Language Universals and Second Language Acquisition
Title | Language Universals and Second Language Acquisition PDF eBook |
Author | William E. Rutherford |
Publisher | John Benjamins Publishing |
Pages | 278 |
Release | 1984-01-01 |
Genre | Language Arts & Disciplines |
ISBN | 9027228698 |
This volume consists of papers presented at the Conference on Language Universals and Second Language Acquisition, University of Southern California, February 1982. Published with the papers are the remarks of the originally assigned discussants. The collection represents an important cross-fertilization between research in grammatical theory and in second language acquisition. Topics dealt with in a number of the papers include word order, markedness, core grammar, accessability hierarchies, and simplified registers. The range of universals discussed embraces phonology, syntax, semantics, and discourse. Universals are also considered with reference to ontology, psychological reality, and evaluation metrics.
Second Language Acquisition and Universal Grammar
Title | Second Language Acquisition and Universal Grammar PDF eBook |
Author | Lydia White |
Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
Pages | 338 |
Release | 2003-03-06 |
Genre | Foreign Language Study |
ISBN | 9780521796477 |
Table of contents
Universals of Second Language Acquisition
Title | Universals of Second Language Acquisition PDF eBook |
Author | Fred R. Eckman |
Publisher | Newbury House |
Pages | 178 |
Release | 1984 |
Genre | Language Arts & Disciplines |
ISBN |
Universal Grammar in Child Second Language Acquisition
Title | Universal Grammar in Child Second Language Acquisition PDF eBook |
Author | Usha Lakshmanan |
Publisher | John Benjamins Publishing |
Pages | 175 |
Release | 1994-01-01 |
Genre | Language Arts & Disciplines |
ISBN | 9027224757 |
This book examines child second language acquisition within the Principles and Parameters theory of Universal Grammar (UG). Specifically, the book focuses on null-subjects in the developing grammars of children acquiring English as a second language. The book provides evidence from the longitudinal speech data of four child second language (L2) learners in order to test the predictions of a recent theory of null-subjects, namely, the Morphological Uniformity Principle (MUP). Lakshmanan argues that the child L2 acquisition data offer little or no evidence in support of the MUP s predictions regarding a developmental relation between verb inflections and null-subjects. The evidence from these child L2 data indicates that regardless of the status of null subjects in their first language, child L2 learners of English hypothesize correctly from the very beginning that English requires subjects of tensed clauses to be obligatorily overt. The failure on the part of these learners to obey this knowledge in certain structural contexts is the result of perceptual factors that are unrelated to parameter setting. The book demonstrates the value of child second language acquisition data in evaluating specific proposals within linguistic theory for a Universal principle.
Language Universals
Title | Language Universals PDF eBook |
Author | Morten H. Christiansen |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Pages | 312 |
Release | 2009-03-17 |
Genre | Language Arts & Disciplines |
ISBN | 0190294116 |
Languages differ from one another in bewildering and seemingly arbitrary ways. For example, in English, the verb precedes the direct object ('understand the proof'), but in Japanese, the direct object comes first. In some languages, such as Mohawk, it is not even possible to establish a basic word order. Nonetheless, languages do share certain regularities in how they are structured and used. The exact nature and extent of these "language universals" has been the focus of much research and is one of the central explanatory goals in the language sciences. During the past 50 years, there has been tremendous progress, a few major conceptual revolutions, and even the emergence of entirely new fields. The wealth of findings and theories offered by the various language-science disciplines has made it more important than ever to work toward an integrated understanding of the nature of human language universals. This book is the first to examine language universals from a cross-disciplinary perspective. It provides new insights into long standing questions such as: What exactly defines the human capacity for language? Are there universal properties of human languages and, if so, what are they? Can all language universals be explained in the same way, or do some universals require different kinds of explanations from others? Language Universals is unique in starting with the assumption that the best way to approach these and related questions is through a dialogue between a wide range of disciplines, including linguistics, cognitive neuroscience, philosophy, computer science and biology.
Language Universals and Linguistic Typology
Title | Language Universals and Linguistic Typology PDF eBook |
Author | Bernard Comrie |
Publisher | University of Chicago Press |
Pages | 286 |
Release | 1989-07-15 |
Genre | Language Arts & Disciplines |
ISBN | 9780226114330 |
Here, Comrie (linguistics, U. of Southern Cal.) is particularly concerned with syntactico-semantic universals, devoting chapters to word order, case marking, relative clauses, and causative constructions. This second edition takes full account of new research into generative grammatical theory. Acidic paper. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Language Universals and Second Language Acquisition
Title | Language Universals and Second Language Acquisition PDF eBook |
Author | William E. Rutherford |
Publisher | John Benjamins Publishing |
Pages | 277 |
Release | 1984-01-01 |
Genre | Language Arts & Disciplines |
ISBN | 9027228701 |
This volume consists of papers presented at the Conference on Language Universals and Second Language Acquisition, University of Southern California, February 1982. Published with the papers are the remarks of the originally assigned discussants. The collection represents an important cross-fertilization between research in grammatical theory and in second language acquisition. Topics dealt with in a number of the papers include word order, markedness, core grammar, accessability hierarchies, and simplified registers. The range of universals discussed embraces phonology, syntax, semantics, and discourse. Universals are also considered with reference to ontology, psychological reality, and evaluation metrics.