Journal ArticleDOI
Language Learners' Extrapolation of Word Order in Micro‐Artificial Languages*
TLDR
This paper studied the ability of language learners to extrapolate from the word order in one type of phrase to that in another, namely from the order in the verb phrase (VP) to the orders in the prepositional (PP) and noun phrases (NP) and from verb phrase order plus either the prepositionitional-phrase order or the nounphrase order to the other phrase type.Abstract:
This article is concerned with the ability of language learners to extrapolate from the word order in one type of phrase to that in another, namely from the order in the verb phrase (VP) to the orders in the prepositional (PP) and noun phrases (NP) and from the verb phrase order plus either the prepositional-phrase order or the noun-phrase order to the other phrase type. Such extrapolation relates both to the implicational universals of possible word orders in language described by Hawkins (1983) and to the head parameter of Government/Binding Theory (Chomsky, 1986a, 1986b, 1988). This article describes an experiment with eight Micro-Artificial Languages (MALs) that tested the ability of 409 secondary-school children to extrapolate in this way. The results showed that most learners (340) were highly consistent in ascribing word order and most (321) succeeded in learning the MALs. Four extrapolation strategies followed by the learners that are not covered by the syntactic analyses mentioned are preferences for (1) postpositions, whatever the VP order; (2) adjectives in the same position as objects in the VP; (3) prepositions the same side as adjectives in the NP and objects in the VP; and (4) adjectives before nouns if the VP order and the NP order are consistent. Further research is needed to see if such extrapolation strategies occur in real learning or if they are an artefact of the MAL approach.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Second-language acquisition research in the laboratory: possibilities and limitations
TL;DR: The authors discusses some possibilities and limitations of laboratory research methods for testing theories of second language acquisition and includes a review of 20 experimental lab studies, focusing on the motivation for conducting lab studies and the use of artificial or semi-artificial language structures.
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Typological Universals as Reflections of Biased Learning: Evidence from Artificial Language Learning
TL;DR: This exciting strand of research suggests the viability of experimental methods for investigating constraints on human language, and points to new ways of gaining traction on critical questions in cognitive science.
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Using SLA research in language teaching
TL;DR: The conclusion is that SLA research can be a source of provocative ideas to use in different levels of teaching and can form a bridge between psychological theories or linguistic descriptions and language teaching.
Book ChapterDOI
Challenges in implicit learning research: Validating a novel artificial language
TL;DR: This chapter documents some of the methodological challenges in the use of artificial grammars in second language acquisition (SLA) research and illustrates the often unreported difficulty in establishing an initial learning effect when piloting a novel, semi-artificial language system.
Communicative Efficiency, Language Learning, and Language Universals
TL;DR: The authors investigate the hypothesis that communicative pressures (specifically, a trade-off between effort and robust information transfer) operate already during language acquisition, biasing learners towards more efficient linguistic systems.
References
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Book ChapterDOI
The Maturation of Syntax
Hagit Borer,Kenneth Wexler +1 more
TL;DR: While concentration on both problems expands the goal of study, thereby making the ultimate solution more difficult to attain, the double concentration also has the effect of bringing a greater body of evidence to bear on the fundamental problem of the growth of language, thereby aiding in attempted solutions.
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The availability of universal grammar to adult and child learners - a study of the acquisition of German word order:
Harald Clahsen,Pieter Muysken +1 more
TL;DR: The authors argue that children have access to the "move alpha" matrix when learning German as their first language, allowing them to make more abstract hypotheses, while adults can only rely on general learning strategies.
Book ChapterDOI
Parameters and Learnability in Binding Theory
Kenneth Wexler,M. Rita Manzini +1 more
TL;DR: This paper attempts a modular approach to language acquisition theory, which states that some aspects of language and its acquisition seem better stated not in linguistic theory, but outside it, in, say, a learning module.
Journal ArticleDOI
Language transfer and universal grammatical relations
TL;DR: In this paper, a study investigating the acquisition of relative clauses by adult second language learners was conducted to determine what language transfer consists of, what language phenomena are and are not transferred, what constitutes evidence for the existence of transfer and what the role in language transfer of language universals is.