Language Monographs


Book Description




Frequency Effects in Language Learning and Processing


Book Description

The volume contains a collection of studies on how the analysis of corpus and psycholinguistic data reveal how linguistic knowledge is affected by the frequency of linguistic elements/stimuli. The studies explore a wide range of phenomena , from phonological reduction processes and palatalization to morphological productivity, diachronic change, adjective preposition constructions, auxiliary omission, and multi-word units. The languages studied are Spanish and artificial languages, Russian, Dutch, and English. The sister volume focuses on language representation.




The Architecture of the Language Faculty


Book Description

Ray Jackendoff steps back to survey the broader theoretical landscape in linguistics, in an attempt to identify some of the sources of the widely perceived malaise with respect to much current theorizing. Over the past twenty-five years, Ray Jackendoff has investigated many complex issues in syntax, semantics, and the relation of language to other cognitive domains. He steps back in this new book to survey the broader theoretical landscape in linguistics, in an attempt to identify some of the sources of the widely perceived malaise with respect to much current theorizing. Starting from the "Minimalist" necessity for interfaces of the grammar with sound, meaning, and the lexicon, Jackendoff examines many standard assumptions of generative grammar that in retrospect may be seen as the product of historical accident. He then develops alternatives more congenial to contemporary understanding of linguistic phenomena. The Architecture of the Language Faculty seeks to situate the language capacity in a more general theory of mental representations and to connect the theory of grammar with processing. To this end, Jackendoff works out an architecture that generates multiple co-constraining structures, and he embeds this proposal in a version of the modularity hypothesis called Representational Modularity. Jackendoff carefully articulates the nature of lexical insertion and the content of lexical entries, including idioms and productive affixes. The resulting organization of the grammar is compatible with many different technical realizations, which he shows can be instantiated in terms of a variety of current theoretical frameworks. Linguistic Inquiry Monograph No. 28




Language Parasites: Of Phorontology


Book Description

"What we call "Being" infects us and speaks through us - it treats us as a host to a linguistic and experiential parasite. Ontology - the study of Being - has primarily dealt with human questions regarding Being at the expense of the non-human, inhuman, and posthuman. Language Parasites works against this tendency by offering a "phorontology": a theory of Being inspired by "phoronts," which are tiny organisms that engage in parasitic migration (lice, mites, ticks, fleas, etc.). What is the Being of a parasite and how can that complicated non-human ontology influence human definitions of Being? Gradually, the anthropocentric distinction of subject and object fades away in favor of the emergence of a strange new philosophical entity called the transject, a being that is thrown far afield from the more normative notions of the subject that can be found in Hegel, Kant, Lacan, or even Foucault, Nietzsche, and Deleuze. A 'pataphysical excursion into the intricate world of philosophical ontology, Language Parasites presents the initial discoveries of a much larger project that seeks to redefine the boundaries of Being. This book is the result of a parasitic infection of continental philosophy in which the various parasites of German and French philosophy all meet at one locale for one express purpose: to eat together, feed together, and think together."--Back cover.




Intra-individual Variation in Language


Book Description

This volume offers several empirical, methodological, and theoretical approaches to the study of observable variation within individuals on various linguistic levels. With a focus on German varieties, the chapters provide answers on the following questions (inter alia): Which linguistic and extra-linguistic factors explain intra-individual variation? Is there observable intra-individual variation that cannot be explained by linguistic and extra-linguistic factors? Can group-level results be generalised to individual language usage and vice versa? Is intra-individual variation indicative of actual patterns of language change? How can intra-individual variation be examined in historical data? Consequently, the various theoretical, methodological and empirical approaches in this volume offer a better understanding of the meaning of intra-individual variation for patterns of language development, language variation and change. The inter- and transdisciplinary nature of the volume is an exciting new frontier, and the results of the studies in this book provide a wealth of new findings as well as challenges to some of the existing findings and assumptions regarding the nature of intra-individual variation.




Assessing the Language of Young Learners


Book Description

This volume offers new insights into the assessment of the language of Young Learners (YLs). YLs are defined here as being from 5 to 17 years, and are treated as three distinct subgroups: younger children (5/6 to 8/9 years), older children (8/9 to 12/13 years) and teenagers (12/13 to 17 years). The first half addresses fundamental issues, beginning with the characteristics of YLs and how these are manifested in first language development. The authors consider the potential ability of each age group to perform in a second or foreign language, proposing a rough age-related correspondence with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) levels. Finally, principles of assessment, specifically formative assessment and testing, are presented in the light of linguistic, cognitive and social development. The second half focuses on testing a range of 'skills'. Theoretical models of performance are introduced, followed by a practical analysis of approaches to the testing of each skill for the three age groups, illustrated with examples. The authors conclude by summing up developmental characteristics of each age group, and their implications for language testing. The book is intended for a wide readership within the field of teaching and assessing the language of young learners. Researchers are offered scope for further investigation of what emerges from the discussion, while practitioners will hopefully find support in their day-to-day work with YLs.




The Foundations of Latin


Book Description

The series publishes state-of-the-art work on core areas of linguistics across theoretical frameworks as well as studies that provide new insights by building bridges to neighbouring fields such as neuroscience and cognitive science. The series considers itself a forum for cutting-edge research based on solid empirical data on language in its various manifestations, including sign languages. It regards linguistic variation in its synchronic and diachronic dimensions as well as in its social contexts as important sources of insight for a better understanding of the design of linguistic systems.




Language Usage and Language Structure


Book Description

Addresses an issue hotly debated in the linguistic theory: the relation between language usage and language structure




Scoring Second Language Spoken and Written Performance


Book Description

The ability to speak and write effectively is widely recognized as an important skill in many contexts and for many purposes, both personal, educational and professional. Because these skills are considered important in second and foreign language learning contexts, they are often included in performance assessments. The scoring of such performances is, however, a complex undertaking and has attracted much attention, both in first and second language learning contexts. The increasing use of automated scoring systems has added to this complexity in recent years. It is therefore all the more surprising that there is no book available that provides an overview of this topic area - the scoring of second language performances. This monograph fills this gap, by drawing together the latest literature in the area. It focusses on issues relating to both rater-mediated assessments and sets out consideration in relation to automated scoring systems (and other technology) which are increasingly used in our field. This monograph provides a useful introduction to graduate students, researchers, test developers, other practitioners and teachers to this topic which has in many ways dominated the field of language assessment over many decades.




Anaphora and Language Design


Book Description

Pronouns and anaphors (including reflexives such as himself and herself) may or must depend on antecedents for their interpretation. These dependencies are subject to conditions that prima facie show substantial crosslinguistic variation. In this monograph, Eric Reuland presents a theory of how these anaphoric dependencies are represented in natural language in a way that does justice to the the variation one finds across languages. He explains the conditions on these dependencies in terms of elementary properties of the computational system of natural language. He shows that the encoding of anaphoric dependencies makes use of components of the language system that all reflect different cognitive capacities; thus the empirical research he reports on offers insights into the design of the language system. Reuland's account reduces the conditions on binding to independent properties of the grammar, none of which is specific to binding. He offers a principled account of the roles of the lexicon, syntax, semantics, and the discourse component in the encoding of anaphoric dependencies; a window into the overall organization of the grammar and the roles of linguistic and extralinguistic factors; a new typology of anaphoric expressions; a view of crosslinguistic variation (examining facts in a range of languages, from English, Dutch, Frisian, German, and Scandinavian languages to Fijian, Georgian, and Malayalam) that shows unity in diversity.