Parameter Setting in Language Acquisition

Parameter Setting in Language Acquisition

Author: Dalila Ayoun

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2005-02-28

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 1847143369

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This book provides a broad overview of parameter-setting theory in first and second language acquisition and refines the theory by revisiting and challenging the traditional assumptions that underlie it, based on cross-linguistic language data that cover a range of syntactic and phonological phenomena. From an historical perspective on parameter-setting theory to an introduction to its role in computational linguistics, neurolinguistics, and language change, the reader will find a critique of the most commonly made arguments, as well as an index of all the syntactic, phonological, lexical, and morphological parameters presented in the literature to date. A closer look at the theory itself addresses the following questions: What does a parameter-setting approach to language acquisition entail? What are the underpinnings of the theory? What issues and problems remain to be solved? The empirical studies carried out to test the null subject parameter and verb movement parameter are reviewed to re-examine long-standing theoretical assumptions as well as the learnability implications for first and second language acquisition.


Book Synopsis Parameter Setting in Language Acquisition by : Dalila Ayoun

Download or read book Parameter Setting in Language Acquisition written by Dalila Ayoun and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2005-02-28 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a broad overview of parameter-setting theory in first and second language acquisition and refines the theory by revisiting and challenging the traditional assumptions that underlie it, based on cross-linguistic language data that cover a range of syntactic and phonological phenomena. From an historical perspective on parameter-setting theory to an introduction to its role in computational linguistics, neurolinguistics, and language change, the reader will find a critique of the most commonly made arguments, as well as an index of all the syntactic, phonological, lexical, and morphological parameters presented in the literature to date. A closer look at the theory itself addresses the following questions: What does a parameter-setting approach to language acquisition entail? What are the underpinnings of the theory? What issues and problems remain to be solved? The empirical studies carried out to test the null subject parameter and verb movement parameter are reviewed to re-examine long-standing theoretical assumptions as well as the learnability implications for first and second language acquisition.


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.


Book Synopsis Language Acquisition and the Theory of Parameters by : Nina Hyams

Download or read book Language Acquisition and the Theory of Parameters written by Nina Hyams and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.


Properties of parameters and their connection to language acquisition

Properties of parameters and their connection to language acquisition

Author: Jens Stuhlemer

Publisher: GRIN Verlag

Published: 2017-11-23

Total Pages: 29

ISBN-13: 3668578028

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Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 2,3, University of Cologne, language: English, abstract: This paper is mainly investigating the properties of parameters and their connection to language acquisition. One of the core questions will be, in how far Chomsky ́s assumption of parameters being generally equipped with a default value can be validated. In order to obtain a more detailed account of parameters in language acquisition, a chronological analysis of relevant study areas will be made, moving from a broad perspective to more and more detailed descriptions. This analysis contains a brief overview of the Faculty of Language and the LAD as well as of Universal Grammar, simply because the parameters in question derive from these systems. Afterwards a detailed look will be taken on specific features of parameters, taking Meisel ́s text `Parameters in Acquisition ́ as a basis. To become more specific in order to further question certain features of parameters that have occurred by then, further linguistic fields will be taken into account, namely bilingual studies, neurolinguistics, and computational linguistics.


Book Synopsis Properties of parameters and their connection to language acquisition by : Jens Stuhlemer

Download or read book Properties of parameters and their connection to language acquisition written by Jens Stuhlemer and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2017-11-23 with total page 29 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 2,3, University of Cologne, language: English, abstract: This paper is mainly investigating the properties of parameters and their connection to language acquisition. One of the core questions will be, in how far Chomsky ́s assumption of parameters being generally equipped with a default value can be validated. In order to obtain a more detailed account of parameters in language acquisition, a chronological analysis of relevant study areas will be made, moving from a broad perspective to more and more detailed descriptions. This analysis contains a brief overview of the Faculty of Language and the LAD as well as of Universal Grammar, simply because the parameters in question derive from these systems. Afterwards a detailed look will be taken on specific features of parameters, taking Meisel ́s text `Parameters in Acquisition ́ as a basis. To become more specific in order to further question certain features of parameters that have occurred by then, further linguistic fields will be taken into account, namely bilingual studies, neurolinguistics, and computational linguistics.


Approaches to Second Language Acquisition

Approaches to Second Language Acquisition

Author: Richard Towell

Publisher: Multilingual Matters

Published: 1994

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 9781853592348

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Examines five central issues of second-language acquisition: transfer, staged development, cross-learner systematicity, incompleteness and variability.


Book Synopsis Approaches to Second Language Acquisition by : Richard Towell

Download or read book Approaches to Second Language Acquisition written by Richard Towell and published by Multilingual Matters. This book was released on 1994 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines five central issues of second-language acquisition: transfer, staged development, cross-learner systematicity, incompleteness and variability.


Universal Grammar in Child Second Language Acquisition

Universal Grammar in Child Second Language Acquisition

Author: Usha Lakshmanan

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 1994-01-01

Total Pages: 175

ISBN-13: 9027224757

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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.


Book Synopsis Universal Grammar in Child Second Language Acquisition by : Usha Lakshmanan

Download or read book Universal Grammar in Child Second Language Acquisition written by Usha Lakshmanan and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 1994-01-01 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 Processing and Language Acquisition

Language Processing and Language Acquisition

Author: Lyn Frazier

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 1990-09-30

Total Pages: 412

ISBN-13: 0792306597

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Studies of language acqUiSItion have largely ignored processing prin ciples and mechanisms. Not surprisingly, questions concerning the analysis of an informative linguistic input - the potential evidence for grammatical parameter setting - have also been ignored. Especially in linguistic approaches to language acquisition, the role of language processing has not been prominent. With few exceptions (e. g. Goodluck and Tavakolian, 1982; Pinker, 1984) discussions of language perform ance tend to arise only when experimental debris, the artifact of some experiment, needs to be cleared away. Consequently, language pro cessing has been viewed as a collection of rather uninteresting perform ance factors obscuring the true object of interest, namely, grammar acquisition. On those occasions when parsing "strategies" have been incorporated into accounts of language development, they have often been discussed as vague preferences, not open to rigorous analysis. In principle, however, theories of language comprehension can and should be subjected to the same criteria of explicitness and explanatoriness as other theories, e. g. , theories of grammar. Thus their peripheral role in accounts of language development may reflect accidental factors, rather than any inherent fuzziness or irrelevance to the language acquisition problem. It seems probable that an explicit model of the way(s) processing routines are applied in acquisition would help solve some central problems of grammar acquisition, since these routines regulate the application of grammatical knowledge to novel inputs.


Book Synopsis Language Processing and Language Acquisition by : Lyn Frazier

Download or read book Language Processing and Language Acquisition written by Lyn Frazier and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 1990-09-30 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Studies of language acqUiSItion have largely ignored processing prin ciples and mechanisms. Not surprisingly, questions concerning the analysis of an informative linguistic input - the potential evidence for grammatical parameter setting - have also been ignored. Especially in linguistic approaches to language acquisition, the role of language processing has not been prominent. With few exceptions (e. g. Goodluck and Tavakolian, 1982; Pinker, 1984) discussions of language perform ance tend to arise only when experimental debris, the artifact of some experiment, needs to be cleared away. Consequently, language pro cessing has been viewed as a collection of rather uninteresting perform ance factors obscuring the true object of interest, namely, grammar acquisition. On those occasions when parsing "strategies" have been incorporated into accounts of language development, they have often been discussed as vague preferences, not open to rigorous analysis. In principle, however, theories of language comprehension can and should be subjected to the same criteria of explicitness and explanatoriness as other theories, e. g. , theories of grammar. Thus their peripheral role in accounts of language development may reflect accidental factors, rather than any inherent fuzziness or irrelevance to the language acquisition problem. It seems probable that an explicit model of the way(s) processing routines are applied in acquisition would help solve some central problems of grammar acquisition, since these routines regulate the application of grammatical knowledge to novel inputs.


How to Set Parameters

How to Set Parameters

Author: David Lightfoot

Publisher: Mit Press

Published: 1991-01-01

Total Pages: 214

ISBN-13: 9780262121538

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Over the past decade generative grammarians have viewed language acquisition as a process of fixing option points or parameters defined in Universal Grammar. Here David Lightfoot addresses the crucial question of what it takes to set a parameter, of what kind of experience is needed to trigger the emergence of a natural kind of grammar.Lightfoot asserts that parameter setting is not sensitive to embedded material, that it is triggered only by robust elements that are structurally simple. He observes that morphological properties play a significant role in setting parameters which. have widespread syntactic effects. Using evidence from data on diachronic changes and from current work in syntactic theory, Lightfoot makes precise claims about the triggering experience that can explain a number of historical puzzles. He argues that the changes could have taken place in the way they did only if language acquisition proceeds on the basis of simple, unembedded experiences.Along the way Lightfoot examines consequences of the loss of the rich Old English case system and of the breakdown of the verb classes and takes up particularly illuminating cases of obsolescent structures.David Lightfoot is Professor and Chairman of the Linguistics Department at the University of Maryland.


Book Synopsis How to Set Parameters by : David Lightfoot

Download or read book How to Set Parameters written by David Lightfoot and published by Mit Press. This book was released on 1991-01-01 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past decade generative grammarians have viewed language acquisition as a process of fixing option points or parameters defined in Universal Grammar. Here David Lightfoot addresses the crucial question of what it takes to set a parameter, of what kind of experience is needed to trigger the emergence of a natural kind of grammar.Lightfoot asserts that parameter setting is not sensitive to embedded material, that it is triggered only by robust elements that are structurally simple. He observes that morphological properties play a significant role in setting parameters which. have widespread syntactic effects. Using evidence from data on diachronic changes and from current work in syntactic theory, Lightfoot makes precise claims about the triggering experience that can explain a number of historical puzzles. He argues that the changes could have taken place in the way they did only if language acquisition proceeds on the basis of simple, unembedded experiences.Along the way Lightfoot examines consequences of the loss of the rich Old English case system and of the breakdown of the verb classes and takes up particularly illuminating cases of obsolescent structures.David Lightfoot is Professor and Chairman of the Linguistics Department at the University of Maryland.


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.


Book Synopsis Crosscurrents in Second Language Acquisition and Linguistic Theories by : Thom Huebner

Download or read book Crosscurrents in Second Language Acquisition and Linguistic Theories written by Thom Huebner and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 1991-01-01 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.


Exploring Linguistic Science

Exploring Linguistic Science

Author: Allison Burkette

Publisher:

Published: 2018-03-15

Total Pages: 253

ISBN-13: 1108424805

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Introduces students to the scientific study of language, using the basic principles of complexity theory.


Book Synopsis Exploring Linguistic Science by : Allison Burkette

Download or read book Exploring Linguistic Science written by Allison Burkette and published by . This book was released on 2018-03-15 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduces students to the scientific study of language, using the basic principles of complexity theory.


Parameter Setting

Parameter Setting

Author: Thomas Roeper

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 267

ISBN-13: 940093727X

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In May 1985 the University of Massachusetts held the first conference on the parameter setting model of grammar and acquisition. The conference was conceived in the belief that there is a new possibility of tightly connecting grammatical studies and language acquisition studies, and that this new possibility has grown out of the new generation of ideas about the relation of Universal Grammar to the grammar of particular languages. The papers in this volume are all concerned in one way or another with the 'parametric' model of grammar, and with its role in explaining the acquisition of language. Before summarizing the accompanying papers, I would like to sketch the intellectual background of these new ideas. It has long been the acknowledged goal of grammatical theorists to explicate the relation between the experience of the child and the knowledge of the adult. Somehow, the child selects a unique grammar (by assumption) compatible with a random partially unreliable sample of some language. In the earliest work in generative grammar, starting with Chomsky's Aspects, and extending to such works as Jackendoffs Lexicalist Syntax (1977), the model of this account was the formal evaluation metric, accompanied by a general rule writing system. The model of acquisition was the following: the child composed a grammar by writing rules in the rule writing system, under the constraint that the rules must be compatible with the data, and that the grammar must be the one most highly valued by the evaluation metric.


Book Synopsis Parameter Setting by : Thomas Roeper

Download or read book Parameter Setting written by Thomas Roeper and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In May 1985 the University of Massachusetts held the first conference on the parameter setting model of grammar and acquisition. The conference was conceived in the belief that there is a new possibility of tightly connecting grammatical studies and language acquisition studies, and that this new possibility has grown out of the new generation of ideas about the relation of Universal Grammar to the grammar of particular languages. The papers in this volume are all concerned in one way or another with the 'parametric' model of grammar, and with its role in explaining the acquisition of language. Before summarizing the accompanying papers, I would like to sketch the intellectual background of these new ideas. It has long been the acknowledged goal of grammatical theorists to explicate the relation between the experience of the child and the knowledge of the adult. Somehow, the child selects a unique grammar (by assumption) compatible with a random partially unreliable sample of some language. In the earliest work in generative grammar, starting with Chomsky's Aspects, and extending to such works as Jackendoffs Lexicalist Syntax (1977), the model of this account was the formal evaluation metric, accompanied by a general rule writing system. The model of acquisition was the following: the child composed a grammar by writing rules in the rule writing system, under the constraint that the rules must be compatible with the data, and that the grammar must be the one most highly valued by the evaluation metric.