scispace - formally typeset
Search or ask a question
Author

Albert Sechehaye

Bio: Albert Sechehaye is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Theoretical linguistics & Applied linguistics. The author has an hindex of 8, co-authored 11 publications receiving 3313 citations.


Cited by
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a technique for conducting thematic analysis of qualitative material, presenting a step-by-step guide of the analytic process, with the aid of an empirical example.
Abstract: The growth in qualitative research is a well-noted and welcomed fact within the social sciences; however, there is a regrettable lack of tools available for the analysis of qualitative material. There is a need for greater disclosure in qualitative analysis, and for more sophisticated tools to facilitate such analyses. This article details a technique for conducting thematic analysis of qualitative material, presenting a step-by-step guide of the analytic process, with the aid of an empirical example. The analytic method presented employs established, well-known techniques; the article proposes that thematic analyses can be usefully aided by and presented as thematic networks. Thematic networks are web-like illustrations that summarize the main themes constituting a piece of text. The thematic networks technique is a robust and highly sensitive tool for the systematization and presentation of qualitative analyses.

4,606 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Sociologists today are faced with a fundamental dilemma: whether to conceive of the social world as consisting primarily in substances or processes, in static "things" or in dynamic, unfolding rela...
Abstract: Sociologists today are faced with a fundamental dilemma: whether to conceive of the social world as consisting primarily in substances or processes, in static "things" or in dynamic, unfolding rela...

2,515 citations

Book
01 Jan 2000
TL;DR: Fact and fiction in language learning researching identity and language learning the world of adult immigrant language learners Eva and Mai - old heads on young shoulders mothers, migration, and language learner acquisition theory revisited claiming the right to speak in classrooms & communities as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Fact and fiction in language learning researching identity and language learning the world of adult immigrant language learners Eva and Mai - old heads on young shoulders mothers, migration, and language learning second language acquisition theory revisited claiming the right to speak in classrooms & communities.

2,287 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: There is every reason to believe that a specialization for grammar evolved by a conventional neo-Darwinian process, as well as other arguments and data.
Abstract: Many people have argued that the evolution of the human language faculty cannot be explained by Darwinian natural selection. Chomsky and Gould have suggested that language may have evolved as the by-product of selection for other abilities or as a consequence of as-yet unknown laws of growth and form. Others have argued that a biological specialization for grammar is incompatible with every tenet of Darwinian theory – that it shows no genetic variation, could not exist in any intermediate forms, confers no selective advantage, and would require more evolutionary time and genomic space than is available. We examine these arguments and show that they depend on inaccurate assumptions about biology or language or both. Evolutionary theory offers clear criteria for when a trait should be attributed to natural selection: complex design for some function, and the absence of alternative processes capable of explaining such complexity. Human language meets these criteria: Grammar is a complex mechanism tailored to the transmission of propositional structures through a serial interface. Autonomous and arbitrary grammatical phenomena have been offered as counterexamples to the position that language is an adaptation, but this reasoning is unsound: Communication protocols depend on arbitrary conventions that are adaptive as long as they are shared. Consequently, language acquisition in the child should systematically differ from language evolution in the species, and attempts to analogize them are misleading. Reviewing other arguments and data, we conclude that there is every reason to believe that a specialization for grammar evolved by a conventional neo-Darwinian process.

2,002 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is proposed that "language" disorders, such as specific language impairment and non-fluent and fluent aphasia, may be profitably viewed as impairments primarily affecting one or the other brain system, and suggested a new neurocognitive framework for the study of lexicon and grammar.

1,493 citations