Language Acquisition and Learnability

Language Acquisition and Learnability
Author: Stefano Bertolo
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2001-05-14
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780521646208

An accessible introduction to learnability theory and its interactions with linguistic theories.

Handbook of Child Language Acquisition

Handbook of Child Language Acquisition
Author: Tej K. Bhatia
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 762
Release: 2023-11-27
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9004653023

What allows children to acquire language so effortlessly, with such speed, and with such amazing accuracy? Capitalizing on the most recent developments in linguistics and cognitive psychology, this volume sheds new light on the what, why, and how of the child's ability to acquire one or more languages. The "Handbook" is one of a kind in a number of respects. It includes state-of-the-art treatments of acquisition from a variety of theoretical viewpoints ranging from functionalist approaches and the implications of the creolization of languages for the study of acquisition to the relevance of Chomsky's Minimalist Program. It contains overviews of the acquisition of all components of linguistic structure, treats the acquisition of the sign languages of the deaf, and discusses the specific problems of bilingual acquisition. This handbook addresses the following questions: 'Is the capacity for language acquisition constant throughout the career of the language learner (that is, is it 'continuous') or does that capacity change in significant ways as the learner matures?' ; 'Is the language capacity a separate module of the mind or does it follow from general, 'all-purpose' cognitive capacities?'; 'What is innate in language acquisition and what is acquired on the basis of experience?'; 'What research/methodological issues arise in the study of child language acquisition?'; 'How might input from the language (or languages) of the environment, including visual/gestural input in the case of the sign languages of the deaf, affect the process and result of acquisition?'; and, 'How are the facts of non-normal acquisition to be explained?'

Syntactic Theory and First Language Acquisition

Syntactic Theory and First Language Acquisition
Author: (Vol.1)Barbara Lust
Publisher: Psychology Press
Total Pages: 581
Release: 2018-10-24
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1317728807

Universal Grammar (UG) is a theory of both the fundamental principles for all possible languages and the language faculty in the "initial state" of the human organism. These two volumes approach the study of UG by joint, tightly linked studies of both linguistic theory and human competence for language acquisition. In particular, the volumes collect comparable studies across a number of different languages, carefully analyzed by a wide range of international scholars. The issues surrounding cross-linguistic variation in "Heads, Projections, and Learnability" (Volume 1) and in "Binding, Dependencies, and Learnability" (Volume 2) are arguably the most fundamental in UG. How can principles of grammar be learned by general learning theory? What is biologically programmed in the human species in order to guarantee their learnability? What is the true linguistic representation for these areas of language knowledge? What universals exist across languages? The two volumes summarize the most critical current proposals in each area, and offer both theoretical and empirical evidence bearing on them. Research on first language acquisition and formal learnability theory is placed at the center of debates relative to linguistic theory in each area. The convergence of research across several different disciplines -- linguistics, developmental psychology, and computer science -- represented in these volumes provides a paradigm example of cognitive science.

Child Language

Child Language
Author: Barbara C. Lust
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 411
Release: 2006-09-21
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1139459279

The remarkable way in which young children acquire language has long fascinated linguists and developmental psychologists alike. Language is a skill that we have essentially mastered by the age of three, and with incredible ease and speed, despite the complexity of the task. This accessible textbook introduces the field of child language acquisition, exploring language development from birth. Setting out the key theoretical debates, it considers questions such as what characteristics of the human mind make it possible to acquire language; how far acquisition is biologically programmed and how far it is influenced by our environment; what makes second language learning (in adulthood) different from first language acquisition; and whether the specific stages in language development are universal across languages. Clear and comprehensive, it is set to become a key text for all courses in child language acquisition, within linguistics, developmental psychology and cognitive science.

Language Acquisition

Language Acquisition
Author: Maria Teresa Guasti
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 498
Release: 2004
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780262572200

A comprehensive introduction to language acquisition based on current linguistic theory.

The Handbook of Contemporary Syntactic Theory

The Handbook of Contemporary Syntactic Theory
Author: Mark Baltin
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 880
Release: 2008-04-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0470756357

This volume provides a comprehensive view of the current issues in contemporary syntactic theory. Written by an international assembly of leading specialists in the field, these 2 original articles serve as a useful reference for various areas of grammar. Contains 23 articles written by an international assembly of specialists in the field. The lucidly written articles grant accessibility to crucial areas of syntactic theory. Contrasting theories are represented. Contains an informative introduction and extensive bibliography which serves as a reference tool for both students and professional linguists.

Prominence and Locality in Grammar

Prominence and Locality in Grammar
Author: Jianhua Hu
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 189
Release: 2019-06-06
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 1000008665

This book challenges the current consensus on the analysis of wh-questions and reflexives from the perspective of the syntax-semantics interface. An integrated approach incorporating analyses of the interaction between different levels of linguistic knowledge is proposed. It argues that the derivation and interpretation of wh-questions and reflexives are not purely syntactic in nature but are regulated by principles operating at the syntax-semantics interface. Two general principles underlying our knowledge of language and cognition are proposed in this work. One is the Principle of Locality, and the other is the Principle of Prominence. It shows that although wh-quantification and reflexivization belong to two different domains of study in generative grammar, their derivation and interpretation are basically constrained by the complex interaction between prominence and locality in grammar. The first part of the book discusses how wh-questions are formed and interpreted in Chinese and English and shows that the formation and interpretation of wh-questions are constrained by the interaction between prominence and locality. It is shown that in wh-interpretation prominence is used to define the set generators so as to licence other wh-words in the pair-list reading in multiple wh-questions. It also discusses wh-island effects in English and Chinese, and unlike previous claims made in the literature (cf. Huang 1982a, 1982b), it argues that the so-called wh-island effects in English are also observed in Chinese. The second part of the book investigates the role that prominence and locality play in reflexive binding. It is shown that in reflexive binding, the binding domain of the reflexive is defined by prominence. It proposes a unified account for both the noncontrastive compound reflexive and the bare reflexive in Chinese and shows that they are constrained by the same reflexive binding condition proposed in this work, though they employ different definitions of the most prominent NPs to determine their binding domains. Prominence and Locality in Grammar: The Syntax and Semantics of Wh-Quesitons and Reflexives is an important theoretical contribution to the syntax-semantics interface studies and can serve as a valuable text for graduate students and scholars in the field of Chinese, linguistics, and cognitive science.

The Teaching and Acquisition of South Asian Languages

The Teaching and Acquisition of South Asian Languages
Author: Vijay Gambhir
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages: 250
Release: 1995
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 9780812233285

The first book to apply the latest methodological analysis to the languages of South Asia, The Teaching and Acquisition of South Asian Languages provides a much needed examination of learners and their learning patterns, language materials and their delivery, classroom environments, and learning conditions beyond the classroom. The contributors, accredited researchers and experienced teachers, test important universal learning hypotheses on "less commonly taught languages" and find that those circumstances have significant implications for theory and practice. The book brings into focus a variety of issues related to linguistic theory, second language acquisition research, non-verbal communication, discourse appropriateness, learner variation, and strategies for developing speaking, listening, and reading skills. It is also a valuable addition to the general body of knowledge in the field of adult language acquisition. A carefully prepared index and an extensive bibliography covering both the South Asian field and general literature enhance the book's usefulness as a reference guide.

The Cambridge Handbook of Child Language

The Cambridge Handbook of Child Language
Author: Edith L. Bavin
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 1781
Release: 2015-11-26
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1316352323

The most authoritative resource for students and researchers, The Cambridge Handbook of Child Language has been thoroughly updated and extended. Enhancements include new chapters on the acquisition of words, processing deficits in children with specific language impairments, and language in children with Williams syndrome, new authors for the bilingualism and autism chapters, a refocused discourse chapter on written narratives, and a new section on reading and reading disorders, cementing the handbook's position as the best study of the subject available. In a wide-ranging survey, language development is traced from prelinguistic infancy to adolescence in typical and atypical contexts; the material is intuitively grouped into six thematic sections, enabling readers to easily find specific in-depth information. With topics as varied as statistical learning, bilingualism, and the neurobiology of reading disorders, this multidisciplinary Handbook is an essential reference for students and researchers in linguistics, psychology, cognitive science, speech pathology, education and anthropology.