Revisiting Subject–Object Asymmetry in the Production of Cantonese Relative Clauses: Evidence From Elicited Production in 3-Year-Olds

Emergentist approaches to language acquisition identify a core role for language-specific experience and give primacy to other factors like function and domain-general learning mechanisms in syntactic development. This directly contrasts with a nativist structurally oriented approach, which predicts that grammatical development is guided by Universal Grammar and that structural factors constrain acquisition. Cantonese relative clauses (RCs) offer a good opportunity to test these perspectives because its typologically rare properties decouple the roles of frequency and complexity in subject- and object-RCs in a way not possible in European languages. Specifically, Cantonese object RCs of the classifier type are frequently attested in children’s linguistic experience and are isomorphic to frequent and early-acquired simple SVO transitive clauses, but according to formal grammatical analyses Cantonese subject RCs are computationally less demanding to process. Thus, the two opposing theories make different predictions: the emergentist approach predicts a specific preference for object RCs of the classifier type, whereas the structurally oriented approach predicts a subject advantage. In the current study we revisited this issue. Eighty-seven monolingual Cantonese children aged between 3;2 and 3;11 (Mage: 3;6) participated in an elicited production task designed to elicit production of subject- and object- RCs. The children were very young and most of them produced only noun phrases when RCs were elicited. Those (nine children) who did produce RCs produced overwhelmingly more object RCs than subject RCs, even when animacy cues were controlled. The majority of object RCs produced were the frequent classifier-type RCs. The findings concur with our hypothesis from the emergentist perspectives that input frequency and formal and functional similarity to known structures guide acquisition.

The Role of Working Memory in Attentional Allocation and Grammatical Development under Textually-enhanced, Unenhanced and No Captioning Conditions

This study investigated the extent to which individual differences in working memory (WM) mediate the effects of captions with or without textual enhancement on attentional allocation and L2 grammatical development, and whether L2 development is influenced by WM memory in the absence of captions. We employed a pretest-posttest-delayed posttest design, with 72 Korean learners of English randomly assigned to three groups. The groups differed as to whether they were exposed to news clips without captions, with textually-enhanced captions, or with unenhanced captions during the treatment. We measured attentional allocation with eye-tracking methodology, and assessed development with an oral production, a written production and a fill-in-the-blank test. To assess various aspects of WM, we employed measures of phonological and visual short-term memory (PSTM, VSTM) and the executive functions of updating, task-switching, and inhibitory control. We found that, in both captions groups, higher PSTM was associated with higher oral production gains. For the enhanced captions group, PSTM was also positively related to gains on the written production test. Participants in the no-captions group, however, showed a positive link between VSTM and oral production gains. Attentional location only correlated positively with updating ability and PSTM under the enhanced captions condition. These results, overall, indicate that WM can moderate the effects of captions on attention and L2 development, and various WM components may play a differential role under various captioning conditions.

Evolución gramatical de las construcciones progresivas del inglés: una discusión diacrónica

In this paper we bring forward a comprehensive discussion on the grammatical development of the English progressive construction. From a set of progressive prototypes drawn from the family of corpora York-Toronto-Helsinki-Penn, we exemplify how the lexical and grammatical configuration of the construction which is characteristic of Present-Day English appears since Old English. Furthermore, we explain how the syntactic evolution of English enables the establishment of the obligatory grammatical nature of the verbal periphrastic construction. Finally, we explain how the grammatical patterns and the semantic and pragmatic features that describe the English progressive construction in the course of its evolution are manifested apparently through a functional-morphosyntactic and grammatical change gradient.

Investigating the effect of textual enhancement in post-reading tasks on grammatical development by child language learners

This study examined the extent to which textual enhancement incorporated into the post-task stage of task-based reading lessons can promote development in second language (L2) grammatical knowledge. The participants were 49 child language learners who participated in task-based reading lessons in their own classroom contexts. They were randomly assigned to two groups, one being exposed to textual enhancement and the other not. The experiment adopted a multiple-exposure design involving six treatment sessions over three weeks. The target construction was the third person singular -s morpheme. Pretest-posttest development was assessed with a grammaticality judgement test. The results revealed a small but positive effect for textual enhancement. We attributed the relative success of textual enhancement to a combination of factors: use of a multiple-exposure design, the incorporation of textual enhancement into the post-task rather than the during-task stage, age of participants, and prior knowledge.

Diversity and divergence in bilingual acquisition

Bilingual settings are perceived as exemplary cases of linguistic diversity, and they are assumed to trigger cross-linguistic interaction. The rationale underlying this assumption is the belief that when more than one language is processed in a brain, this will inevitably affect the way in which linguistic knowledge is acquired, stored and used. However, this idea stands in conflict with results obtained by research on children acquiring two (or more) languages simultaneously. They have been demonstrated to be able to differentiate languages from early on and to develop competences qualitatively identical to those of monolinguals. These studies thus provide little evidence supporting the idea that bilingualism must lead to divergent grammatical development. The question then is what triggers alterations of bilinguals’ grammars, especially of the syntactic core, possibly resulting in non-native competences. This has been claimed to occur in the acquisition of second languages, weaker languages of simultaneous bilinguals, or heritage languages. These acquisition types differ from first language development in that onset of acquisition of one language is delayed or that the amount of exposure to one language is reduced. I will argue that age at onset and severely reduced amount of exposure are potential causal factors triggering divergent developments, whereas bilingualism on its own is not a sufficient cause of divergence.

Characteristics of Language Behavior and Speech Activity in Children with Autistic Disorders: Theoretical Aspect

Speech development of a child with autism does not always take place at the appropriate age and does not always obey the laws of development of speech functions. According to the analysis of literature sources, the direct study of speech activity of children with autistic disorders requires a more detailed study. According to our predictions, a child with autistic disorders of older preschool age due to the peculiarities of communicative and behavioral spheres will show a low level of speech activity, which can be explained directly by the specificity of speech development along with limited language experience and insufficient knowledge of language and its use in communication. Language behavior consists of two complementary and interrelated processes: psychological formation (generation) of speech utterance and perception of the expanded speech of the interlocutor. The model of speech utterance generation includes five consecutive, interconnected stages (phases) identified by O.O. Leontiev (1967): the motive of utterance; the idea of expression; internal programming; lexical and grammatical development of the utterance; implementation of speech expression in external speech. Speech activity is one of the many forms of general activity, a reflection of the needs that arise in accordance with specific communication situations, a prerequisite and an important component of language behavior. The term "speech activity" is considered by us in the sense of the presence of a motive for speech utterance and direct speech utterance, which may occur as a reaction-response to the interlocutor's remark or as a desire to inform the interlocutor of their own thoughts, experiences, emotions, needs.