Language and affective processing implemented within a crossdisciplinary conceptual framework

2017 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Sharwood Smith
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Affective Processing ◽  
Development Of Language ◽  
Experienced Emotion ◽  
Theoretical Apparatus

AbstractThe way in which affective processing influences the use and development of language in both monolinguals and multilinguals requires a theoretical apparatus that draws on and integrates research in different areas of cognitive science. The Modular Online Growth and Use of Language aims to provide researchers with just such a service. In the contribution that follows, a number of examples will be provided to demonstrate how this conceptual framework can be implemented in order to bring some clarity to our understanding of affective processing. These examples, which cover much more than affect as consciously experienced emotion, include a range of apparently heterogenous phenomena namely (a) how affect influences code selection either within a language, such as when choosing between a formal and informal style or, in the case of bi/multilingualism, choosing between languages, (b) how affective processing subtly influences semantic judgements, (c) how heritage language use can be explained and finally d) the role of affect in language acquisition and attrition.

scholarly journals Input effects across domains: The case of Greek subjects in child heritage language

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 421-445 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evangelia Daskalaki ◽  
Vasiliki Chondrogianni ◽  
Elma Blom ◽  
Froso Argyri ◽  
Johanne Paradis
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
North America ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
Heritage Language Acquisition ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Interface Hypothesis

A recurring question in the literature of heritage language acquisition, and more generally of bilingual acquisition, is whether all linguistic domains are sensitive to input reduction and to cross-linguistic influence and to what extent. According to the Interface Hypothesis, morphosyntactic phenomena regulated by discourse–pragmatic conditions are more likely to lead to non-native outcomes than strictly syntactic aspects of the language (Sorace, 2011). To test this hypothesis, we examined subject realization and placement in Greek–English bilingual children learning Greek as a heritage language in North America and investigated whether the amount of heritage language use can predict their performance in syntax–discourse and narrow syntactic contexts. Results indicated two deviations from the Interface Hypothesis: First, subject realization (a syntax–discourse phenomenon) was found to be largely unproblematic. Second, subject placement was affected not only in syntax–discourse structures but also in narrow syntactic structures, though to a lesser degree, suggesting that the association between the interface status of subject placement and its sensitivity to heritage language use among children heritage speakers is gradient rather than categorical.

scholarly journals Effects of parental input quality in child heritage language acquisition

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 709-736
Author(s):  
Evangelia DASKALAKI ◽  
Elma BLOM ◽  
Vasiliki CHONDROGIANNI ◽  
Johanne PARADIS
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Western Canada ◽  
Production Task ◽  
Input Quality ◽  
Heritage Language Acquisition ◽  
Parental Input

AbstractThis study investigates the role of parental input quality on the acquisition of Greek as a heritage language in Western Canada. Focusing on subject use, we tested four groups of Greek speakers: monolingual children, heritage children, and the parents of each one of those groups. Participants completed an elicited production task designed to elicit subject placement in wide focus and embedded interrogative contexts, where postverbal subjects are preferred/required in the monolingual variety. Results gave rise to two main conclusions: first, the parental input received by heritage children may be qualitatively different from the parental input received by monolingual children, in that it contains a higher rate of deviant preverbal subjects. Second, parental input quality in addition to quantity may affect the outcome of heritage language acquisition, in that children producing a higher rate of preverbal subjects had parents whose Greek input was not only quantitatively reduced, but also richer in preverbal subjects.

The Role of the Input in the Acquisition of Third Person Singular Verbs in English

2003 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 863-877 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna L. Theakston ◽  
Elena V. M. Lieven ◽  
Michael Tomasello
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Alternative Explanation ◽  
Early Stages ◽  
Grammatical Subject ◽  
Stage Of Development ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Third Person ◽  
Pass Through

During the early stages of language acquisition, children pass through a stage of development when they produce both finite and nonfinite verb forms in finite contexts (e.g., "it go there," "it goes there"). Theorists who assume that children operate with an abstract understanding of tense and agreement marking from the beginnings of language use tend to explain this phenomenon in terms of either performance limitations in production (e.g., V. Valian, 1991) or the optional use of finite forms in finite contexts due to a lack of knowledge that tense and agreement marking is obligatory (the optional infinitive hypothesis; K. Wexler, 1994, 1996). An alternative explanation, however, is that children's use of nonfinite forms is based on the presence of questions in the input ("Where does it go¿") where the grammatical subject is immediately followed by a nonfinite verb form. To compare these explanations, 2 groups of 24 children aged between 2 years 6 months and 3 years were exposed to 6 known and 3 novel verbs produced in either declaratives or questions or in both declaratives and questions. The children were then questioned to elicit use of the verbs in either finite or nonfinite contexts. The results show that for novel verbs, the children's patterns of verb use were closely related to the patterns of verb use modeled in the language to which they were exposed. For known verbs, there were no differences in the children's use of individual verbs, regardless of the specific patterns of verb use modeled in the language they heard. The implications of these findings for theories of early verb use are discussed.

scholarly journals The development of determiners in the context of French–English bilingualism: a study of cross-linguistic influence

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 767-787 ◽  
Author(s):  
Coralie HERVÉ ◽  
Ludovica SERRATRICE
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Use ◽  
First Language ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Longitudinal Development ◽  
Rate Of Development ◽  
Preliminary Results ◽  
Language Exposure ◽  
A Minor

AbstractThis paper reports the preliminary results of a study examining the role of structural overlap, language exposure, and language use on cross-linguistic influence (CLI) in bilingual first language acquisition. We focus on the longitudinal development of determiners in a corpus of two French–English children between the ages of 2;4 and 3;7. The results display bi-directional CLI in the rate of development, i.e., accelerated development in English and a minor delay in French. Unidirectional CLI from English to French was instead observed in the significantly higher rate of ungrammatical determiner omissions in plural and generic contexts than in singular specific contexts in French. These findings suggest that other language-internal mechanisms may be at play. They also lend support to the role of expressive abilities on the magnitude of this phenomenon.

scholarly journals The acquisition of adverbs in trilingual children: does transfer play any role?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mihaela Pirvulescu ◽  
Virginia Hill ◽  
Nadia Nacif ◽  
Rena Helms-Park ◽  
Maria Petrescu
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
School Age ◽  
Adverb Placement

In this paper, we focus on the acquisition of adverbs in order to identify the role of transfer in the context of trilingual language acquisition. The trilingual data for our study comes from children born in Canada who have Romanian as heritage language and are exposed to French in school and to English as the societal language. As these children are of school age, our study provides important insights since trilingualism in children is less studied. The variable under scrutiny is the position of adverbs that conform to Cinque’s (1999) hierarchy in the adult grammar of each language. The results indicate that children have adult competence for adverb placement in all three languages. However, some errors arise in French signaling transfer of parametric settings from Romanian. We conclude that this is a non-facilitative transfer justified by the typological proximity in parametric settings between Romanian and French.

Some observations on the acquisition of evidentiality in bulgarian as a second language by native english speakers

Proglas ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksandrina Raykova ◽  
◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Current Analysis

Second language acquisition of grammatical evidentiality in Bulgarian is studied through analyzing the spoken language use of a number of native English speakers. The category is found unstable at the higher levels of language proficiency, which indicates incomplete acquisition. There are cases of probable full acquisition which the current analysis cannot confirm. Suggestions regarding the role of the linguistic worldview are put forward.

scholarly journals The development of English as a heritage language: The role of chronological age and age of onset of bilingualism

2020 ◽  
pp. 014272372092981 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon Armon-Lotem ◽  
Karen Rose ◽  
Carmit Altman
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Age Of Onset ◽  
Chronological Age ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Heritage Language Acquisition ◽  
Linguistic System ◽  
Post Hoc ◽  
Heritage Language Speakers

This study explores typically developing bilingual children’s performance in their English as a heritage language. The aim of this study is to advance our understanding of heritage language expectations and the role of chronological age and bilingual exposure. A broad range of receptive and expressive linguistic domains are investigated as a function of chronological age and age of onset of bilingualism. English–Hebrew typically developing bilingual children ( N = 240), ages 60–77 months, were compared to monolingual norms, using seven subtest standardized scores from the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals Preschool-2 (CELF-Preschool-2). Descriptive statistics, t-tests, ANCOVAs, multiple regression analysis, and post-hoc comparisons were conducted. English heritage language speakers presented with an asymmetric linguistic system influenced by their chronological age and age of onset of bilingualism. Results demonstrated that performance was more advanced for measures that were less reliant on language-specific skills. Measures dependent on grammatical knowledge were vulnerable to limitations but they were within the monolingual norms. In contrast, the lexicon was heavily influenced by bilingualism. These findings contribute to the literature on bilingual linguistic expectations and will have implications for theories of heritage language acquisition and language acquisition in general.

Object clitic use and intuition in the Spanish of heritage speakers from Brazil

2021 ◽  
pp. 026765832110176
Author(s):  
Julio César López Otero ◽  
Alejandro Cuza ◽  
Jian Jiao
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Semantic Features ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Null Objects ◽  
Heritage Language Acquisition ◽  
Object Clitics ◽  
Left Dislocation ◽  
Spanish Heritage Speakers

The present study examines the production and intuition of Spanish clitics in clitic left dislocation (CLLD) structures among 26 Spanish heritage speakers (HSs) born and raised in Brazil. We tested clitic production and intuition in contexts in which Spanish clitics vary as a function of the semantic features of the object that they refer to. Results showed overextension of object clitics into contexts in which null objects were expected. Furthermore, we found higher levels of overextension among the HSs with lower patterns of heritage language use. Results are discussed along the lines of the model of heritage language acquisition and maintenance.

Grammatical gender selection and phrasal word order in child heritage Spanish: A feature re-assembly approach

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
ALEJANDRO CUZA ◽  
ROCÍO PÉREZ-TATTAM
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
The United States ◽  
Grammatical Gender ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Gender Assignment ◽  
English Bilingual

The present study examines the development of grammatical gender assignment, agreement, and noun-adjective word order in child heritage Spanish among thirty-two Spanish–English bilingual children born and raised in the United States. A picture-naming task revealed significant overextension of the masculine form and high levels of ungrammatical word order strings. There were no significant differences by age regarding gender concord or noun-adjective word order. We argue that the differences found can be accounted for in terms of a re-assembly of gender features leading to both morphological and syntactic variability. This approach allows for subsequent morphosyntactic shifts during early childhood depending on patterns of language use, and conceptualizes heritage language variation along the lines of current linguistic theorizing regarding the role of innate linguistic principles and language experience in language development.

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