The Handbook of Hispanic Linguistics

The Handbook of Hispanic Linguistics
Author: José Ignacio Hualde
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 906
Release: 2012-04-16
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1405198826

Reflecting the growth and increasing global importance of the Spanish language, The Handbook of Hispanic Linguistics brings together a team of renowned Spanish linguistics scholars to explore both applied and theoretical work in this field. Features 41 newly-written essays contributed by leading language scholars that shed new light on the growth and significance of the Spanish language Combines current applied and theoretical research results in the field of Spanish linguistics Explores all facets relating to the origins, evolution, and geographical variations of the Spanish language Examines topics including second language learning, Spanish in the classroom, immigration, heritage languages, and bilingualism

Interlanguage

Interlanguage
Author: ZhaoHong Han
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2014-04-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 902727049X

Few works in the field of second language acquisition (SLA) can endure multiple reads, but Selinker's (1972) "Interlanguage" is a clear exception. Written at the inception of the field, this paper delineates a disciplinary scope; asks penetrating questions; advances daring hypotheses; and proposes a first-ever conceptual and empirical framework that continues to stimulate SLA research. Sparked by a heightened interest in this founding text on its 40th anniversary, 10 leaders in their respective fields of SLA research collectively examine extrapolations of the seminal text for the past, the present, and the future of SLA research. This book offers a rare resource for novices and experts alike in and beyond the field of SLA.

The Acquisition of Heritage Languages

The Acquisition of Heritage Languages
Author: Silvina Montrul
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 381
Release: 2016
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1107007240

An authoritative overview of research into heritage language acquisition, covering key terminological and empirical issues, theoretical approaches, and research methodologies.

Point of View and Grammar

Point of View and Grammar
Author: Joanne Scheibman
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 212
Release: 2002-01-01
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 9789027226211

This book proposes that subjective expression shapes grammatical and lexical patterning in American English conversation. Analyses of structural and functional properties of English conversational utterances indicate that the most frequent combinations of subject, tense, and verb type are those that are used by speakers to personalize their contributions, not to present unmediated descriptions of the world. These findings are informed by current research and practices in linguistics which argue that the emergence, or conventionalization, of linguistic structure is related to the frequency with which speakers use expressions in discourse. The use of conversational data in grammatical analysis illustrates the local and contingent nature of grammar in use and also raises theoretical questions concerning the coherence of linguistic categories, the viability of maintaining a distinction between semantic and pragmatic meaning in analytical practice, and the structural and social interplay of speaker point of view and participant interaction in discourse.

The Role of Processing Complexity in Word Order Variation and Change

The Role of Processing Complexity in Word Order Variation and Change
Author: Harry Joel Tily
Publisher: Stanford University
Total Pages: 205
Release: 2010
Genre:
ISBN:

All normal humans have the same basic cognitive capacity for language. Nevertheless, the world's languages differ in the kind and number of grammatical options they give their speakers to express themselves with. Sometimes, a language's grammatical constructions may differ in how easy they are for comprehenders to process or how readily speakers will choose them. It has been observed that languages which allow more difficult constructions also tend to allow easier ones, and when a language only allows one option, it tends to allow the easiest to process. This correlation is intuitive: languages tend to give their speakers options that they find easy to use. However, the causal process that underlies it is not well understood. How did the world's languages come to have this convenient property? In this dissertation, I discuss a family of evolutionary models of language change in which processing-efficient variants tend to be selected more frequently, and hence over time have the potential to displace less efficient variants, pushing them out of the language. I begin by showing that a psycholinguistic theory, dependency length minimization, accounts for word ordering preferences in data taken from Old and Middle English just as it does in Present Day English. I then discuss computer simulations of a model of language change which implements this bias, predicting observed word order changes in English. Finally, I present experimental studies of online comprehension in Japanese which not only display evidence for the dependency length bias, but also suggest that comprehenders encode it as part of their knowledge about language, using it to help understand the sentences they receive from their peers.

The Acquisition of Relative Clauses

The Acquisition of Relative Clauses
Author: Evan Kidd
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 253
Release: 2011
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027234787

Explaining the acquisition and processing of relative clauses has long challenged psycholinguistics researchers. The current volume presents a collection of chapters that consider the acquisition of relative clauses with a particular focus on function, typology, and language processing. A diverse range of theoretical approaches and languages are bought to bear on the acquisition of this construction type, making the volume unique in its coverage. The volume will appeal to students and scholars whose interest lies in the acquisition and processing of syntax with a particular focus on complex sentences in crosslinguistic and functionalist perspective.

Bilingual Sentence Processing

Bilingual Sentence Processing
Author: Eva M. Fernández
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 314
Release: 2003-03-27
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027296782

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.

Noun Phrase in the Generative Perspective

Noun Phrase in the Generative Perspective
Author: Artemis Alexiadou
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 688
Release: 2008-09-25
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3110207494

The goal of this book is twofold. On the one hand we want to offer a discussion of some of the more important properties of the nominal projection, on the other hand we want to provide the reader with tools for syntactic analysis which apply to the structure of DP but which are also relevant for other domains of syntax. In order to achieve this dual goal we will discuss phenomena which are related to the nominal projection in relation to other syntactic phenomena (e.g. pro drop will be related to N-ellipsis, the classification of pronouns will be applied to the syntax of possessive pronouns, N-movement will be compared to V-movement, the syntax of the genitive construction will be related to that of predicate inversion etc.). In the various chapters we will show how recent theoretical proposals (distributed morphology, anti-symmetry, checking theory) can cast light on aspects of the syntax of the NP. When necessary, we will provide a brief introduction of these theoretical proposals. We will also indicate problems with these analyses, whether they be inherent to the theories as such (e.g. what is the trigger for movement in antisymmetric approaches) or to the particular instantiations. The book cannot and will not provide the definitive analysis of the syntax of noun phrases. We consider that this would not be possible, given the current flux in generative syntax, with many new theoretical proposals being developed and explored, but the book aims at giving the reader the tools with which to conduct research and to evaluate proposals in the literature. In the discussion of various issues, we will apply the framework that is most adequate to deal with problems at hand. We will therefore not necessarily use the same approach throughout the discussion. Though proposals in the literature will be referred to when relevant, we cannot attempt to provide a critical survey of the literature. We feel that such a survey would be guided too strongly by theoretical choices, which would not be compatible with the pedagogical purposes this book has. The book is comparative in its approach, and data from different languages will be examined, including English, German, Dutch (West-Flemish), Greek, Romance, Semitic, Slavic, Albanian, Hungarian, Gungbe.

Experimental Syntax and Island Effects

Experimental Syntax and Island Effects
Author: Jon Sprouse
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 432
Release: 2013-10-17
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1107652707

This volume brings together cutting-edge experimental research from leaders in the fields of linguistics and psycholinguistics to explore the nature of a phenomenon that has long been central to syntactic theory - 'island effects'. The chapters in this volume draw upon recent methodological advances in experimental methods in syntax, also known as 'experimental syntax', to investigate the underlying cognitive mechanisms that give rise to island effects. This volume presents a comprehensive empirical review of a contemporary debate in the field by including contributions from researchers representing a variety of points of view on the nature of island effects. This book is ideal for students and researchers interested in cutting-edge experimental techniques in linguistics, psycholinguistics and psychology.