The purpose of this paper is to show that: (1) language universals have much to offer to students of contrastive linguistics, and (2) in order to make contrastive analysis more meaningful, one ought to go beyond cataloguing mere contrastive structure statements and capture underlying structural tendencies. Some characteristics of word order in…

The author feels that there is no reason to suppose that adults are less capable than children in learning a second language, given adequate opportunity and motivation. In terms of amount learned in comparable time, the adult is about five times as efficient as the child. This is what would be expected of any other kind of intellectual or rational…

This syllabus describes and outlines the first half of an experimental, two-year course leading to the study of a modern foreign language at the University of Washington. In effect, the two-year course, which introduces the student to the nature of language, tests the belief that it is easier to learn a second foreign language, due to linguistic…

The experiments described in this report seek to investigate the characteristics of speech perception using an approach which considers the development of the perception of "voicing," both as it occurs naturally and as it might occur in the laboratory. Investigating voicing discrimination and perception training among adults, infants, and…

Recent research in experimental phonetics seems to provide evidence for a clear division between language units and speech units. Many researchers have suggested that the consonant-vowel (CV) syllable may be a universal unit of speech production and perception, while language units become criterial only at higher levels of processing. In second…

Examines theoretical issues concerning the development of and the unity or diversity underlying private speech and studies the developmental progression of private speech in a low-income, culturally different sample. The effects of age, sex, environmental context, and the relationship of social speech to varieties of private speech are also…

This volume contains working papers on a variety of topics in linguistics. They include: "A View of Phonology from a Cognitive and Functional Perspective" (Joan Bybee); "The Geography of Language Shift: Distance from the Mexican Border and Spanish Language Claiming in the Southwestern United States" (Garland D. Bills, Eduardo…

In a recent paper (1977) Levenston and Blum suggested that lexical simplification operates according to universal principles, and that these derive from the individual's semantic competence in his mother tongue. This paper examines the validity of this suggestion by means of a comparative study of lexical simplification in three different…

Knowledge of linguistics, a systematic understanding of language and languages, is a necessary qualification for language teachers. In language learning, a "mini-language" is constructed before fluency is approached. Interaction in the language is needed, and the teacher, as the partner in the interaction, must be able to work within the narrower…

This is one of a series of reports intended to make the results of research available and to serve as progress reports. The following abstracts are included: (1) "Learning the Phonetic Cues to the Voiced-Voiceless Distinction: Preliminary Study of Four American English Speaking Children," Mel Greenlee; (2) "Learning the Phonetic Cues to the…

This paper about the history and distribution of indigenous languages of Bolivia is divided into two parts. The first part deals with: (1) the developments of comparative work in South American Indian languages, (2) the phonological problems of comparative work in recently written languages, and (3) the apparent conflicts when dealing with early…

Classic studies in second language (L2) learning offer little evidence for the validity of the notion of universals in L2 learning. The present study investigates this notion in data collected from 15 observational studies of 40 L2 learners who acquired the L2 naturally, that is, they were not taught the language in any formal ways. Interpretation…

The present level of understanding of the psycholinguistic processes and capacities underlying the child's acquisition of language is reviewed in this publication. In the first chapter, linguistic theories, biological characteristics of language learning, and the distinctions between language competence and language performance are discussed. The…

This course involves an approach to language study dealing with the psychology, the process of abstraction, and the levels of the meaning of language. The objectives of the course include demonstrating an understanding of: (1) the origin and nature of language, (2) the process by which language changes and develops, (3) the abstract nature of the…

This article provides a discussion of current topics in psycholinguistics and of the current research on these problems. The author discusses current thought on the biological foundations of language and the problem of universals. If human language is a species-particular achievement contingent upon a biological endowment, there should be certain…