Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research, Volume 2
Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research, Volume 2

Author: Susan D. Fischer

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 1991-06-25

Total Pages: 334

ISBN-13: 9780226251523

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The recent recognition of sign languages as legitimate human languages has opened up new and unique ways for both theoretical and applied psycholinguistics and language acquisition have begun to demonstrate the universality of language acquisition, comprehension, and production processes across a wide variety of modes of communication. As a result, many language practitioners, teachers, and clinicians have begun to examine the role of sign language in the education of the deaf as well as in language intervention for atypical, language-delayed populations. This collection, edited by Patricia Siple and Susan D. Fischer, brings together theoretically important contributions from both basic research and applied settings. The studies include native sign language acquisition; acquisition and processing of sign language through a single mode under widely varying conditions; acquisition and processing of bimodal (speech and sign) input; and the use of sign language with atypical, autistic, and mentally retarded groups. All the chapters in this collection of state-of-the-art research address one or more issues related to universality of language processes, language plasticity, and the relative contributions of biology and input to language acquisition and use.

Theoretical Issues in Language Acquisition
Theoretical Issues in Language Acquisition

Author: Juergen Weissenborn

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 2013-02-01

Total Pages: 334

ISBN-13: 1134746695

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In recent linguistic theory, there has been an explosion of detailed studies of language variation. This volume applies such recent analyses to the study of child language, developing new approaches to change and variation in child grammars and revealing both early knowledge in several areas of grammar and a period of extended development in others. Topics dealt with include question formation, "subjectless" sentences, object gaps, rules for missing subject interpretation, passive sentences, rules for pronoun interpretation and argument structure. Leading developmental linguists and psycholinguists show how linguistic theory can help define and inform a theory of the dynamics of language development and its biological basis, meeting the growing need for such studies in programs in linguistics, psychology, and cognitive science.

Other Children, Other Languages
Other Children, Other Languages

Author: Yonata Levy

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 2013-05-13

Total Pages: 408

ISBN-13: 1134776861

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This volume investigates the implications of the study of populations other than educated, middle-class, normal children and languages other than English on a universal theory of language acquisition. Because the authors represent different theoretical orientations, their contributions permit the reader to appreciate the full spectrum of language acquisition research. Emphasis is placed on the principle ways in which data from pathology and from a variety of languages may affect universal statements. The contributors confront some of the major theoretical issues in acquisition.

Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research, Volume 1
Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research, Volume 1

Author: Susan D. Fischer

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 1990-11-19

Total Pages: 358

ISBN-13: 9780226251509

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Only recently has linguistic research recognized sign languages as legitimate human languages with properties analogous to those cataloged for French or Navajo, for example. There are many different sign languages, which can be analyzed on a variety of levels—phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics—in the same way as spoken languages. Yet the recognition that not all of the principles established for spoken languages hold for sign languages has made sign languages a crucial testing ground for linguistic theory. Edited by Susan Fischer and Patricia Siple, this collection is divided into four sections, reflecting the traditional core areas of phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. Although most of the contributions consider American Sign Language (ASL), five treat sign languages unrelated to ASL, offering valuable perspectives on sign universals. Since some of these languages or systems are only recently established, they provide a window onto the evolution and growth of sign languages.

Language Acquisition and the Theory of Parameters
Language Acquisition and the Theory of Parameters

Author: Nina Hyams

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 239

ISBN-13: 9400946384

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This book is perhaps the most stunning available demonstration of the explanatory power of the parametric approach to linguistic theory. It is akin, not to a deductive proof, but to the discovery of a footprint in a far-off place which leaves an archeologist elated. The book is full of intricate reasoning, but the stunning aspect is that the reasoning moves between not only complex syntax and diverse languages, but it makes predictions about what two-year-old children will assume about the jumble of linguistic input that confronts them. Those predictions, Hyams shows, are supported by a discriminating analysis of acquisition data in English and Italian. Let us examine the linguistic context for a moment before we discuss her theory. The ultimate issue in linguistic theory is the explanation of how a child can acquire any human language. To capture this fact we must posit an innate mechanism which meets two opposite constraints: it must be broad enough to account for the diversity of human language, and narrow enough so that the child does not make irrelevant hypotheses about his own language, particularly ones from which there is no recovery. That is, a child must not posit a grammar which permits all of the sentences of a language as well as other sentences which are not in the language. In a word, the child must not create a language in which one cannot make adult discriminations between grammatical and ungrammatical.

Child Language Acquisition
Child Language Acquisition

Author: Ben Ambridge

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2011-03-17

Total Pages: 465

ISBN-13: 1139500511

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Is children's language acquisition based on innate linguistic structures or built from cognitive and communicative skills? This book summarises the major theoretical debates in all of the core domains of child language acquisition research (phonology, word-learning, inflectional morphology, syntax and binding) and includes a complete introduction to the two major contrasting theoretical approaches: generativist and constructivist. For each debate, the predictions of the competing accounts are closely and even-handedly evaluated against the empirical data. The result is an evidence-based review of the central issues in language acquisition research that will constitute a valuable resource for students, teachers, course-builders and researchers alike.

Crosscurrents in Second Language Acquisition and Linguistic Theories
Crosscurrents in Second Language Acquisition and Linguistic Theories

Author: Thom Huebner

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 1991-01-01

Total Pages: 444

ISBN-13: 9027224633

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The term “crosscurrent” is defined as “a current flowing counter to another.” This volume represents crosscurrents in second language acquisition and linguistic theory in several respects. First, although the main currents running between linguistics and second language acquisition have traditionally flowed from theory to application, equally important contributions can be made in the other direction as well. Second, although there is a strong tendency in the field of linguistics to see “theorists” working within formal models of syntax, SLA research can contribute to linguistic theory more broadly defined to include various functional as well as formal models of syntax, theories of phonology, variationist theories of sociolinguists, etc. These assumptions formed the basis for a conference held at Stanford University during the Linguistic Institute there in the summer of 1987. The conference was organized to update the relation between second language acquisition and linguistic theory. This book contains a selection of (mostly revised and updated) papers of this conference and two newly written papers.

Converging Evidence
Converging Evidence

Author: Doris Schönefeld

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 363

ISBN-13: 9027223874

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The volume argues for the use of multi-methodological strategies in linguistic research. In its lead chapter, in addition, the thorny issue of phenomenological pluralism is explored in detail. From a usage-based perspective, the individual chapters demonstrate methodological pluralism in the investigation of meaning, language acquisition, and discourse. The chapters report on studies in which the use of corpus data is combined with other methodological tools, e.g. experimentally elicited findings, showing how introspection and the analysis of performance data go hand in hand to provide empirical support for researchers hypotheses. Some of the authors inspire the discussion in usage-based linguistics, proposing innovative methods of analysis. Others adopt such methods and combine them in original ways. The cutting-edge studies presented in this volume should be of great interest to scholars and students of cognitive and corpus linguistics who want to familiarize themselves with recent methodological advances and their applications in the field."

Second Language Acquisition
Second Language Acquisition

Author: Alessandro G. Benati

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2016-02-25

Total Pages: 201

ISBN-13: 0567112004

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This book is written in order to help undergraduate students and trainee teachers to reflect on certain topics and key issues related to second language acquisition. Despite the proliferation of books and introductory courses in second language acquisition, most of these books very often provide a very complex account of theoretical views in second language acquisition and sometimes fail to emphasise the crucial interplay between how people learn languages and what is the most effective way to teach languages. The overall purpose of this book is to provide an overview of second language acquisition research and theories by identifying the main key issues in this field and by highlighting the relevance of this research for classroom implications. The study of second language acquisition is a rich and varied enterprise, carried out by researchers, whose interests and training often lie in broader disciplines of linguistics, psychology, sociology, and education. Readers will be encouraged to critically reflect on the presented content through self-engaging thinking activities in the form of questions, matching activities, choices and conclusions about the implications of SLA theories to the real world applications.

Linguistic Perspectives on Second Language Acquisition
Linguistic Perspectives on Second Language Acquisition

Author: Susan M Gass

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1989-09-29

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 0521378117

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This volume explores how a second language is acquired and what learners must do in order to achieve proficiency. The hardback edition is a collection of original essays that approaches second language acquisition from a linguistic rather than a sociological, psychological, or purely pedagogical perspective. A wide range of viewpoints and approaches is represented. However, all authors agree on the fundamental importance of linguistic theory in the study of second language acquisition. Few works have explored in depth how a second language is acquired and what the second language learner must do mentally to achieve proficiency in another language. The essays in this book provide an incisive analysis of these questions. For greater accessibility, the chapters are arranged topically from those covering the broad area of theories of acquisition to those focusing specifically on syntax, semantics, pragmatics, lexicon, and phonology in another language.