Information Structure and the Dynamics of Language Acquisition

Information Structure and the Dynamics of Language Acquisition PDF Author: Christine Dimroth
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9789027241375
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 376

Get Book Here

Book Description
The papers in this volume focus on the impact of information structure on language acquisition, thereby taking different linguistic approaches into account. They start from an empirical point of view, and examine data from natural first and second language acquisition, which cover a wide range of varieties, from early learner language to native speaker production and from gesture to Creole prototypes. The central theme is the interplay between principles of information structure and linguistic structure and its impact on the functioning and development of the learner's system. The papers examine language-internal explanatory factors and in particular the communicative and structural forces that push and shape the acquisition process, and its outcome. On the theoretical level, the approach adopted appeals both to formal and communicative constraints on a learner s language in use. Two empirical domains provide a 'testing ground' for the respective weight of grammatical versus functional determinants in the acquisition process: (1) the expression of finiteness and scope relations at the utterance level and (2) the expression of anaphoric relations at the discourse level.

Information Structure and the Dynamics of Language Acquisition

Information Structure and the Dynamics of Language Acquisition PDF Author: Christine Dimroth
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9789027241375
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 376

Get Book Here

Book Description
The papers in this volume focus on the impact of information structure on language acquisition, thereby taking different linguistic approaches into account. They start from an empirical point of view, and examine data from natural first and second language acquisition, which cover a wide range of varieties, from early learner language to native speaker production and from gesture to Creole prototypes. The central theme is the interplay between principles of information structure and linguistic structure and its impact on the functioning and development of the learner's system. The papers examine language-internal explanatory factors and in particular the communicative and structural forces that push and shape the acquisition process, and its outcome. On the theoretical level, the approach adopted appeals both to formal and communicative constraints on a learner s language in use. Two empirical domains provide a 'testing ground' for the respective weight of grammatical versus functional determinants in the acquisition process: (1) the expression of finiteness and scope relations at the utterance level and (2) the expression of anaphoric relations at the discourse level.

The Dynamics of Language Use

The Dynamics of Language Use PDF Author: Christopher S. Butler
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027294186
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 433

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book brings together a collection of articles characterized by two main themes: the contrastive study of parallel phenomena in two or more languages, and an essentially functional approach in which language is regarded, first and foremost, as a rich and complex communication system, inextricably embedded in sociocultural and psychological contexts of use. The majority of the studies reported is empirical in nature, many making use of corpora or other textual materials in the language(s) under investigation. The book begins with an introductory section in which the editors provide surveys of the state of the art in both functional and contrastive linguistics. The other five sections of the volume are devoted to (i) a cognitive perspective on form and function, (ii) information structure, (iii) collocations and formulaic language, (iv) language learning, and (v) discourse and culture.

Linguistic Attractors

Linguistic Attractors PDF Author: David L. Cooper
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027223548
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 392

Get Book Here

Book Description
The interdisciplinary linguistic attractor model portrays language processing as linked sequences of fractal sets, and examines the changing dynamics of such sets for individuals as well as the speech community they comprise. Its motivation stems from human anatomic constraints and several artificial neural network approaches. It uses general computation theory to: (1) demonstrate the capacity of Cantor-like fractal sets to perform as Turing Machines; (2) better distinguish between models that simply match outputs (emulation) and models that match both outputs and internal dynamics (simulation); and (3) relate language processing to essential computation steps executed in parallel. Measure and information theory highlight the key variables driving linguistic dynamics, while catastrophe and game theory help predict the possible topologies of language change.It introduces techniques to isolate and measure attractors, and to interpret their stability and relative content within a system. Important results include the capability to distinguish the sequence of related sound changes, and to make point-to-point comparisons of different texts using common metrics. Other techniques allow quantifiable ambiguity landscapes illustrating the forces that propel different languages in different directions.

Thinking and Speaking in Two Languages

Thinking and Speaking in Two Languages PDF Author: Aneta Pavlenko
Publisher: Multilingual Matters
ISBN: 1847693369
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 269

Get Book Here

Book Description
Dan I. Slobin, University of California, Berkeley, USA --

Comparative Perspectives on Language Acquisition

Comparative Perspectives on Language Acquisition PDF Author: Marzena Watorek
Publisher: Multilingual Matters
ISBN: 1847696031
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 625

Get Book Here

Book Description
This volume aims to provide a broad view of second language acquisition, from initial to final stages. It does this within a comparative perspective that addresses results concerning adult and child learners across a variety of source and target languages, in order to assess the relative weight of cognitive and typological determinants during language learning.

Heritage Language Development

Heritage Language Development PDF Author: Kimi Kondo-Brown
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027241430
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 293

Get Book Here

Book Description
This collection of studies investigates the individual, micro-psychological, and macro-societal factors that promote or discourage the development of child and young adult heritage language learners' spoken and written skills in East Asian languages (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean). The research presented in this book is based on empirical data from various learning and social settings in the United States and Canada. The contributors are themselves mostly from East Asian immigrant backgrounds and have worked closely with students from such backgrounds. This book also speaks to the needs for future research within East Asian communities that will (a) promote East Asian heritage language development in applied linguistics, (b) encourage parental, community, and national support for East Asian heritage language development, and (c) improve the teaching of oral and written skills for heritage learners of East Asian languages in various educational settings.

English and Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education

English and Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education PDF Author: Luis Javier Pentón Herrera
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030869636
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 359

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book examines students with limited or interrupted education (SLIFE) in the context of English learners and teacher preparation courses from a cultural and social lens. The book is divided into five parts. Part I frames the conversation and contributions in this edited volume; Part II provides an overview of SLIFE, Part III focuses on teacher preparation programs, Part IV discusses the challenges faced by SLIFE in K-12 learning environments and Part V examines SLIFE in adult learning environments. This book is unique in that it offers practical instructional tools to educators, thus helping to bridge theory and practice. Moreover, it retains a special focus on K-12 and adult SLIFE and has an inclusive and international perspective, which includes a novel theoretical framework to support the mental, emotional, and instructional needs of LGBTQ+ refugee students. The book is of interest to teacher educators, in-service and pre-service teachers, English literacy educators, graduate students, tutors, facilitators, instructors, and administrators working in organizations serving SLIFE in K-12 and adult learning environments.

Linguistik im Nordwesten

Linguistik im Nordwesten PDF Author: Rebecca Carroll
Publisher: Brockmeyer Verlag
ISBN: 3819608508
Category : Comparative linguistics
Languages : en
Pages : 181

Get Book Here

Book Description


Modeling Bilingualism

Modeling Bilingualism PDF Author: Monika S. Schmid
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027241821
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 319

Get Book Here

Book Description
From structure to chaos: twenty years of modeling bilingualism / Diane Larsen-Freeman, Monika S. Schmid and Wander Lowie -- Psycholinguistic perspectives on language processing in bilinguals / Judith Kroll and Daan Hermans -- Triggered codeswitching: evidence from picture naming experiments / Mirjam Broersma -- Working memory capacity, inhibitory control, and proficiency in a second language / Susan Gass and Junkyu Lee -- Explanations of associations between l1 and l2 literacy skills / Jan H. Hulstijn -- The acquisition, attrition, and relearning of mission vocabulary / Lynne Hansen -- Second language attrition: theory, research and challenges / Lelia Murtagh -- Contact X time: external factors and variability in l1 attrition / Monika S. Schmid -- The shifting structure of emotion semantics across immigrant generations: effects of the second culture on the first language / Robert W. Schrauf and Julia Sanchez -- Bilingualism, code-switching and aging: a myth of attrition and a tale of collaboration / Michael Clyne -- Language reversion versus general cognitive decline: towards a new taxonomy of language change in elderly bilingual immigrants / Merel Keijzer -- A dynamic model of expert-novice co-adaptation during language learning and acquisition / Paul van Geert, Henderien Steenbeek and Marijn van Dijk -- The dynamics of multilingualism: Levelt's speaking model revisited / Wander Lowie and Marjolijn Verspoor -- Epilogue: twenty years of modeling bilingualism, from chaos to structure and back again / Bert Weltens

Comprehending and Speaking about Motion in L2 Spanish

Comprehending and Speaking about Motion in L2 Spanish PDF Author: Samuel A. Navarro Ortega
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319493078
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 238

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book presents a novel analysis of the learning of motion event descriptions by Anglophone students of Spanish. The author examines cross-linguistic differences between English and Spanish, focusing on the verbal patterns of motion events, to explore how learners overcome an entrenched first-language preference to move toward the lexicalization pattern of the additional language. His findings highlight the gradual nonlinear process Anglophones traverse to acquire and produce form-meaning mappings describing motion in Spanish. The author suggests that as motion event descriptions are not normally the focus of explicit instruction, students learn this concept primarily from exposure to Spanish. Given its interdisciplinary nature, this book will be of interest to researchers working in Hispanic linguistics, cognitive semantics, and Spanish language learning and teaching.