Showing papers on "Universal grammar published in 2010"

Mass nouns, vagueness and semantic variation

Abstract: The mass/count distinction attracts a lot of attention among cognitive scientists, possibly because it involves in fundamental ways the relation between language (i.e. grammar), thought (i.e. extralinguistic conceptual systems) and reality (i.e. the physical world). In the present paper, I explore the view that the mass/count distinction is a matter of vagueness. While every noun/concept may in a sense be vague, mass nouns/concepts are vague in a way that systematically impairs their use in counting. This idea has never been systematically pursued, to the best of my knowledge. I make it precise relying on supervaluations (more specifically, ‘data semantics’) to model it. I identify a number of universals pertaining to how the mass/count contrast is encoded in the languages of the world, along with some of the major dimensions along which languages may vary on this score. I argue that the vagueness based model developed here provides a useful perspective on both. The outcome (besides shedding light on semantic variation) seems to suggest that vagueness is not just an interface phenomenon that arises in the interaction of Universal Grammar (UG) with the Conceptual/Intentional System (to adopt Chomsky’s terminology), but it is actually part of the architecture of UG.

Your theory of language evolution depends on your theory of language

Abstract: This paper is more about the questions for a theory of language evolution than about the answers I'd like to ask what there is for a theory of the evolution of language to explain, and I want to show how this depends on what you think language is So, what is language? Everybody recognizes that language is partly culturally dependent: there is a huge variety of disparate languages in the world, passed down through cultural transmission If that's all there is to language, a theory of the evolution of language has nothing at all to explain We need only explain the cultural evolution of languag es : English, Dutch, Mandarin, Hausa, etc are products of cultural history However, most readers of the present volume probably subscribe to the contemporary scientific view of language, which goes beneath the cultural differences among languages It focuses on individual language users and asks: (Structure and acquisition of language competence) What is the structure of the knowledge that individual language users store in their brains, and how did they come to acquire this knowledge? The question of acquisition leads to an important corollary question: (Structure of capacity to learn language) What is the structure of the knowledge/ability in the child that makes language acquisition possible? This latter knowledge is independent of what language the child actually learns in response to the environment It is closer to what is generally called the language capacity (or the language instinct or universal grammar or the language acquisition device)

The Role of Presuppositionality in the Second Language Acquisition of English Articles

Abstract: This article investigates the role of presuppositionality (defined as the presupposition of existence) in the second language (L2) acquisition of English articles. Building upon the proposal in Wexler 2003 that young English-acquiring children overuse the with presuppositional indefinites, this article proposes that presuppositionality also influences article (mis)use in adult L2 acquisition. This proposal is supported by experimental results from the L2 English of adult speakers of Korean, a language with no articles. The experimental findings indicate that presuppositional indefinite contexts trigger overuse of the with indefinites in adult L2 acquisition, as in child L1 acquisition (cf. Wexler 2003). The effects of presuppositionality are teased apart from the effects of other semantic factors previously examined in acquisition, such as scope (Schaeffer and Matthewson 2005) and specificity (Ionin, Ko, and Wexler 2004). The results provide evidence that overuse of the in L2 acquisition is a semantic rather than pragmatic phenomenon. Implications of these findings for overuse of the in L1 acquisition are discussed. This article also has implications for the study of access to Universal Grammar in L2 acquisition, as well as for the number and type of semantic universals underlying article choice crosslinguistically.

Language-particular syntactic rules and constraints: English locative inversion and do-support

Abstract: Locative inversion in English ( under the bridge lived a troll ) is ungrammatical in all of the contexts where do -support applies: subject-auxiliary inversion, sentential negation, emphasis or verum focus, VP ellipsis, and VP displacement. Importantly, it is ungrammatical in these contexts whether do -support applies or not: it is ungrammatical with other auxiliaries, and it is also ungrammatical in nonfinite clauses of these types, where do -support never actually applies. This indicates that all of these contexts have something in common, and that cannot be disruption of adjacency between tense/agreement and the verb because there is no such disruption with other auxiliaries or in nonfinite contexts. These facts therefore argue against the standard last-resort theory of do -support, which holds that it is inserted to save a stranded tense/agreement affix, and for a theory like that of Baker 1991. In this theory, VPs have corresponding SPECIAL PURPOSE ([SP]) VPs, and do heads a [SP] VP. All of the contexts for do -support have in common the featural specification [SP]. Locative inversion involves a null expletive subject, the licensing of which is blocked by a non-[SP] context. All of this argues for a view of syntax with language-particular licensing constraints, features, and rules, within a range of variation proscribed by universal grammar.

Phonetic training makes word learning easier

Abstract: Phonetic training makes word learning easier Amy Perfors (amy.perfors@adelaide.edu.au) Department of Psychology, University of Adelaide David Dunbar (david.dunbar@student.adelaide.edu.au) Department of Psychology, University of Adelaide Abstract Motivated by the idea that differences between adult and child language learners may stem in part from initially minor differ- ences (such as in phonetic perception) that cascade throughout other aspects of language learning, we explored to what extent training adults on a novel phonetic contrast results in improved learning of words that incorporate that contrast. Results indi- cate that distributional training on a novel phonetic contrast improves word learning as well as the ability to discriminate a related contrast. We discuss implications for how adults’ phonological abilities in affect other aspects of language learn- ing, and also for understanding the effectiveness of different phonetic training regimes. Keywords: language acquisition; phonetic learning; second language learning Introduction Children and adults differ both qualitatively and quantita- tively in their ability to acquire a new language. Adults have difficulty with many aspects of language acquisition, from phonetic perception (Werker & Tees, 1984; Werker & Lalonde, 1988; Kuhl, 2004) to language processing (Clahsen & Felser, 2006) to certain aspects of syntax (e.g., Johnson & Newport, 1989; Birdsong, 2006). Scientists have proposed many theories to account for the difference between children and adults; these theories differ in both the degree and type of contribution made by pre-existing language-specific biases. Although nearly everyone agrees that (due to the inherent log- ical problem of induction posed by language learning) some bias must be necessary to explain successful language acqui- sition, explanations about the nature of the bias – and the dif- ference between children and adults – vary considerably. Some argue that there is a fundamental difference between first and second language acquisition: that acquisition in chil- dren is guided by an innate Universal Grammar and language- specific acquisition procedures, but that adult acquisition is directed by more domain-general learning mechanisms (e.g., Bley-Vroman, 1990). There are many other possibilities, however, since children and adults differ profoundly in their cognitive capabilities and typical linguistic input. Children have significantly poorer cognitive skills, including memory and processing speed; perhaps these differences aid children to learn language by enabling them to isolate and analyze components of a linguistic stimulus (Newport, 1988) or to over-regularize inconsistent input (Hudson Kam & Newport, 2005; Singleton & Newport, 2004). Another possibility is that learning a second language is made more difficult due to interference from the first language; indeed, the evidence that experience with a first language influences acquisition of a second is extensive (e.g., Mayberry, 1993; Iverson et al., 2003; Tan, 2003; Weber & Cutler, 2003; Hernandez, Li, & MacWhinney, 2005). This explanation overlaps considerably with the related point that adult brains are in many ways less plastic, and therefore less malleable in response to novel input (Elman et al., 1996; MacWhinney, 2005). Other explanations suggest that adults and children differ in their style of learn- ing (Ullman, 2004) as well as the nature of the social support (Snow, 1999) and linguistic input (Fernald & Simon, 1984) they receive. Of course, many of these possibilities may be true simultaneously. This work investigates yet another possibility – that small differences in children’s abilities along one dimension or as- pect of language can have cascading effects, resulting in larger differences in other aspects of language. These ini- tial minor differences might be due to language-specific skills that naturally decay over time, or could be due to domain- general changes in the underlying cognitive abilities that sub- serve them. Key to this idea is the notion that, because lan- guage is such an intertwined, multi-dependent system, small differences in one aspect of language can be steadily ampli- fied when it comes to the acquisition of other aspects. This idea is similar to the neo-constructivist view of Karmiloff- Smith (1998): both suggest that differences in eventual lin- guistic performance may derive from cascading effects that result from variation in more basic skills. That view focuses on abnormal development in children, however. Our work is motivated by an extension of this viewpoint: the notion that some of the well-attested differences between child and adult learners may result from the more minor, lower-level differ- ences between adults and children. To investigate this, we be- gin by identifying aspects of language acquisition where one might expect to see cascading effects, and investigate whether performance in one improves performance in the other. What minor difference between adults and children might have significant cascading effects onto other aspects of lan- guage? One possibility derives from children’s well-attested superior phonological processing and perception abilities. Young infants can distinguish between phonemes in all natu- ral languages, but lose that ability by the age of 10-12 months if they have not received sufficient linguistic input for a lan- guage containing that phoneme (Eimas, Siqueland, Jusczyk, & Vigorito, 1971; Werker & Tees, 1984; Kuhl, 2004). Adults who begin acquisition of a language later in life, even after decades of experience using the language, show phonolog- ical deficits in perception, production, and processing (e.g., Flege, 1995; Pallier, Colom´e, & Sebasti´an-Gall´es, 2001; Se- basti´an-Gall´es & Soto-Faraco, 1999).

Objects, Containers, Gestures, and Manipulations: Universal Foundational Metaphors of Natural User Interfaces

Abstract: In this paper, we propose Objects, Containers, Gestures, and Manipulations (OCGM, pronounced like Occam’s Razor) as universal foundational metaphors of Natural User Interfaces. We compare OCGM to existing paradigms using SRK behavior classification and early childhood cognitive development, and justify the “universal” and “foundational” descriptors based upon cognitive linguistics and universal grammar. If adopted, OCGM would significantly improve the conceptual understanding of NUIs by developers and designers and ultimately result in better NUI applications.

The irrelevance of typology for grammatical theory

Abstract: Many linguists believe that a parameter-setting model of grammar should capture typological generalizations. For example, a particular feature's cross-linguistic rarity might be 'registered' in a grammar that possesses that feature by means of a marked setting for the relevant parameter. I argue that such a view is in error. Grammars do not encode typological generalizations, either directly or indirectly. Put in a somewhat different way, Universal grammar tells us what a possible language is, but not what a probable language is. The most robust typological generalizations —those arising from the seminal work of Joseph Greenberg— have an explanation based in language processing.

Second Language Acquisition and Syntactic Theory in the 21st Century

Abstract: Syntactic theory has played a role in second language acquisition (SLA) research since the early 1980s, when the principles and parameters model of generative grammar was implemented. However, it was the so-called functional parameterization hypothesis together with the debate on whether second language learners activated new features or switched their value that led to detailed and in-depth analyses of the syntactic properties of many different nonnative grammars. In the last 10 years, with the minimalist program as background, these analyses have diverted more and more from looking at those syntactic properties that argued for or against the various versions of the UG-access versus non-UG-access debate (UG for Universal Grammar) and have more recently delved into the status of nonnative grammars in the cognitive science field. Thus, using features (i.e., gender, case, verb, and determiner) as the basic units and paying special attention to the quality of input as well as to processing principles and constraints, nonnative grammars have been compared to the language contact paradigms that underlie subsequent bilingualism, child SLA, creole formation, and diachronic change. Taking Chomsky's I-language/E-language construct as the framework, this article provides a review of these recent developments in SLA research.

Language evolution as cultural evolution: how language is shaped by the brain

Abstract: This paper reviews arguments against the evolutionary plausibility of a traditional genetically specified universal grammar. We argue that no such universal grammar could have evolved, either by a process of natural selection or by other evolutionary mechanisms. Instead, we propose that the close fit between languages and language learners, which make language acquisition possible, arises not because humans possess a specialized biological adaptation for language, but because language has been shaped to fit the brain, a process of cultural evolution. On this account, many aspects of the structure of human languages may be explained as cultural adaptations to the human brain. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

La structure du predicat verbal : une etude de la construction a double objet en francais

Abstract: The present thesis addresses the issue as to why the double object construction (e.g., John gave Mary a book) seems to appear in certain languages but not in others. This construction has received much attention in past research in formal linguistics and has played a central role in developing our understanding of the internal structure of the VP. Previous studies generally define the construction with respect to relative linear order of the object complements of the verb and the lack of morphological markings on these objects. We show that these properties are not inherent to the construction and that consequently, the construction exists in a wider variety of languages than previously assumed, particularly French. Along the lines of Goldberg (1995, 2006), we develop a universal semantic definition of the construction, which may be used as a diagnostic to test, systematically and categorically, its presence across languages. In particular, we identify the double object construction in French as, for example, Jean a donne le livre a Marie. We then explain the cross-linguistic structural differences with a Case-driven approach. Specifically, we argue that the inherent dative Case, present in French but not in English, is responsible for the structural differences recognized between the languages. By adopting a minimalist derivation of argument structure (Chomsky

Chomskyan (R)evolutions

Abstract: 1. Foreword and Acknowledgments 2. Chomsky's Atavistic Revolution (with a little help from his enemies) (by Joseph, John E.) 3. The equivocation of form and notation in generative grammar (by Beedham, Christopher) 4. Chomsky's paradigm: What it includes and what it excludes (by Radwanska-Williams, Joanna) 5. Part I. The young revolutionary (1950-1960) 6. "Scientific revolutions" and other kinds of regime change (by Murray, Stephen O.) 7. Noam and Zellig (by Nevin, Bruce E.) 8. Chomsky 1951a and Chomsky 1951b (by Daniels, Peter T.) 9. Grammar and language in Syntactic Structures: Transformational progress and structuralist 'reflux' (by Swiggers, Pierre) 10. Part II. The cognitive revolution 11. Chomsky's other Revolution (by Harris, Randy Allen) 12. Chomsky between revolutions (by Hyman, Malcolm D.) 13. Part III. Evolutions 14. What do we talk about, when we talk about 'universal grammar', and how have we talked about it? (by Thomas, Margaret) 15. Migrating propositions and the evolution of Generative Grammar (by Tomalin, Marcus) 16. Universalism and human difference in Chomskyan linguistics: The first 'superhominid' and the language faculty (by Hutton, Christopher) 17. The evolution of meaning and grammar: Chomskyan theory and the evidence from grammaticalization (by Christy, T. Craig) 18. Chomsky in search of a pedigree (by Hamans, Camiel S.J.N.) 19. The "linguistic wars": A tentative assessment by an outsider witness (by Graffi, Giorgio) 20. Part IV. The Past and Future Directions 21. British empiricism and Transformational Grammar: A current debate (by Leon, Jacqueline) 22. Historiography's contribution to theoretical linguistics (by Andresen, Julie T.) 23. Name index 24. Subject index 25. Index of cited works

Palatalized Labials in Polish Dialects: An Evolutionary Perspective

Abstract: Two types of explanations for typological asymmetries are in current use: synchronic, which rely on phonological filters that make learners more receptive to some patterns than others (e.g., markedness), and diachronic, which appeal to phonetically systematic errors that arise in the transmission of the speech signal. This paper provides a diachronic account of palatalized labials in standard and dialectal Polish. It is shown that the weak perceptibility of the palatal element in a specific phonetic context is a good predictor of depalatalization and that dissimilation arises whenever a phonetic signal can be interpreted in a non-unique manner. The Polish data exemplify three sources of natural sound change: (i) neutralization of perceptually weak contrasts, (ii) phonological reanalysis of ambiguous signals, and (iii) change in the frequency of phonetic variants. Sound change is shown to be non-deterministic and non-optimizing. There is no role for markedness in this account. 1. Introduction Two questions about which phonologists disagree are whether the explanation for typological patterns is synchronic or diachronic and whether linguistic systems are goal-oriented or not. The line of research represented by Chomsky and Halle (1968), Archangeli and Pulleybank (1994), Flemming (1995), Steriade (2001), and Hayes and Steriade (2004) assumes that typology finds an explanation in synchronic biases. These are either innate and make up Universal Grammar (Chomsky and Halle 1968) or emerge primarily from the phonetic input the learner is exposed to (Hayes and Steriade 2004). Adopting the framework of Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 2004), Hayes and Steriade (2004) propose that phonetic knowledge informs the ranked constraints that make up the phonological component. In other words, synchronic grammars, which comprise hierarchically ranked constraints, are induced from phonetic substance. The emergent rankings of these phonetically grounded constraints account for attested patterns, while other patterns are predicted not to exist because the constraints or the rankings that could generate them cannot be induced from phonetic input. Synchronic accounts typically invoke markedness to explain typological asymmetries (Hayes and Steriade 2004). It is argued that crosslinguistic high frequency of certain patterns correlates with their unmarked status and the rarity of others with their marked status. In Optimality Theory (OT) markedness laws assume the form of violable markedness constraints which penalize particular structures in surface forms. Faithfulness constraints provide a counterbalance by favoring similarity between input and output forms. Markedness constraints ensure that grammars are inherently optimizing (goal-oriented). Representing a different approach, Evolutionary Phonology (EP), Blevins (2004), following Ohala (1981), proposes that explanations for recurrent sound patterns in the world's languages are historical and not goal-oriented. Natural sound change, which gives rise to linguistic patterns, is phonetically based and stems from systematic errors that occur during language transmission between the speaker and the listener. Ohala's (1981) model relies on "innocent misapprehensions", because the basic mechanism of innovation involves mishearing a structure and assigning it an interpretation that differs from that assigned by the previous generation. Blevins relieves synchronic grammars of the task of providing explanations and argues that they are primarily descriptive. It follows that in EP finding motivation in phonetics is central to diachronic accounts. There is no role for teleology or markedness in this model. Proponents of EP raise two arguments against synchronic generative models such as OT. One comes from parsimony and the other from typology. Insofar as OT constraints are derived from phonetic input, parsimony dictates against the need for a phonological component that copies phonetic knowledge only to translate it into constraints. …

Linking meaning to language: linguistic universals and variation

Abstract: Linking Meaning to Language: Linguistic Universals and Variation Joshua K. Hartshorne (jharts@wjh.harvard.edu) Department of Psychology, Harvard University 33 Kirkland St., Cambridge, MA 02138 Timothy J. O'Donnell (timo@wjh.harvard.edu) Department of Psychology, Harvard University 33 Kirkland St., Cambridge, MA 02138 Yasutada Sudo (ysudo@mit.edu) Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 77 Mass. Ave. 32-D808, Cambridge, MA 02139 Miki Uruwashi (mikiuruwashi@ruri.waseda.jp) Graduate School of Human Sciences, Waseda University 33 Kirkland St., Cambridge, MA 02138 Jesse Snedeker (snedeker@wjh.harvard.edu) Department of Psychology, Harvard University 33 Kirkland St., Cambridge, MA 02138 Abstract To use natural language, speakers must map the participants in events or states in the world onto grammatical roles. There remains considerable disagreement about the nature of these so-called linking rules (Levin & Rappaport Hovav, 2005). In order to probe the nature of linking rules, we investigate verbs of psychological state, which demonstrate complex linking patterns both within and between languages. We find that the typical duration of the psychological state guides the application of linking rules to novel verbs in both English and Japanese, consistent with a universal constraint. Nonetheless, there are marked differences in the baseline preferences for the individual linking rules across the two languages. We discuss these findings both in terms of theories of exceptionless linking rules and accounts on which linking rules are governed by probabilistic biases as well as cross- linguistic variation. Keywords: syntax; semantics; linking; UTAH; universal grammar; over-hypotheses. The Linking Problem To interpret Mary broke the vase, one must minimally identify the event described (breaking), the participants in that event (Mary, vase), and identify which participant played which role (Mary = breaker, not break-ee). This linking problem has received considerable attention both by theorists trying to correctly characterize the semantics- syntax links (see Levin & Rappaport Hovav, 2005, for review), and by developmental psychologists interested in how children discover these links (Bowerman, 1990; Pinker, A key issue is identifying the right level of generalization for the linking rules. Many data points suggest linking rules are highly regular. Regularity is seen both within verbs and across verbs. Not just Mary but all breakers are the subject and not object of break (John/the baby/the wind broke the vase/window/glass). Similarly, in English the object of a transitive change-of-state verb is systematically the entity that changes state while the subject effects that change (Mary broke/cleaned/opened the box). These intuitions generalize to novel words. If interpretable, The dax broke the blicket must mean that the dax is the breaker and the blicket is broken. Adults and children prefer an interpretation on which The bear pilked the horse means the bear did something to the horse, not vice versa (Marantz, 1982; see also Pinker, 1989). Moreover, these patterns are sufficiently regular across languages to suggest that some (Pinker, 1984) or all (Baker, 1988) linking rules are innate. However, there are numerous examples of apparent variation and exceptionality. An object moving from Mary’s possession to John’s can be described by Mary gave/lent/sent the package to John or John received/took/obtained the package from Mary. The same activity might be called Mary chasing John or John fleeing Mary. Many emotion verbs put the experiencer in subject position (John feared/hated/loved Mary), while others put the experiencer in object position (Mary frightened/angered/delighted John). Moreover, a relatively small number of languages appear to exhibit linking rules quite distinct from what is seen in languages like English (Dixon, 1994). In the present study, we investigate linking rule regularity and variation within and across two unrelated languages with respect to one such problematic case: psych verbs.

A phylogenetic and cognitive perspective on linguistic complexity

Abstract: In recent years a growing interest in the nature of linguistic complexity has emerged in linguistic circles. A striking feature of this interest is that linguistic complexity is taken to be a phenomenon in its own right. In fact, an extreme construal of the inherent complexity of language is represented in the notion of universal grammar , which subsumes the view that the ability to deal with linguistic complexity is genetically hard-wired. Even approaches that do not subscribe to this extreme stance on the independence of linguistic complexity, still regard complexity as an inherent feature of language. That is, the growth and maintenance of linguistic complexity is viewed as being inherent in linguistic systems and the result of intra-systemic factors such as innateness, grammaticalisation, redundancy, and so on. In this article, however, we argue that the complexity of linguistic systems may also be understood as the result of the relation between language, mind and an extra-linguistic reality. In our view, linguistic complexity is a function of the representational role that language plays in the complex mental processing and construal of a complex reality. Furthermore, we maintain that the complex nature of language co-evolved with neuronal and cognitive architecture as a result of the growth in the volume and complexity of information about phenomena in reality. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 2010, 28(4): 409–422

Chapter 1. A tale of two paradigms

Abstract: The modern study of language, particularly as practiced in the Anglophone community, can be viewed as the tale of two competing paradigms: Universal Grammar (UG) and emergentism. These two paradigms take fundamentally different positions on these eight core issues: competence-performance, the centrality of recursion, the sudden evolution of language, the genetic control of language, the idea that speech is special, critical periods for language learning, neurological modules supporting language, and the poverty of the stimulus to the language learning. For researchers in the UG tradition, the vision of a recent evolution of language triggered by mutation in a few select genes predicts the formation of language modules, structures supporting recursion, and critical periods. Emergentists view language evolution as a gradual process based on dozens of mutations that impact general purpose cognitive and physiological mechanisms in many flexible ways. For emergentists, recursion and competence are not hard-wired facilities, but emergent abilities. Because of its greater complexity, the articulation of the emergentist position has depended heavily on advances in computer technology and the growth of multimedia databases, imaging technology, neural network modeling, and methods for dynamic assessment.

El uso de se con verbos inacusativos por estudiantes avanzados de español como lengua extranjera: transferencia y restructuración

Abstract: Common errors are examined in the use of the Spanish pronoun se with unaccusative predicates in the written production of English speaking advanced adult students of Spanish as a foreign language in an institutional setting. These errors have in common not to respond to L1 (native language) surface transfer, in the sense of not corresponding to a mere L2 (non-native language) relexification of L1 surface syntax. They rather involve a process of construction of the L2 grammar which results in structures different from both the L1 and the L2. It is suggested and argued that they originate in the interaction of Universal Grammar principles and both L1 and L2 influence in a restructuring process of the L1.

Pro-Drop Parameter and L1 Transfer: A Study on Turkish Speakers of English

Abstract: Interlanguage development of foreign/second language learners has taken great interest in the Second Language Acquisition (SLA) domain. Whether these learners have access to the principles and parameters; that is, whether Universal Grammar (UG) is available to them have been a controversial issue for researchers. One of the parameters is the pro-drop parameter which allows subject pronouns to be omitted in certain languages such as Japanese and Turkish. However, studies on Turkish, a [+ prodrop] language, are rare. This study aims at investigating whether native Turkish learners reset their L1 pro-drop parameter value when they learn a [- prodrop] language such as English and whether these learners have access to UG in the initial, intermediary and advanced levels of their interlanguage development. The findings of the study has clarified how parameter setting takes place not only in the initial state but also in the later stages of interlanguage development.

Embedded aspect in L2 acquisition: evidence from L1-Russian learners of Greek.

Abstract: This work investigates first language (L1) influence on the second language (L2) acquisition of aspect, comparing participants with homogeneous L1 background (Russian) in Mainland Greece (L2 Standard Modern Greek) and Cyprus (L2 Cypriot Greek), where verb complementation takes a finite form instead of an infinitival as is possible in Russian. Focus of the experimental study lies on embedded environments, which require only perfective aspect in Greek but allow either perfective or imperfective in Russian. The findings support the Full Transfer/Full Access Hypothesis, according to which aspect is part of Universal Grammar and L2 learners can reach native-like attainment due to access to it, while at the initial stage of L2 acquisition transfer from L1 into L2 takes place.

Universal Grammar and Second Language Learners: The case of Pro-drop Parameter

Abstract: This paper provides an overview of Universal Grammar as a model of second language learning by shedding lights on its basic concepts, theoretical considerations, the learning of syntax and vocabula ry, and some problems facing UGbased studies (concerning learning and teaching).So me teaching implications are also _______-. A receptive test is administered to 62 un iversity -level students to investigate the availability and resetting of pro-d rop parameter in their English (a non pro-drop language) which is different from Arabic ( a pro-drop language).Male students were able to reset the properties this par ameter better than females which significant role of sex in resetting parameters. Al so, the subjects of the test were capable of resetting the properties of this paramet er (missing subject, subject-verb inversion, and extracted embedded subjects) differe nt, which reflects that they were

The human mind: origin in geometry.

Abstract: Within 53 years after the public acceptance of Mendel's laws (in 1900 (a,b)), the genetic material was identified and described (by Watson and Crick (b,c)). Today, 53 years after the modern era began in the scientific study of language (with Chomsky's Syntactic structuresa), there is no agreement as to whether universal grammar exists, or whether language as such exists at all (e), that is, there is no agreement as to which square is square-one. Under the circumstances, a new approach is justified. It is the goal of this paper to place the scientific study of mind, language and brain onto a theoretical basis, beginning with naturally-occurring human language. The human mind has two major components, one with its antecedents in biology and behaviour, the other with its antecedents in geometry. It is the geometric component, consisting of language, tool-use, the mathematical sense, and the sense of truth and falsity, that distinguishes and defines the human being. Thus the constructions of language conform to the commutative, associative and distributive laws, and have their ultimate source in geometry. Equations have a symmetrical deep-structure based on the fact that one side is "equal "to the other: The "equals "symbol represents the axis of symmetry, and functions as a kind of main verb. The deep structure of the ordinary sentence is derived by moving the attachment for the "equals" to one of the branches, generating the asymmetrical Subject-Verb-Object relationship. Tool-use, with its Subject (the tool), Verb (movement of the tool), and Object (the workpiece), and manipulation of mental images, is an extension of the sentence. The sense of truth and falsity shares a common source with the right and wrong answers of arithmetic. (a) Iltis, H. (1932) Life of Mendel. G. Allen & Unwin, Ltd., London. 336pp. (b) Portugal, F.H. and Cohen, J.S. (1977) A century of DNA. The M.I.T. Press. Cambridge. xii+382pp. (c) Watson, J.D. and Crick, F.H.C (1953) A structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid. Nature, 171 (4356), 737-738. (d) Chomsky, N. (1957). Syntactic structures. Mouton and Co., The Hague, 116pp. (e) Evans, N. and Levinson, S.C. (2009) The myth of langage universals." language diversity and its importance for cognitive science. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 32(5), 429-492. Keywords: mind, language, geometry, arithmetic, discreteness, origin, evolution Introduction: natural history of language Until the scientific study of mind can be placed upon a theoretical basis, we will remain in an era of natural history, with its necessary, but inconclusive collecting, observing, and describing. Even controlled experiments are not a substitute for theory, because theories must be precisely formulated before experiments can distinguish between them. Thus, for example, we know that 2 + 2 = 4, but there is no general agreement as to whether mathematics is an arbitrary human invention, or a reflection of natural law. We know that "p [right arrow] p [disjunction] q" is true, and that "p [right arrow] p [junction] q" is false, but we have no clear theory of truth and falsity. We wish to understand the evolutionary continuity between the human mind and the animal mind, but with no clear theory of mind, continuity is hard to establish. We wish to understand the evolution of language, but with credible, or at least credited claims that language is not a definable entity, its evolution is, at best, a diverging series. The scientific study of mind and brain, then, would reach its first stage of maturity by the introduction of a general theory, in much the way that chemistry reached its first stage of maturity through the introduction of the atom, or the periodic law; or physics by the introduction of F = ma. A mature theory of mind might provide search images for underlying brain mechanisms that might be too small or isolated, or too short-lived or delicate, to be stumbled upon by a purely empirical approach. …

Directionality in the Architecture of the Language Faculty: Integrating with Real Time

Abstract: This chapter considers the valid representation of directionality in the architecture of the Language Faculty by recognizing that Universal Grammar (UG) is at one and the same time both (i) a theory representing the fundamental principles and parameters that underlie all possible natural languages; and (ii) a theory of what is biologically programmed in the Language Faculty, making language acquisition empirically possible. Thus it would explain at one and the same time how both head final and head initial languages come to exist (each accounting for roughly half of the world’s languages) and how they come to be acquired (each in roughly equivalent times with roughly equivalent ease). In both ways – cross-linguistic variation and cross-linguistic language acquisition – a Language Faculty, i.e., one critically informed by UG, must be expected to integrate with language processing, i.e., to integrate with language realized in real time. The question is how. In fact, current linguistic theory of UG has brought this issue front and center. In this paper, we will attempt to explicate this issue, articulating two currently distinct and disparate views of UG and suggest that these two differ precisely in their view of how the integration of UG with language in real time is effected. Recognizing this difference and resolving it is fundamental to developing a theory of UG as a veridical component of the Language Faculty. Presumably this difference also has implications for the development of language processing models that hopes to account for the equivalent efficiency of the Human Language Parser for both right headed and left headed languages. We suggest that in conjunction with further theoretical study, more precise predictions and further typological study, both language processing studies such as those in this volume as well as language acquisition studies can and should be brought to bear on this leading issue.