Language Acquisition and Syntactic Theory

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Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 9401125740
Total Pages : 178 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (11 download)

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Book Synopsis Language Acquisition and Syntactic Theory by : A.E. Pierce

Download or read book Language Acquisition and Syntactic Theory written by A.E. Pierce and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The theory of language acquisition is a young but increasingly active field. Language Acquisition and Syntactic Theory presents one of the first detailed studies of comparative syntax acquisition. It is informed by the view that linguists and acquisitionists are essentially working on the same problem, that of explaining grammar learnability. The author takes cross-linguistic data from child language as evidence for recent proposals in syntactic theory. Developments in the structure of children's sentences during the first few years of life are traced to changes in the setting of specific grammatical parameters. Some surprising differences between the early child grammars of French and English are uncovered, differences that can only be explained on the basis of subtle distinctions in inflectional structure. This motivates the author's claim that functional or nonthematic categories are represented in the grammars of very young children. The book also explores the relationship between acquisition and diachronic change in French and English. It is argued that findings in acquisition, when viewed from a parameter setting perspective, provide answers to important questions arising in the study of language change. The book promises to be of interest to all those involved in the formal, psychological or historical study of linguistic knowledge.

Language Evolution and Syntactic Theory

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 0521895308
Total Pages : 237 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (218 download)

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Book Synopsis Language Evolution and Syntactic Theory by : Anna R. Kinsella

Download or read book Language Evolution and Syntactic Theory written by Anna R. Kinsella and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2009-07-23 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discusses the relationship between Chomskyan syntactic theory and the evolution of language.

Syntactic Structures

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Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN 13 : 3112316002
Total Pages : 120 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (123 download)

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Book Synopsis Syntactic Structures by : Noam Chomsky

Download or read book Syntactic Structures written by Noam Chomsky and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2020-05-18 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No detailed description available for "Syntactic Structures".

Evolutionary Syntax

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Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 019873655X
Total Pages : 280 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (987 download)

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Book Synopsis Evolutionary Syntax by : Ljiljana Progovac

Download or read book Evolutionary Syntax written by Ljiljana Progovac and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2015 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, Ljiljana Progovac proposes a gradualist, adaptationist approach to the evolution of syntax, subject to natural selection. She provides a specific framework for its study, combining the fields of evolutionary biology, theoretical syntax, typology, neuroscience, and genetics. The author pursues an internal reconstruction of the stages of grammar based on the syntactic theory associated with Chomskyan Minimalism and arrives at specific, testable hypotheses, which are then corroborated by an abundance of theoretically analysed 'living fossils' drawn from a variety of languages. Her approach demonstrates that these fossil structures do not just coexist alongside more modern structures, but are in fact built into the very foundation of more complex structures, leading to quirks and complexities that are suggestive of a gradualist evolutionary scenario. By reconstructing a particular path along which syntax evolved, Evolutionary Syntax sheds light on the crucial properties of language design itself, as well as on the major parameters of crosslinguistic variation. As a result, this reconstruction can be meaningfully correlated with both the hominin timeline and the ever-growing body of genetic evidence that is available.

Why Only Us

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Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262533499
Total Pages : 229 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (625 download)

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Book Synopsis Why Only Us by : Robert C. Berwick

Download or read book Why Only Us written by Robert C. Berwick and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2017-05-12 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Berwick and Chomsky draw on recent developments in linguistic theory to offer an evolutionary account of language and humans' remarkable, species-specific ability to acquire it. “A loosely connected collection of four essays that will fascinate anyone interested in the extraordinary phenomenon of language.” —New York Review of Books We are born crying, but those cries signal the first stirring of language. Within a year or so, infants master the sound system of their language; a few years after that, they are engaging in conversations. This remarkable, species-specific ability to acquire any human language—“the language faculty”—raises important biological questions about language, including how it has evolved. This book by two distinguished scholars—a computer scientist and a linguist—addresses the enduring question of the evolution of language. Robert Berwick and Noam Chomsky explain that until recently the evolutionary question could not be properly posed, because we did not have a clear idea of how to define “language” and therefore what it was that had evolved. But since the Minimalist Program, developed by Chomsky and others, we know the key ingredients of language and can put together an account of the evolution of human language and what distinguishes us from all other animals. Berwick and Chomsky discuss the biolinguistic perspective on language, which views language as a particular object of the biological world; the computational efficiency of language as a system of thought and understanding; the tension between Darwin's idea of gradual change and our contemporary understanding about evolutionary change and language; and evidence from nonhuman animals, in particular vocal learning in songbirds.

The Oxford Handbook of Language Evolution

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199541116
Total Pages : 790 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (995 download)

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Book Synopsis The Oxford Handbook of Language Evolution by : Maggie Tallerman

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Language Evolution written by Maggie Tallerman and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 790 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Leading scholars present critical accounts of every aspect of the field, including work in animal behaviour; anatomy, genetics and neurology; the prehistory of language; the development of our uniquely linguistic species; and language creation, transmission, and change.

Evolution and Revolution in Linguistic Theory

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Publisher : Georgetown University Press
ISBN 13 : 9781589018440
Total Pages : 440 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (184 download)

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Book Synopsis Evolution and Revolution in Linguistic Theory by : Héctor Campos

Download or read book Evolution and Revolution in Linguistic Theory written by Héctor Campos and published by Georgetown University Press. This book was released on 1996-01-01 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume presents essays by some of the leading figures in the vanguard of theoretical linguistics within the framework of universal grammmar. One of the first books to adopt the "minimalist" framework to syntactic analysis, it includes a central essay by Noam Chomsky on the minimalist program and covers a range of topics in syntax and morphology. Contributors: Luigi Burzio, Héctor Campos, Noam Chomsky, Joseph E. Emonds, Robert Freidin, James Harris, Ray Jackendoff, Paula Kempchinsky, Howard Lasnik, Claudia Parodi, Carlos Piera, A. Carlos Quicoli, Dominique Sportiche, Esther Torrego.

Approaches to the Evolution of Language

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780521639644
Total Pages : 460 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (396 download)

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Book Synopsis Approaches to the Evolution of Language by : James R. Hurford

Download or read book Approaches to the Evolution of Language written by James R. Hurford and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1998-09-17 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is one of the first systematic attempts to bring language within the neo-Darwinian framework of modern evolutionary theory, without abandoning the vast gains in phonology and syntax achieved by formal linguistics over the past forty years. The contributors, linguists, psychologists, and paleoanthropologists, address such questions as: what is language as a category of behavior; is it an instrument of thought or of communication; what do individuals know when they know a language; what cognitive, perceptual, and motor capacities must they have to speak, hear, and understand a language? For the past two centuries, scientists have tended to see language function as largely concerned with the exchange of practical information. By contrast, this volume takes as its starting point the view of human intelligence as social, and of language as a device for forming alliances, in exploring the origins of the sound patterns and formal structures that characterize language.

Aspects of the Theory of Syntax

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Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 9780262260503
Total Pages : 276 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (65 download)

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Book Synopsis Aspects of the Theory of Syntax by : Noam Chomsky

Download or read book Aspects of the Theory of Syntax written by Noam Chomsky and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 1969-03-15 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chomsky proposes a reformulation of the theory of transformational generative grammar that takes recent developments in the descriptive analysis of particular languages into account. Beginning in the mid-fifties and emanating largely form MIT, an approach was developed to linguistic theory and to the study of the structure of particular languages that diverges in many respects from modern linguistics. Although this approach is connected to the traditional study of languages, it differs enough in its specific conclusions about the structure and in its specific conclusions about the structure of language to warrant a name, "generative grammar." Various deficiencies have been discovered in the first attempts to formulate a theory of transformational generative grammar and in the descriptive analysis of particular languages that motivated these formulations. At the same time, it has become apparent that these formulations can be extended and deepened.The major purpose of this book is to review these developments and to propose a reformulation of the theory of transformational generative grammar that takes them into account. The emphasis in this study is syntax; semantic and phonological aspects of the language structure are discussed only insofar as they bear on syntactic theory.

Syntactic Theory

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Publisher : Center for the Study of Language and Information Publica Tion
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 632 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis Syntactic Theory by : Ivan A. Sag

Download or read book Syntactic Theory written by Ivan A. Sag and published by Center for the Study of Language and Information Publica Tion. This book was released on 2003 with total page 632 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Marking a return to generative grammar in its original sense, this book focuses on the development of precisely formulated grammars whose empirical predictions can be directly tested. Problem solving is also emphasised.

Biological Foundations and Origin of Syntax

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Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262549123
Total Pages : 491 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (625 download)

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Book Synopsis Biological Foundations and Origin of Syntax by : Derek Bickerton

Download or read book Biological Foundations and Origin of Syntax written by Derek Bickerton and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2023-09-19 with total page 491 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Interdisciplinary perspectives on the evolutionary and biological roots of syntax, describing current research on syntax in fields ranging from linguistics to neurology. Syntax is arguably the most human-specific aspect of language. Despite the proto-linguistic capacities of some animals, syntax appears to be the last major evolutionary transition in humans that has some genetic basis. Yet what are the elements to a scenario that can explain such a transition? In this book, experts from linguistics, neurology and neurobiology, cognitive psychology, ecology and evolutionary biology, and computer modeling address this question. Unlike most previous work on the evolution of language, Biological Foundations and Origin of Syntax follows through on a growing consensus among researchers that language can be profitably separated into a number of related and interacting but largely autonomous functions, each of which may have a distinguishable evolutionary history and neurological base. The contributors argue that syntax is such a function.The book describes the current state of research on syntax in different fields, with special emphasis on areas in which the findings of particular disciplines might shed light on problems faced by other disciplines. It defines areas where consensus has been established with regard to the nature, infrastructure, and evolution of the syntax of natural languages; summarizes and evaluates contrasting approaches in areas that remain controversial; and suggests lines for future research to resolve at least some of these disputed issues. Contributors Andrea Baronchelli, Derek Bickerton, Dorothy V. M. Bishop, Denis Bouchard, Robert Boyd, Jens Brauer, Ted Briscoe, David Caplan, Nick Chater, Morten H. Christiansen, Terrence W.Deacon, Francesco d'Errico, Anna Fedor, Julia Fischer, Angela D. Friederici, Tom Givón, Thomas Griffiths, Balázs Gulyás, Peter Hagoort, Austin Hilliard, James R. Hurford, Péter Ittzés, Gerhard Jäger, Herbert Jäger, Edith Kaan, Simon Kirby, Natalia L. Komarova, Tatjana Nazir, Frederick Newmeyer, Kazuo Okanoya, Csaba Plèh, Peter J. Richerson, Luigi Rizzi, Wolf Singer, Mark Steedman, Luc Steels, Szabolcs Számadó, Eörs Szathmáry, Maggie Tallerman, Jochen Triesch, Stephanie Ann White

Syntactic architecture and its consequences I

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Publisher : Language Science Press
ISBN 13 : 3961102759
Total Pages : 562 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (611 download)

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Book Synopsis Syntactic architecture and its consequences I by : András Bárány

Download or read book Syntactic architecture and its consequences I written by András Bárány and published by Language Science Press. This book was released on with total page 562 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume collects novel contributions to comparative generative linguistics that “rethink” existing approaches to an extensive range of phenomena, domains, and architectural questions in linguistic theory. At the heart of the contributions is the tension between descriptive and explanatory adequacy which has long animated generative linguistics and which continues to grow thanks to the increasing amount and diversity of data available to us. The chapters address research questions on the relation of syntax to other aspects of grammar and linguistics more generally, including studies on language acquisition, variation and change, and syntactic interfaces. Many of these contributions show the influence of research by Ian Roberts and collaborators and give the reader a sense of the lively nature of current discussion of topics in synchronic and diachronic comparative syntax ranging from the core verbal domain to higher, propositional domains.

Syntactic Nuts

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Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 9780198700234
Total Pages : 260 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (2 download)

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Book Synopsis Syntactic Nuts by : Peter W. Culicover

Download or read book Syntactic Nuts written by Peter W. Culicover and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 1999 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How are native speakers of a language instinctively able to make precise linguistic judgements about marginal syntactic matters? What does this tell us about both the structure of language and our innate language ability as humans? These questions form the focus of Professor Culicover's in-depth study which will appeal to both graduate students and professionals within the fields of linguistic theory and cognitive science.

Concise Encyclopedia of Syntactic Theories

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Publisher : Pergamon
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 504 pages
Book Rating : 4.F/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Concise Encyclopedia of Syntactic Theories by : K. Brown

Download or read book Concise Encyclopedia of Syntactic Theories written by K. Brown and published by Pergamon. This book was released on 1996-12-17 with total page 504 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Concise Encyclopedia of Syntactic Theories presents a collection of articles on all major syntactic theories, current or past, taken from the award-winning Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics.

Language Structure, Variation and Change

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Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3030105679
Total Pages : 295 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (31 download)

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Book Synopsis Language Structure, Variation and Change by : Ian E. Mackenzie

Download or read book Language Structure, Variation and Change written by Ian E. Mackenzie and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-03-09 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers an original account of the dynamics of syntactic change and the evolving structure of Old Spanish that combines rigorous manuscript-based investigation, quantitative analysis and a syntactic approach grounded in Minimalist thinking. Its analysis of both successful and failed changes demonstrates the degree of unpredictability caused by the interaction of competing factors and will shed fresh light on the assumed unidirectionality of linguistic change. Importantly, it reveals that Old Spanish and modern Spanish are more similar to one another than is usually supposed and demonstrates that many of the differences between the two varieties are quantitative rather than qualitative. This theoretically sophisticated examination of historical corpora will provide an invaluable resource for students and scholars of Old and modern Spanish, historical linguistics, sociolinguistics and syntax.

Syntactic architecture and its consequences II

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Author :
Publisher : Language Science Press
ISBN 13 : 3961102880
Total Pages : 540 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (611 download)

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Book Synopsis Syntactic architecture and its consequences II by : András Bárány

Download or read book Syntactic architecture and its consequences II written by András Bárány and published by Language Science Press. This book was released on 2020-12-30 with total page 540 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume collects novel contributions to comparative generative linguistics that “rethink” existing approaches to an extensive range of phenomena, domains, and architectural questions in linguistic theory. At the heart of the contributions is the tension between descriptive and explanatory adequacy which has long animated generative linguistics and which continues to grow thanks to the increasing amount and diversity of data available to us. The chapters address research questions in comparative morphosyntax, including the modelling of syntactic categories, relative clauses, and demonstrative systems. Many of these contributions show the influence of research by Ian Roberts and collaborators and give the reader a sense of the lively nature of current discussion of topics in morphosyntax and morphosyntactic variation.

Language in Our Brain

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Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262036924
Total Pages : 300 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (62 download)

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Book Synopsis Language in Our Brain by : Angela D. Friederici

Download or read book Language in Our Brain written by Angela D. Friederici and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2017-11-16 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive account of the neurobiological basis of language, arguing that species-specific brain differences may be at the root of the human capacity for language. Language makes us human. It is an intrinsic part of us, although we seldom think about it. Language is also an extremely complex entity with subcomponents responsible for its phonological, syntactic, and semantic aspects. In this landmark work, Angela Friederici offers a comprehensive account of these subcomponents and how they are integrated. Tracing the neurobiological basis of language across brain regions in humans and other primate species, she argues that species-specific brain differences may be at the root of the human capacity for language. Friederici shows which brain regions support the different language processes and, more important, how these brain regions are connected structurally and functionally to make language processes that take place in milliseconds possible. She finds that one particular brain structure (a white matter dorsal tract), connecting syntax-relevant brain regions, is present only in the mature human brain and only weakly present in other primate brains. Is this the “missing link” that explains humans' capacity for language? Friederici describes the basic language functions and their brain basis; the language networks connecting different language-related brain regions; the brain basis of language acquisition during early childhood and when learning a second language, proposing a neurocognitive model of the ontogeny of language; and the evolution of language and underlying neural constraints. She finds that it is the information exchange between the relevant brain regions, supported by the white matter tract, that is the crucial factor in both language development and evolution.