Contemporary Linguistic Parameters
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Contemporary Linguistic Parameters
Author: Antonio Fabregas
language: en
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Release Date: 2015-11-19
Parameters have lain at the core of linguistic research in the generative tradition for decades. The theoretical questions they have raised are deep and broad: this reference text investigates how contemporary linguistics has best tried to answer them. This book looks at how parameters might be properly defined and what their locus might be :lexical information, functional heads, the computational system, the phonological branch of the grammar. What kind of data forms trigger acquisition of a parameter? Are parameters necessary or can we study languages without making reference to them? The questions looked at are not just theoretical: how can a theory of parameters be used to help understand second language acquisition, and what contributions can it make to the study of language typology? This is the right time to gather all this information, dispersed in many different kinds of publications by single authors and groups, into one comprehensive volume.
Developmental, Modal, and Pathological Variation — Linguistic and Cognitive Profiles for Speakers of Linguistically Proximal Languages and Varieties
Author: Kleanthes K. Grohmann
language: en
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Release Date: 2018-11-08
One significant area of research in the multifaceted field of bilingualism over the past two decades has been the demonstration, validation, and account of the so-called ‘bilingual advantage’. This refers to the hypothesis that bilingual speakers have advanced abilities in executive functions and other domains of human cognition. Such cognitive benefits of bilingualism have an impact on the processing mechanisms active during language acquisition in a way that results in language variation. Within bilingual populations, the notion of language proximity (or linguistic distance) is also of key importance for deriving variation. In addition, sociolinguistic factors can invest the process of language development and its outcome with an additional layer of complexity, such as schooling, language, dominance, competing motivations, or the emergence of mesolectal varieties, which blur the boundaries of grammatical variants. This is particularly relevant for diglossic speech communities—bilectal, bidialectal, or bivarietal speakers. The defined goal of the present Research Topic is to address whether the bilingual advantage extends to such speakers as well. Thus, ‘Linguistic and Cognitive Profiles for Speakers of Linguistically Proximal Languages and Varieties’ become an important matter within ‘Developmental, Modal, and Pathological Variation’.
Toward A Genetics of Language
The past decade has brought important new advances in the fields of genetics, behavioral genetics, linguistics, language acquisition, studies of language impairment, and brain imaging. Although these advances are each highly relevant to the determination of what a child is innately prepared to bring to language acquisition, the contributing fields of endeavor have traditionally been relatively self-contained, with little cross communication. This volume was developed with the belief that there is considerable value to be gained in the creation of a shared platform for a dialogue across the disciplines. Leading experts in genetics, linguistics, language acquisition, language impairment, and brain imaging are brought together for the purpose of exploring the current evidence, theoretical issues, and research challenges in a way that bridges disciplinary boundaries and points toward future developments in the search for the genetic and environmental bases of language acquisition and impairments. This collection provides discussions and summaries of: *breakthrough findings of the genetic underpinnings of dyslexia; *theoretical and empirical developments in the specification of a phenotype of language acquisition and impairment; *evidence of familiarity and twin concordances of specific language impairment; and *new evidence from brain imaging. It concludes with a critical response from an advocate of rational empiricism.