Academic literature on the topic 'Language and languages Language acquisition Grammar, Comparative and general Grammar, Comparative and general'

ABSTRACTThis article demonstrates how the Comparative Method can be applied to cross-linguistic research on language acquisition. The Comparative Method provides a systematic procedure for organizing and interpreting acquisition data from different languages. The Comparative Method controls for cross-linguistic differences at all levels of the grammar and is especially useful in drawing attention to variation in contexts of use across languages. This article uses the Comparative Method to analyze the acquisition of verb suffixes in two Mayan languages: K'iche' and Yucatec. Mayan status suffixes simultaneously mark distinctions in verb transitivity, verb class, mood, and clause position. Two-year-old children acquiring K'iche' and Yucatec Maya accurately produce the status suffixes on verbs, in marked distinction to the verbal prefixes for aspect and agreement. We find evidence that the contexts of use for the suffixes differentially promote the children's production of cognate status suffixes in K'iche' and Yucatec.

AbstractSaito, Mamoru. 2007. Notes on East Asian argument ellipsis. Language Research 43. 203–227 argues that argument ellipsis (AE) is available only in languages that lack phi-feature agreement. Accordingly, Japanese, but not English, permits AE. Under Saito’s theoretical framework, this paper compares experimental data from L1 Japanese learners of L2 English (J-EFL) and L1 English learners of L2 Japanese (E-JFL). Given that sloppy and quantificational reading arises from an ellipsis operation (Hankamer, Jorge & Sag, Ivan. 1976. Deep and surface anaphora. Linguistic Inquiry 7. 391–426, Takahashi, Daiko. 2008. Noun phrase ellipsis. In Miyagawa, Shigeru & Saito, Mamoru (eds.), The Oxford handbook of Japanese linguistics, 394–422. Oxford: Oxford University Press, among others), we hypothesize that J-EFL learners, but not E-JFL learners, allow the reading in point with null arguments: AE is available only in the grammar of J-EFL learners, forced by the lack of phi-features in their L2 English grammar, due to L1 transfer. The results from our main study adopting a truth value judgement task supported the hypothesis. Based on our finding, we suggest that correct L2 phi-feature specification can ultimately be obtained when no phi-features are present in L1 (Ishino, Nao. 2012. Feature transfer and feature learning in universal grammar: A comparative study of the syntactic mechanism for second language acquisition. Doctoral dissertation: Kwansei Gakuin University, Miyamoto, Yoichi. 2012. Dainigengo-ni okeru hikenzaiteki-na yōso-ni kansuru Ichikōsatsu [A study on null elements in second language acquisition]. Paper presented at the 84th ELSJ annual general meeting: Senshu University, 26 May).

AbstractThis study explores variability in particle placement across nine varieties of English around the globe, utilizing data from the International Corpus of English and the Global Corpus of Web-based English. We introduce a quantitative approach for comparative sociolinguistics that integrates linguistic distance metrics and predictive modeling, and use these methods to examine the development of regional patterns in grammatical constraints on particle placement in World Englishes. We find a high degree of uniformity among the conditioning factors influencing particle placement in native varieties (e.g., British, Canadian, and New Zealand English), while English as a second language varieties (e.g., Indian and Singaporean English) exhibit a high degree of dissimilarity with the native varieties and with each other. We attribute the greater heterogeneity among second language varieties to the interaction between general L2 acquisition processes and the varying sociolinguistic contexts of the individual regions. We argue that the similarities in constraint effects represent compelling evidence for the existence of a shared variable grammar and variation among grammatical systems is more appropriately analyzed and interpreted as a continuum rather than multiple distinct grammars.

Relevance of the study is substantiated by the need for the optimisation of foreign languages education in non-linguistic higher education establishments at economic faculties that are particularly influential on the process related to the acquisition and memorising of linguistic material. The purpose of the study is to analyse the English textbook «Enterprise 4» issued by the Publishing house «Express Publishing» as an effective means of communication. Special attention is paid to the correspondence of the content of the textbook to its aim, expediency of using the mentioned textbook at practical sessions at higher educational institutions at economic faculties by the students majoring in Hotel and Restaurant Business. The methods used are as follows: the methodological aspect of the textbook is stressed; the author emphasises a positive role of the data obtained and the introduction, underlining the aim of lessons for seekers of higher education. The scholar examines the usage of the most spread types of tests: asking-answering questions, translating, matching, completing, gap-filling, information transferring, recording, correcting, paragraphing, multiple choice, finding differences (similarities) and so on. Results: the article underlines the importance of the textbook’s functions, the necessity to include into the educational process such creative tasks as working out portfolios, group work, making notes, making up dialogues, organisation of discussions, presentations, role-playing. Unquestionable advantages of the “Enterprise 4” textbook are as follows: complete compatibility to the requirements of the teaching programs, prominent clarity of the material structuring, availability of technical support for the textbook users, visible scientific correctness in the contents and completeness in the revealing of the main issues, the use of up-to-date and generally accepted scientific terms. The lexical and grammar material is practice-oriented, its interactions with life is obvious. The textbook shows the ways to the differential approach to teaching new material; its content correlates with age characteristics of higher school students. The language of the mentioned material is clear and simple. One can trace comparative studies in the textbook (American English – British English reference book). Motivation of the youth’s learning activities, development of their interest to the subject by using the methods proposed in the textbook show the presence of problematic and searching tasks. The didactic adequacy of the tasks system given in the textbook, its capacity to facilitate students’ independent activities alongside the logic of the illustrative material layout and use are considerable advantages of the textbook as both a stand-alone and an additional information source. Conclusions: this article accents on further development of the four language activities at the English lessons – listening, speaking, reading and writing, as well as on four competences –linguistic, speaking, social-cultural and strategic (general learning) ones.

Drozd notes that Crain & Thornton's view of children's processing capacities (namely that they are the same as those of adults) is inconsistent both with the more widely held view that there are at least quantitative differences between the performance systems of children and adults, and with what is known about the acquisition of many grammatical phenomena. There is, I believe, an additional consideration that must be brought to bear here: there are highly suggestive parallels among children acquiring their first language, adults acquiring a second language, and Broca's (agrammatic) aphasics with respect to the comprehension of patterns that involve comparatively heavy demands on the processor. These parallels not only seem to confirm that children's processing resources are initially compromised, they point to the possibility of a greater role for processing in understanding grammatical development.

Formal language theory (FLT), part of the broader mathematical theory of computation, provides a systematic terminology and set of conventions for describing rules and the structures they generate, along with a rich body of discoveries and theorems concerning generative rule systems. Despite its name, FLT is not limited to human language, but is equally applicable to computer programs, music, visual patterns, animal vocalizations, RNA structure and even dance. In the last decade, this theory has been profitably used to frame hypotheses and to design brain imaging and animal-learning experiments, mostly using the ‘artificial grammar-learning’ paradigm. We offer a brief, non-technical introduction to FLT and then a more detailed analysis of empirical research based on this theory. We suggest that progress has been hampered by a pervasive conflation of distinct issues, including hierarchy, dependency, complexity and recursion. We offer clarifications of several relevant hypotheses and the experimental designs necessary to test them. We finally review the recent brain imaging literature, using formal languages, identifying areas of convergence and outstanding debates. We conclude that FLT has much to offer scientists who are interested in rigorous empirical investigations of human cognition from a neuroscientific and comparative perspective.