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Helen Engemann – Journal of Child Language, 2024
Previous research on the L1 acquisition of motion event expression suggests that mapping multiple semantic components onto syntactic units is associated with greater difficulties in verb-framed than in satellite-framed languages, because the former require more complex structures (using subordination). This study investigated the impact of this…
Descriptors: French, Language Acquisition, Monolingualism, English
Alix Baldwin Fetch – ProQuest LLC, 2020
Universals in natural language have long been a focus of the generative syntactic and typological literature. However, the source of these universals is not clear. Within Chomskyan generative syntactic literature, it is assumed that children are endowed with innate knowledge of language structure (see for example, Lightfoot 1999). However,…
Descriptors: Language Universals, Language Acquisition, Grammar, Sentence Structure
Sharwood Smith, Michael – Second Language Research, 2021
Westergaard's microcue account raises the question of the exact nature of language transfer in the acquisition of languages as well of how L1/Ln input interacts with the principles of universal grammar (UG) during processing. In order to consider in more detail the actual representation building, processing mechanisms that would be involved, her…
Descriptors: Transfer of Training, Second Language Learning, Linguistic Input, Native Language
White, Lydia – Language Teaching, 2022
Research on second language (L2) acquisition in the generative tradition (GenSLA) addresses the nature of interlanguage competence, examining the roles of Universal Grammar, the mother tongue and the input in shaping the acquisition, representation and use of second languages. This field is sometimes dismissed by applied linguists as irrelevant…
Descriptors: Applied Linguistics, Grammar, Language Universals, Linguistic Theory
Flynn, Suzanne – Second Language Research, 2021
This provocative article raises many important issues that need to be addressed and in so doing will advance the fields of second language (L2) and third language (L3) acquisition in several important ways. Fundamental questions concerning multilingual development persist especially with respect to the role of Universal Grammar in this language…
Descriptors: Second Language Learning, Multilingualism, Native Language, Linguistic Theory
Martin Fuchs – ProQuest LLC, 2020
Some links between linguistic meanings and markers change systematically and cyclically in what are known as "grammaticalization paths." Although the empirical observations that give rise to these characterizations are cross-linguistically robust, the representations and cognitive processes that support these shifts are still not well…
Descriptors: Cognitive Processes, Spanish, Diachronic Linguistics, Language Variation
Alaowffi, Nouf; Alharbi, Bader – Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, 2021
Based on data from numerous languages, such as English, Frisian, and Danish, Merchant (2001) proposes the "preposition stranding generalization" (PSG), which states that only languages that allow preposition stranding under wh-movement also allow preposition stranding under sluicing. The availability of this generalization has been the…
Descriptors: Semitic Languages, Form Classes (Languages), Generalization, Linguistic Theory
Howitt, Katherine; Dey, Soumik; Sakas, William Gregory – Language Acquisition: A Journal of Developmental Linguistics, 2021
In this article, we propose a reconceptualization of the principles and parameters (P&P) framework. We argue that in lieu of discrete parameter values, a parameter value exists on a gradient plane that encodes a learner's confidence that a particular parametric structure licenses the utterances in the learner's linguistic input. Crucially,…
Descriptors: Linguistic Theory, Language Acquisition, Computational Linguistics, Guidelines
Sakine Çabuk-Balli; Jekaterina Mazara; Aylin C. Küntay; Birgit Hellwig; Barbara B. Pfeiler; Paul Widmer; Sabine Stoll – Cognitive Science, 2025
Negation is a cornerstone of human language and one of the few universals found in all languages. Without negation, neither categorization nor efficient communication would be possible. Languages, however, differ remarkably in how they express negation. It is yet widely unknown how the way negation is marked influences the acquisition process of…
Descriptors: Morphemes, Native Language, Language Acquisition, Infants
Feng, Chen; Damian, Markus F.; Qu, Qingqing – Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 2022
Semantic and phonological similarity effects provide critical constraints on the mechanisms underlying language production. In the present study, we jointly investigated effects of semantic and phonological similarity using the continuous naming task. In the semantic condition, Chinese Mandarin speakers named a list of pictures composed of 12…
Descriptors: Naming, Task Analysis, Phonemes, Semantics
Koring, Loes; Giblin, Iain; Thornton, Rosalind; Crain, Stephen – First Language, 2020
This response argues against the proposal that novel utterances are formed by analogy with stored exemplars that are close in meaning. Strings of words that are similar in meaning or even identical can behave very differently once inserted into different syntactic environments. Furthermore, phrases with similar meanings but different underlying…
Descriptors: Language Acquisition, Figurative Language, Syntax, Phrase Structure
Kashyap, Ravi – Journal for Multicultural Education, 2021
Purpose: Music could be a challenger for mathematics and a potential candidate for the title "The Universal Language." This paper aims to discuss the primary objectives of engaging with music, including the therapeutic benefits. Similarities, between mathematics and music and how studying one might enhance one's abilities of the other…
Descriptors: Music, Mathematics, Therapy, Music Education
Hristo Kyuchukov; Jill de Villiers; Yanwan Zhu; Iris Zhong – Language Acquisition: A Journal of Developmental Linguistics, 2025
The paper presents the first comprehensive look at the language development of Romani-speaking children from resource-poor Roma communities in several European countries. 250 participants aged 3- to 10-years participated. The experimental tasks assess knowledge in eight key areas of grammar and morphology, including fast mapping of novel items.…
Descriptors: Language Acquisition, Minority Groups, Preschool Children, Elementary School Students
Lucy Jane Kim – ProQuest LLC, 2023
Miniature language learning has been widely used to study the causality of language universals. However, factors that have been shown to affect language acquisition in other paradigms are understudied in miniature language learning, which calls into question results that claim to uncover universal biases. In this dissertation, I ask how the…
Descriptors: Language Usage, Language Universals, Second Language Learning, Second Language Instruction
Schwartz, Bonnie D.; Sprouse, Rex A. – Second Language Research, 2021
In her keynote article advocating the Linguistic Proximity Model for third language (L3) acquisition, Westergaard (2021) presents several arguments against 'copying and restructuring' in nonnative language acquisition, mechanisms central to Schwartz and Sprouse's (1996) Full Transfer/Full Access model of second language (L2) acquisition. In this…
Descriptors: Linguistic Theory, Second Language Learning, Native Language, Transfer of Training