Uniformity and diversity

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Halldór Ármann Sigurdsson
Keyword(s):  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Language Variation ◽  
Minimalist Program ◽  
First Line ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Morphological Processes

This essay discusses language uniformity and diversity in the light of recent developments of the minimalist program (Hauser et al. 2002; Chomsky 2008; Berwick & Chomsky 2011, and much related work). It pursues two leading ideas. First, Universal Grammar (UG) is maximally minimal: hence early internal language (I-language) is largely uniform across individuals, language variation being mainly or entirely confined to externalization. Second, the mapping from I-language to external language (E-language) is non-isomorphic (the Non-isomorphy Generalization), morphological processes such as agreement and case marking being E-language phenomena, taking place in the externalization component. The first line of reasoning converges with many of Chomsky’s recent ideas, the second one is more divergent. Keywords: E-language; externalization; I-language; person; tense; non-isomorphy generalization

No fear of George Kingsley Zipf

10.1558/37291 ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 242-263
Author(s):  
Stefano Rastelli ◽  
Kook-Hee Gil
Keyword(s):  
Minimalist Program ◽  
Classroom Research ◽  
Language Design ◽  
Efficient Computation ◽  
Generative Linguistics ◽  
The Third ◽  
Factor Effect ◽  
Language Classroom ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Insight Into

This paper offers a new insight into GenSLA classroom research in light of recent developments in the Minimalist Program (MP). Recent research in GenSLA has shown how generative linguistics and acquisition studies can inform the language classroom, mostly focusing on what linguistic aspects of target properties should be integrated as a part of the classroom input. Based on insights from Chomsky’s ‘three factors for language design’ – which bring together the Faculty of Language, input and general principles of economy and efficient computation (the third factor effect) for language development – we put forward a theoretical rationale for how classroom research can offer a unique environment to test the learnability in L2 through the statistical enhancement of the input to which learners are exposed.

scholarly journals The role of case marking and word order in cross-linguistic structural priming in late L2 acquisition

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Merel Muylle ◽  
Bernolet Sarah ◽  
Robert Hartsuiker
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Language Variation ◽  
Structural Priming ◽  
Artificial Language ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Learning Paradigm ◽  
Natural Languages ◽  
Case Marking

Several studies found cross-linguistic structural priming with various language combinations. Here, we investigated the role of two important domains of language variation: case marking and word order. We varied these features in an artificial language (AL) learning paradigm, using three different AL versions in a between-subjects design. Priming was assessed between Dutch (no case marking, SVO word order) and a) a baseline version with SVO word order, b) a case marking version, and c) a version with SOV word order. Similar within- language and cross-linguistic priming was found in all versions for transitive sentences, indicating that cross-linguistic structural priming was not hindered. In contrast, for ditransitive sentences we found similar within-language priming for all versions, but no cross-linguistic priming. The finding that cross-linguistic priming is possible between languages that vary in morphological marking or word order, is compatible with studies showing cross-linguistic priming between natural languages that differ on these dimensions.

Contribution de la photogrammetrie numerique a l'etude spatio-temporelle de versants instables; l'exemple du glissement de terrain de Super-Sauze (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France)

2000 ◽  
Vol 171 (6) ◽  
pp. 637-648 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominique Weber ◽  
Agnes Herrmann
Keyword(s):  
Aerial Photography ◽  
Morphological Evolution ◽  
Historical Evolution ◽  
Complex Flow ◽  
Glissement De Terrain ◽  
Digital Elevation ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Unstable Slope ◽  
Morphological Processes ◽  
Spatio Temporal

Abstract Recent developments in image processing and digital photogrammetry offer to the geomorphologists increasingly accessible and effective tools for the spatio-temporal knowledge of landslides. These techniques were used to reconstitute the historical evolution of a complex flow slide occurring in the "Terres Noires" of the Barcelonnette basin. The lithological and morphological environment of the studied site is characteristic of the whole southern French Prealps where are largely present Jurassic marly formations. Six digital elevation models (D.E.M.) generated from stereoscopic couples of aerial photography, but also various ortho-images and perspective views, allow to follow the morphological evolution of the unstable slope since the years 1950's -- before the releasing of the landslide -- until our days. Besides multitemporal descriptions of the landscape and of the morphological processes occurred on this site, the implemented method appears particularly useful for the quantitative analysis of the instabilities. It appears notably as a powerful tool for the 3-D reconstruction of the landslide geometry and by the same occasion for the calculation of its volume.

Object Shift, Phases, and Transitive Expletive Constructions in Germanic*

2006 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 139-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Richards
Keyword(s):  
Minimalist Program ◽  
Strong Form ◽  
Functional Categories ◽  
Object Shift ◽  
The Core ◽  
Complementary Distribution ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Universal Interface ◽  
Crosslinguistic Variation

This paper reconsiders the analysis of Transitive Expletive Constructions (TECs) across Germanic in light of recent developments in the Minimalist Program (Chomsky 1995 et seq.). I argue that prevailing views of expletives as merged directly into the Spec-TP position are untenable under the Probe-Goal Agree system of Minimalist Inquiries, and propose that T is anomalous amongst the core functional categories (C, T, v) in lacking the Merge-Expl property. This anomaly, I propose, is reducible to another anomaly setting T apart from C and v, namely T’s status as a nonphase head. It follows from the resolution of a basic indeterminacy in the composition of phases that Expl must merge in Spec-vP, the Object Shift position. This, in turn, throws new light on the patterns of complementary distribution that characterize the interaction between Expl, external arguments, and raised internal arguments exhibited by TECs. A strong form of Bures’s Generalization emerges — TECs are directly tied to the availability of full-DP Object Shift in a manner that is arguably both empirically and conceptually superior to existing analyses. Universal, interface-imposed, phase-based constraints on Object Shift and Merge-Expl are thus sufficient to account for the observed patterns of crosslinguistic variation in TEC distribution.

Topic-drop versus pro-drop: null subjects and pronominal subjects in the Spanish L2 of Chinese, English, French, German and Japanese speakers

1999 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juana M. Liceras ◽  
Lourdes Díaz
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Null Subjects ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Subject Pronouns ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
Subordinate Clauses ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Null Subject Parameter ◽  
Early English

Recent developments within the so-called Principles and Parameters model of acquisition argue for a clear-cut separation of Universal Grammar (UG) principles from parametric options and locate all parameters within functional categories (Borer, 1984; Lebeaux, 1988; Chomsky, 1991). This has led Tsimpli and Roussou (1991) to propose that adult L2 (second language) learners have access to UG principles but do not reset the parameters of the L2, which amounts to saying that null subjects in the adult Spanish L2 may or may not have the same status as native Spanish null subjects, depending on the speakers’ L1 (first language) and the UG principles at stake. In the case of L1 acquisition, Rizzi (1994) and Hyams (1994) provide a competence account of null subjects in early child English which relate them to adult English Diary Drop and German-style topic-drop rather than to Spanish-style pro-drop. They specifically argue that these missing subjects are restricted to the first position of non- wh root clauses and that fixing the null subject parameter will consist of incorporating the ROOT=CP principle into this grammar. In this paper, we analyse the Spanish L2 oral spontaneous data produced by adult L1 speakers of pro-drop and topic-drop languages in an attempt to provide a competence account of null subjects in adult nonnative Spanish. Our data show that, unlike early English grammars, all the Spanish non-native grammars contain null subjects both in matrix and subordinate clauses, and that this is the case at the early and advanced stages. It also shows that many non-native pronominal subjects do not have the same value as native Spanish subjects and that subject pronouns are used for identification purposes. It is suggested that these data provide evidence for a model of L2 acquisition where adult non-native grammar construction resorts to a default licensing procedure which allows null pronouns provided they can be identified.

Second Language Acquisition and Syntactic Theory in the 21st Century

2010 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 248-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juana M. Liceras
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Minimalist Program ◽  
Science Field ◽  
Syntactic Theory ◽  
Syntactic Properties

Syntactic theory has played a role in second language acquisition (SLA) research since the early 1980s, when the principles and parameters model of generative grammar was implemented. However, it was the so-called functional parameterization hypothesis together with the debate on whether second language learners activated new features or switched their value that led to detailed and in-depth analyses of the syntactic properties of many different nonnative grammars. In the last 10 years, with the minimalist program as background, these analyses have diverted more and more from looking at those syntactic properties that argued for or against the various versions of the UG-access versus non-UG-access debate (UG for Universal Grammar) and have more recently delved into the status of nonnative grammars in the cognitive science field. Thus, using features (i.e., gender, case, verb, and determiner) as the basic units and paying special attention to the quality of input as well as to processing principles and constraints, nonnative grammars have been compared to the language contact paradigms that underlie subsequent bilingualism, child SLA, creole formation, and diachronic change. Taking Chomsky's I-language/E-language construct as the framework, this article provides a review of these recent developments in SLA research.

Derivational Economy in Syntax and Semantics

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Željko Bošković ◽  
Troy Messick
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Minimalist Program ◽  
Efficient Design ◽  
Computationally Efficient ◽  
Computational System ◽  
Language Faculty ◽  
Generative Theory ◽  
Guiding Principles ◽  
Syntactic Dependencies

Economy considerations have always played an important role in the generative theory of grammar. They are particularly prominent in the most recent instantiation of this approach, the Minimalist Program, which explores the possibility that Universal Grammar is an optimal way of satisfying requirements that are imposed on the language faculty by the external systems that interface with the language faculty which is also characterized by optimal, computationally efficient design. In this respect, the operations of the computational system that produce linguistic expressions must be optimal in that they must satisfy general considerations of simplicity and efficient design. Simply put, the guiding principles here are (a) do something only if you need to and (b) if you do need to, do it in the most economical/efficient way. These considerations ban superfluous steps in derivations and superfluous symbols in representations. Under economy guidelines, movement takes place only when there is a need for it (with both syntactic and semantic considerations playing a role here), and when it does take place, it takes place in the most economical way: it is as short as possible and carries as little material as possible. Furthermore, economy is evaluated locally, on the basis of immediately available structure. The locality of syntactic dependencies is also enforced by minimal search and by limiting the number of syntactic objects and the amount of structure accessible in the derivation. This is achieved by transferring parts of syntactic structure to the interfaces during the derivation, the transferred parts not being accessible for further syntactic operations.

Universals

2021 ◽  
pp. 41-67
Author(s):  
Peter W. Culicover
Keyword(s):  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Language Variation ◽  
Conceptual Structure ◽  
Language Variation And Change

This chapter reviews the approach to universals in contemporary grammatical theory as expressions of Universal Grammar (UG), the human faculty of language. The view developed in this chapter is that what is universal is conceptual structure, and grammatical universals arise as a consequence of pressures to formulate constructional grammars that express conceptual structure as simply as possible. The chapter argues that the constructional approach provides a natural framework for explaining language variation and change.

Universal Grammar Theory and Language Acquisition: Evidence from the Null Subject Parameter

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 48
Author(s):  
Naif Alsaedi
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Developmental Stages ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Minimalist Program ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Language Faculty ◽  
Null Subject ◽  
Generative Linguistics ◽  
Empty Categories ◽  
Null Subject Parameter

This article introduces the Universal-Grammar-based (UG) theory of language acquisition. It focuses on parameters, both as a theoretical construct and in relation to first-language acquisition (L1A). The null subject parameter is used to illustrate how languages vary and explain how a child’s grammar develops into adult grammar over time. The article is structured as follows: the first section outlines crucial ideas that are relevant to language acquisition in generative linguistics, such as the notions of competence, performance, critical period, and language faculty. Section two introduces and discusses the content of language faculty from the perspectives of the Principles and Parameters Theory and the Minimalist Program for Linguistic Theory. This section also briefly describes the contrast among languages in regard to whether or not they allow empty categories in subject position in finite clauses. The third section first discusses how children are hypothesised to acquire their native language (L1). Then, in light of findings from the early null subject phenomenon, this section empirically examines the content of grammars that are developed by children at various developmental stages until they acquire the appropriate value for the null subject parameter. The final section highlights the important role of UG theory to L1A.

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