Polish as a first language. This book demonstrates that the acquisition of any mother tongue is explained by the application of various reformulation procedures between source predications and reformulated predications. These procedures are comparable from one language to another, and different from one age group to another. This book also studies certain complex phenomena at the lexical and syntactical levels, and analyzes how children, depending on their age, treat these phenomena. Finally, we show that the acquisition of a mother tongue is a fundamentally linguistic activity.
Download or read book Linguistic Complexity written by Bernd Kortmann and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2012-05-29 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Linguistic complexity is one of the currently most hotly debated notions in linguistics. The essays in this volume reflect the intricacies of thinking about the complexity of languages and language varieties (here: of English) in three major contact-related fields of (and schools in) linguistics: creolistics, indigenization and nativization studies (i.e. in the realm of English linguistics, the “World Englishes” community), and Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research: How can we adequately assess linguistic complexity? Should we be interested in absolute complexity or rather relative complexity? What is the extent to which language contact and/or (adult) language learning might lead to morphosyntactic simplification? The authors in this volume are all leading linguists in different areas of specialization, and they were asked to elaborate on those facets of linguistic complexity which are most relevant in their area of specialization, and/or which strike them as being most intriguing. The result is a collection of papers that is unique in bringing together leading representatives of three often disjunct fields of linguistic scholarship in which linguistic complexity is seen as a dynamic and inherently variable parameter.
Download or read book Syntactic Complexity from a Language Acquisition Perspective written by Elisa Di Domenico and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2017-05-11 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The volume examines syntactic complexity from an acquisitional perspective, which offers a peculiarly grounded starting point when dealing with linguistic complexity, under the assumption that what is simpler is acquired earlier than what must be thought of as complex. Connecting acquisitional data inseparably to formal linguistic analyses, it not only allows a comparison between structures at various levels in terms of complexity, but also a deeper insight into the factors determining complexity in different populations of acquirers. The book is divided into two parts following an introductory chapter. The papers in Part I consider the first language acquisition of some complex structures such as different types of passives, relative clauses, questions and classes of predicates, with a look at children’s early sensitivity to seemingly complex domains, such as the Definiteness Effect and unaccusative predicates. Part II is dedicated to the acquisition of complex structures in different modes of acquisition. The papers here examine, sometimes comparatively, different conditions of language acquisition dealing with clitics, types of relative clauses or referential pronouns. The languages considered range from European Portuguese to Finnish, French, German, Italian and Romanian.
Download or read book Grammar Complexity written by Peter W. Culicover and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2013-04-04 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book combines ideas about the architecture of grammar and language acquisition, processing, and change to explain why languages show regular patterns when there is so much irregularity in their use and so much complexity when there is such regularity in linguistic phenomena. Peter Culicover argues that the structure of language can be understood and explained in terms of two kinds of complexity: firstly that of the correspondence between form and meaning; secondly in the real-time processes involved in the construction of meanings in linguistic expressions. Mainstream syntactic theory has focused largely on regularities within and across languages, relegating to the periphery exceptional and idiosyncratic phenomena. But, the author argues, a languages irregular and unique features offer fundamental insights into the nature of language, how it changes, and how it is produced and understood. Peter Culicover's new book offers a pertinent and original contribution to key current debates in linguistic theory. It will interest scholars and advanced students of linguists of all theoretical persuasions.
Download or read book Language Learning Discourse and Communication written by Weronika Szubko-Sitarek and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-10-29 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume brings together papers on a wide spectrum of topics within the broad area of language acquisition, stressing the interconnections between applied and theoretical linguistics, as well as language research methodology. These contributions in honor of Professor Jan Majer have been grouped in two sections: language learning, and discourse and communication. The former discusses issues varying from aspects of first, second, and third language acquisition, individual learner differences (i.e. gender, attitudes, learning strategies), and second language research methodology to the analysis of features of learner spoken language, the role of feedback in foreign language instruction, and the position of culture in EFL textbooks. The second part of the volume offers a theoretical counterbalance to the applied nature of the first one. Here, the contributions touch upon spoken and written language analysis, language awareness, and aspects of the English language; also, selected issues of language philosophy are discussed. The wide range of topics covered in the publication, authored by specialists in their respective areas, reflects Professor Majer’s academic interests and corresponds to the complex nature of the general field the volume aims to portray.
Download or read book Complexity in Language written by Salikoko S. Mufwene and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-03-30 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The question of complexity, as in what makes one language more 'complex' than another, is a long-established topic of debate amongst linguists. Recently, this issue has been complemented with the view that languages are complex adaptive systems, in which emergence and self-organization play major roles. However, few students of the phenomenon have gone beyond the basic assessment of the number of units and rules in a language (what has been characterized as 'bit complexity') or shown some familiarity with the science of complexity. This book reveals how much can be learned by overcoming these limitations, especially by adopting developmental and evolutionary perspectives. The contributors include specialists of language acquisition, evolution and ecology, grammaticization, phonology, and modeling, all of whom approach languages as dynamical, emergent, and adaptive complex systems.
Download or read book Linguistic Simplicity and Complexity written by John H. McWhorter and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2011 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This series offers a wide forum for work on contact linguistics, using an integrated approach to both diachronic and synchronic manifestations of contact, ranging from social and individual aspects to structural-typological issues. Topics covered by the series include child and adult bilingualism and multilingualism, contact languages, borrowing and contact-induced typological change, code switching in conversation, societal multilingualism, bilingual language processing, and various other topics related to language contact. The series does not have a fixed theoretical orientation, and includes contributions from a variety of approaches.
Download or read book Complexity Theory and Language Development written by Lourdes Ortega and published by John Benjamins Publishing Company. This book was released on 2017-11-15 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is both a state-of-the-art display of current thinking on second language development as a complex system. It is also a tribute to Diane Larsen-Freeman for her decades of intellectual leadership in the academic disciplines of applied linguistics and second language acquisition. The chapters therein range from theoretical expositions to methodological analyses, pedagogical proposals, and conceptual frameworks for future research. In a balanced and in-depth manner, the authors provide a comprehensive and interdisciplinary understanding of second language development, with a wealth of insights that promise to break the status-quo of current research and take it to exciting new territory. The book will appeal to both seasoned and novice researchers in applied linguistics, second language acquisition, bilingualism, cognitive psychology, and education, as well as to practitioners in second or foreign language teaching of any language.
Download or read book Language Complexity as an Evolving Variable written by Geoffrey Sampson and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2009-02-26 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a challenge to the widely-held assumption that human languages are both similar and constant in their degree of complexity. For a hundred years or more the universal equality of languages has been a tenet of faith among most anthropologists and linguists. It has been frequently advanced as a corrective to the idea that some languages are at a later stage of evolution than others. It also appears to be an inevitable outcome of one of the central axioms of generative linguistic theory: that the mental architecture of language is fixed and is thus identical in all languages and that whereas genes evolve languages do not. Language Complexity as an Evolving Variable reopens the debate. Geoffrey Sampson's introductory chapter re-examines and clarifies the notion and theoretical importance of complexity in language, linguistics, cognitive science, and evolution. Eighteen distinguished scholars from all over the world then look at evidence gleaned from their own research in order to reconsider whether languages do or do not exhibit the same degrees and kinds of complexity. They examine data from a wide range of times and places. They consider the links between linguistic structure and social complexity and relate their findings to the causes and processes of language change. Their arguments are frequently controversial and provocative; their conclusions add up to an important challenge to conventional ideas about the nature of language. The authors write readably and accessibly with no recourse to unnecessary jargon. This fascinating book will appeal to all those interested in the interrelations between human nature, culture, and language.
Download or read book Linguistic Complexity written by Christiaan Wouter Kusters and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Language Complexity written by Matti Miestamo and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2008 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Language complexity has recently attracted considerable attention from linguists of many different persuasions. This volume a thematic selection of papers from the conference Approaches to Complexity in Language, held in Helsinki, August 2005 is the first collection of articles devoted to the topic. The sixteen chapters of the volume approach the notion of language complexity from a variety of perspectives. The papers are divided into three thematic sections that reflect the central themes of the book: Typology and theory, Contact and change, Creoles and pidgins. The book is mainly intended for typologists, historical linguists, contact linguists and creolists, as well as all linguists interested in language complexity in general. As the first collective volume on a very topical theme, the book is expected to be of lasting interest to the linguistic community.
Download or read book English Discourse Markers of Reformulation written by M. Milagros del Saz Rubio and published by Peter Lang. This book was released on 2007 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book deals with the notion of reformulation and more specifically with a group of lexico-grammatical units which help codify and signal the activity of reformulation in English. While discourse markers in English have been described in detail, the area of reformulation is a relatively unexplored area in comparison with languages such as French or Spanish. In this respect, this book has been conceived as a contribution to the field of Discourse Markers and in particular to the markers that help display the function of reformulation in English. First of all, a definition of the notion of reformulation is provided as a necessary precondition for the elaboration of a taxonomy of English reformulators. These are grouped into different classes and sub-classes on the basis of the type of reformulation effected. Thus, four main types are identified: Expansion, Modification, Reassessment and Compression. After an inductive and interpretive analysis of examples taken from the British National Corpus (BNC), the syntactic and distributional properties of these units, as well as their environments of use are described and discussed.
Download or read book Input and Evidence written by Susanne Carroll and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2001-01-01 with total page 490 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Input and Evidence: the raw material of second language acquisition is an empirical and theoretical treatment of one of the essential components of SLA: the input to language learning mechanisms. It reviews and adds to the empirical studies showing that negative evidence (correction, feedback, repetitions, reformulations) play a role in language acquisition in addition to that played by ordinary conversation. At the same time, it embeds discussion of input within a framework which includes a serious treatment of language processing, including the problem of modularity and the question of how semantic representations can influence grammatical ones. It lays the foundation for the development of a truly explanatory theory of SLA in the form of the Autonomous Induction Theory which combines a model of induction with an interpretation of Universal Grammar, thereby permitting, for the the first time, a coherent approach to the problem of constraining induction in SLA.
Download or read book Exploring Linguistic Science written by Allison Burkette and published by . This book was released on 2018-03-15 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduces students to the scientific study of language, using the basic principles of complexity theory.
Download or read book Measuring Grammatical Complexity written by Frederick J. Newmeyer and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2014 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the question of whether languages can differ in grammatical complexity and, if so, how relative complexity differences might be measured. Chapters approach the question from the point of view of formal grammatical theory, psycholinguistics, and neurolinguistics, and take phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics into account.
Download or read book Linguistic Theory in Second Language Acquisition written by S. Flynn and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 455 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Suzanne Flynn and Wayne O'Neil Massachusetts Institute of Technology I. INTRODUCTION The theory of Universal Grammar (UG) as explicated e. g. in Chomsky, 1986, has led to explosive developments in the study of natural language as well as to significant advances in the study of first language (L I) acquisition. Most recently. the theory of UG has led to important theore tical and empirical advances in the field of adult second language (L2) acquisition as well. The principle impetus for this development can be traced to the work in linguistics which shifted the study "from behavior or the products of behavior to states of the mind/brain that enter into behavior" (Chomksy. 1986:3). Grammars within this framework are conceived of as theoretical accounts of "the state of the mind/brain of the person who knows a particular language" (Chomsky. 1986:3). Research within fields of language acquisition seeks to isolate and specify the properties of the underlying competence necessary for language learning. Full development of a theory of UG demands study and understanding of the nature of both the formal properties of language and of the language acquisition process itself. However. while there is a tradition of debate and dialogue established between theoretical linguistics and Ll acquisition research. relatively few connections have been made between linguistic theory and L2 acquisition research.
