scholarly journals Cognition, complexity and context as other minds: a tribute to T. Givón

2022 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Other Minds ◽  
Human Language ◽  
Natural Languages ◽  
Research Fields ◽  
Language Universals ◽  
Development And Evolution

Linguistics is made up of great individuals. Throughout its not so long history as compared with other sciences, linguistics boasts many remarkable contributors who paved the way for human language study and thus led us into exploring the rising, development and evolution not only of natural languages, but also that of our own species. This book is a tribute to one of those great contributors to linguistics, T. Givón. As he argues for an evolutionary approach to communication and language, Givón has covered various research fields in linguistics such as morphosyntax, semantics, pragmatics, discourse and text, second language acquisition, pidgins and creoles, language universals, grammaticalization, and cognitive science.

A Literature Review on Individual Differences in Second Language Acquisition

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 72
Author(s):  
Yilun Yang ◽  
Liping Chen
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Internal Factors ◽  
Language Universals ◽  
Cognition And Learning ◽  
The Relationship

There are many factors influencing second language acquisition, such as learner external factors including social factors, the input of second language acquisition and the relationship between acquisition; internal factors including the transfer of language, cognition of second language and language universals, etc, which influence the psychological factors of learner's second language; individual differences include some factors in physiological emotion, cognition, and learning strategies. This article is to explore the role of learners in second language acquisition from the perspective of individual differences (age, aptitude, learning motivation).

Some Theoretical and Pedagogical Implications of the Markedness Differential Hypothesis

1985 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 289-307 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred R. Eckman
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Empirical Study ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Language Transfer ◽  
Contrastive Analysis ◽  
Theoretical Assumptions ◽  
Language Universals

This paper is intended as a programmatic contribution to the work of a number of scholars in second language acquisition (SLA) who are attempting to explain various facts about SLA in terms of an interaction between native-language transfer and language universals (Gass & Selinker, 1983). In the present paper, some of the theoretical assumptions and consequences of the Markedness Differential Hypothesis (MDH) (Eckman, 1977) are discussed in comparison with the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis. Crucial differences between the two hypotheses are presented, and empirical evidence in favor of the MDH is reviewed. Pedagogical implications of the MDH are then taken up, and a strategy for interlanguage-intervention is discussed in light of an empirical study. Finally, several problems for the MDH which have been proposed in the literature are considered.

scholarly journals Cognitive Foundations of Second Language Acquisition: Introduction

1994 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-132
Author(s):  
Russell S. Tomlin ◽  
Morton A. Gernsbacher
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Scientific Consensus ◽  
Descriptive Term ◽  
Research Institution ◽  
The World ◽  
Cognitive Foundations

The growth of cognitive science as a field, or at least as a descriptive term, indicates an emerging scientific consensus that many fundamental human capacities require collaborative and interdisciplinary research to make further fundamental headway. Language, as central to our essential humanity as anything is, represents one area in which massive amounts of interdisciplinary research is underway at virtually every research institution in the world.

Connectionism and Universals of Second Language Acquisition

1990 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Gasser
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Cognitive Science ◽  
First Language ◽  
Language Theory ◽  
Connectionist Models ◽  
Language Patterns ◽  
Simple Processing ◽  
Constituent Order

This article examines the implications of connectionist models of cognition for second language theory. Connectionism offers a challenge to the symbolic models which dominate cognitive science. In connectionist models all knowledge is embodied in a network of simple processing units joined by connections which are strengthened or weakened in response to regularities in input patterns. These models avoid the brittleness of symbolic approaches, and they exhibit rule-like behavior without explicit rules. A connectionist framework is proposed within which hypotheses about second language acquisition can be tested. Inputs and outputs are patterns of activation on units representing both form and meaning. Learning consists of the unsupervised association of pattern elements with one another. A network is first trained on a set of first language patterns and then exposed to a set of second language patterns with the same meanings. Several simulations of constituent-order transfer within this framework are discussed.

Parameter setting in second language phonology and syntax

1991 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen Broselow ◽  
Daniel Finer
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Parameter Setting ◽  
Natural Languages ◽  
Syllable Onset ◽  
Range Of Variation

This paper reports on studies of second language acquisition in two domains, phonology and syntax. The phenomena investigated were the acquisition by native speakers of Hindi, Japanese, and Korean of two areas of English: in phonology, the mastery of particular syllable onset clusters, and in syntax, the acquisition of the binding patterns of reflexive anaphors. Both these areas are ones for which multi-valued parameters have been posited to account for the range of variation across natural languages. The paper presents evidence that acquisition in these two areas is quite similar: at a certain stage of acquisition learners seem to arrive at a parameter setting that is midway between the native and the target language settings. This effect occurs both when the target language employs a less marked setting than the native language and when the target language setting is more marked than that of the native language.

Taking a social turn for the worse: The language socialization paradigm for second language acquisition

2006 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 413-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin R. Gregg
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Language Socialization ◽  
Science Research

In recent years, a number of researchers in the field of second language acquisition have voiced discontent regarding the tendency of second language acquisition (SLA) research to be conducted within a framework of cognitive science (Firth and Wagner, 1997; Atkinson, 2002; Johnson, 2004). Watson-Gegeo (2004) expresses this same discontent, and goes beyond it to call for a new SLA paradigm, the ‘language socialization paradigm’. In this article, I point out the various ways in which Watson-Gegeo has misunderstood the nature of cognitive science research in general, and SLA research in particular, and show why her call should go unheeded.

THE UNACCUSATIVE TRAP IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

2001 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiroyuki Oshita
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Natural Language ◽  
Developmental Stages ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Structural Constraints ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Natural Languages ◽  
Intransitive Verbs

The distinction of two types of intransitive verbs—unergatives (with underlying subjects) and unaccusatives (with underlying objects)—may not exist at early stages of L2 acquisition, both being syntactically represented as unergatives. This idea, referred to here as the Unaccusative Trap Hypothesis, provides an elegant developmental account for a variety of seemingly unrelated syntactic phenomena in L2 English, Japanese, and Chinese. Target language input, structural constraints on natural language linking rules, and linguistic properties of a learner's L1s shape stages in the reorganization of the lexical and syntactic components of interlanguage grammars. Although nonnative grammars may initially override the structural constraints postulated as the Unaccusative Hypothesis (Burzio, 1986; Perlmutter, 1978) and the Uniformity of Theta Assignment Hypothesis (Baker, 1988), at later developmental stages some may still achieve conformity with the norms of natural languages.

Language is learned

1996 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 735-736 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian MacWhinney
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Second Language Learning ◽  
Language Universals

AbstractEpstein et al. attribute second language learning to the forces of transfer and language universals. They show that transfer is minimally involved in certain types of learning and therefore conclude that universals are involved. However, they forget to consider the important role of learning in second language acquisition.

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