Jason Rothman
Biographic Data
| ID | 3761905 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jason Rothman |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jason |
| FAMILY NAME | Rothman |
| SIGNATURE | ROTHMAN J |
| AFFILIATIONS | UiT The Arctic University of Norway |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1895-561X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 74 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 250 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 72 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Generative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition: Main Assumptions and Questions
This chapter summarizes the historical landscape and main questions of Generative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition (GenSLA), with a particular focus on the first few decades of its existence (1980s–early 2000s). Adopting an innatist perspective on language, GenSLA applies the theory of Universal Grammar (UG) to understand the development of nonprimary language acquisition. Central to GenSLA theorizing and empiricism have been the debates…
Cognitive Approaches to Modeling Transfer in Additive Multilingualism
Multilingualism involves a dynamic interaction between grammars that begins at the very first contact with a new language and remains crucially important throughout its acquisition. To understand how the influence of previously acquired languages shapes the course of third or further language acquisition, researchers working from a cognitive perspective have developed models to capture the systematicity of linguistic transfer in multilingualism. …
Neurolinguistic signatures of microvariation and language change: Individual production variability predicts morphosyntactic processing differences
This study investigates the neurophysiological and behavioral effects of exposure to grammatical microvariation, focusing on the relationship between individual production patterns and on-line sentence processing. We examine a unique context of ongoing morphosyntactic change in Norwegian participial agreement, which gives rise to widespread, near-continuous variation in agreement marking across dialects and speakers. Event-related potentials (ERP…
To bind or not to bind: Individual differences in pronominal processing among adolescent Mandarin-English heritage speakers
This study examines how late adolescent Mandarin-English heritage speakers (HSs) process different types of Mandarin pronouns in real time and how individual differences in cognitive and experiential factors modulate this process. Using a web-based visual world eye-tracking paradigm, we tested the interpretation of pronominals ( ta ), simplex reflexives ( ziji ), and complex reflexives ( taziji ), which differ in their reliance on narrow syntax v…
Cognitive Second Language Acquisition: Quantitative Methods
This entry focuses on quantitative methods in cognitive approaches to second language acquisition (SLA) (henceforth CogSLA). By quantitative methods, we herein refer to any and all methods used to design research, collect data, and analyze data numerically, mathematically, and/or statistically; typically implying that the data sample at hand is of sufficient size to allow generalizations of results to larger populations. By CogSLA, we refer to al…
The unpredictable role of language distance in bilingual cognition: A systematic review from brain to behavior
It has been argued that under certain conditions bilingualism can confer adaptations to the human mind and brain. Among the possible moderators of such adaptations, language distance occupies a distinctly ambiguous role. Equally unclear is the directionality of the effect, as juggling different languages may become more or less cognitively costly depending on how (dis)similar competing alternatives are. If different language pairings entail that …
Different variables hold varying significance from childhood to adolescence: Exploring individual differences in grammar development of Japanese heritage speakers
The current study examined the comprehension and production of classifiers, case marking, and morphological passive structures among 414 child Japanese heritage speakers (mean age = 10.01 years; range = 4.02 – 18.18). Focusing on individual differences, we extracted latent experiential factors via the Q-BEx questionnaire (De Cat, Kašćelan, Prévost, Serratrice, Tuller, Unsworth, & The Q.-Be Consortium, 2022), which were then used to predict knowle…
Individual differences matter in heritage language bilingual processing: An electroencephalography (EEG) study of grammatical gender
The present study investigated if/how individual differences in heritage language (HL) experience modulate gender agreement processing among Spanish heritage speakers (HSs). We reanalyzed the data from Luque and colleagues (2023), which reported an aggregate biphasic N400–P600. The present analysis revealed that sensitivity to morphological markedness was positively modulated by HL proficiency and exposure/use. Higher proficiency led to increased…
The acquisition of the semantics of Japanese numeral classifiers: The methodological value of nonsense
This study examined the acquisition of numeral classifiers in 120 monolingual Japanese children. Previous research has argued that the complex semantic system underlying classifiers is late acquired. Thus, we set out to determine the age at which Japanese children are able to extend the semantic properties of classifiers to novel items/situations. Participants completed a comprehension task with a mouse-tracking extension and a production task wi…
On “Local Theory” Neutrality with Respect to “Meta-Theories” and Data from a Diversity of “Native Speakers”, Including Heritage Speaker Bilinguals: Commentary on Hulstijn (2024)
This commentary critically engages with Hulstijn’s revised Basic Language Cognition (BLC) Theory, which aims to enhance explanatory power and falsifiability regarding individual differences (IDs) in language proficiency across native and non-native speakers. While commending BLC Theory’s emphasis on separating oral and written language cognition, we raise two key concerns. First, we question the theory’s exclusive alignment with usage-based appro…
Dichotomies as points of departure: A response to Truscott and Sharwood Smith (2024)
We here respond to a 2024 discussion and commentary article entitled Dangerous dichotomies and misunderstandings in second language research by Truscott and Sharwood Smith (T&SS), who argue that several dichotomies pervade the field of second language acquisition (SLA) that negatively impact progress in the field. T&SS focus on four dichotomies, all of which imply an opposition of generative and usage-based approaches: (i) Cognitive vs. Generativ…
Bidialectal language representation and processing: Evidence from Norwegian ERPs
This study investigates bilectal grammatical representation and processing using three ERP reading experiments in two Norwegian dialect regions. Northern Norwegian bilectals were tested in two separate sessions in two written varieties: the local written standard (Bokmål, n = 83) and Northern Norwegian dialect writing (n = 68). The study included both non-contrastive gender (control) and dialect-specific number (target) agreement conditions. In g…
Modeling individual differences in vocabulary development: A large-scale study on Japanese heritage speakers
This study examines when the vocabulary knowledge of Japanese heritage speakers (HSs; N = 427, M age = 9.96, female = 213) begins to diverge from monolingual counterparts (N = 136, M age = 6.69, female = 65) and what factors explain individual differences in HS development. Vocabulary of HSs began to diverge from 5.61 years and this difference lasted until they were young adults. We also administered a fit-for-purpose questionnaire in 2021–2023 a…
Hippocampal adaptations in Mild Cognitive Impairment patients are modulated by bilingual language experiences
Bilingualism has been shown to contribute to increased resilience against cognitive aging. One of the key brain structures linked to memory and dementia symptom onset, the hippocampus, has been observed to adapt in response to bilingual experience – at least in healthy individuals. However, in the context of neurodegenerative pathology, it is yet unclear what role previous bilingual experience might have in terms of sustaining integrity of this s…
Are translation equivalents really equivalent? Evidence from concreteness effects in translation priming
Aims and Objectives: Translation equivalents intuitively seem to overlap in meaning. Moreover, the models of the bilingual lexicon often represent the meaning shared between two translations as a holistic node in the semantic network. However, research on semantic representation and processing questions this holistic approach. For instance, abstract words are assumed to be more language-dependent, while concrete words’ meanings are seen as more c…
Language change in Japanese–English bilingual returnee children over the course of five years: Evidence from accent-rating
Few studies have examined global foreign accent (GFA) in bilingual children, and little is known about how GFA changes over time and what factors determine change. Here, we examine GFA trajectories in Japanese–English bilingual returnees (Japanese children who returned to Japan after having lived in a majority English environment for several years). In two accent-rating tasks, first language (L1) speakers of English or Japanese rated returnee spe…
Lexical interference and prediction in sentence processing among Russian heritage speakers: An Individual Differences Approach
In line with emerging trends examining sentence processing in heritage language (HL) bilingualism and adopting an individual differences approach, the present study investigated the role of prediction and lexical interference in 68 Russian HL bilinguals in North America. The former was investigated by examining how Russian HL bilinguals processed sentences with semantically constraining verbs, whereas the latter was assessed examining how context…
Bilectal Exposure Modulates Neural Signatures to Conflicting Grammatical Properties: Norway as a Natural Laboratory
The current study investigated gender (control) and number (target) agreement processing in Northern and non-Northern Norwegians living in Northern Norway. Participants varied in exposure to Northern Norwegian (NN) dialect(s), where number marking differs from most other Norwegian dialects. In a comprehension task involving reading NN dialect writing, P600 effects for number agreement were significantly affected by NN exposure. The more exposure …
Riding the (brain) waves! Using neural oscillations to inform bilingualism research – Addendum
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On trade-offs in bilingualism and moving beyond the Stacking the Deck fallacy
Despite a meteoric rise, results in the cognitive science of bilingualism present with significant inconsistency. In parallel, there is a striking absence of an ecologically valid theory within bilingualism research. How should one interpret the totality of available data that can pull in opposing directions? To proceed, we need to identify which practices impede progression. Hitherto, we bring to the fore an undiscussed practice, contextualizing…
Riding the (brain) waves! Using neural oscillations to inform bilingualism research
The study of the brains’ oscillatory activity has been a standard technique to gain insights into human neurocognition for a relatively long time. However, as a complementary analysis to ERPs, only very recently has it been utilized to study bilingualism and its neural underpinnings. Here, we provide a theoretical and methodological starter for scientists in the (psycho)linguistics and neurocognition of bilingualism field(s) to understand the bas…
The elusive impact of L2 immersion on translation priming
A growing consensus sees the bilingual lexicon as an integrated, nonselective system. However, the way bilingual experience shapes the architecture and functioning of the lexicon is not well understood. This study investigates bilingual lexical-semantic representation and processing employing written translation priming. We focus on the role of active exposure to and use of the second language (L2)—primarily operationalized as immersion. We teste…
Factors that moderate global similarity in initial L3 transfer: Intervocalic voiced stops in heritage Spanish/English bilinguals’ L3 Italian
Much of the formal linguistic research on third language (L3) acquisition has focused on transfer source selection, with the overall finding that (global) structural similarity between the L1/L2 and L3 is the strongest predictor of initial transfer patterns. Recently, Cabrelli and Pichan (2021) reported data from the production of underlyingly intervocalic voiced stops in L3 Brazilian Portuguese (BP) and L3 Italian that highlight the notion that …
Double-Number Marking Matters for Both L1 and L2 Processing of Nonlocal Agreement Similarly: An Erp Investigation
The present study uses event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine nonlocal agreement processing between native (L1) English speakers and Chinese–English second language (L2) learners, whose L1 lacks number agreement. We manipulated number marking with determiners ( the vs. that/these ) to see how determiner-specification influences both native and nonnative processing downstream for verbal number agreement. Behavioral and ERP results suggest both…
Language dominance in the previously acquired languages modulates rate of third language (L3) development over time: A longitudinal study
This study examines the extent to which extra-linguistic factors such as language dominance, order of acquisition and language of instruction are deterministic for multilingual transfer selection and subsequent development. We test two groups of Catalan-Spanish bilinguals acquiring English as an L3 in a controlled setting. We first examine judgements and interpretations of negative quantifiers and negative polarity items after 16 hours of exposur…
L3 syntactic transfer selectivity and typological determinacy: The typological primacy model
The present article addresses the following question: what variables condition syntactic transfer? Evidence is provided in support of the position that third language (L3) transfer is selective, whereby, at least under certain conditions, it is driven by the typological proximity of the target L3 measured against the other previously acquired linguistic systems (cf. Rothman and Cabrelli Amaro, 2007, 2010; Rothman, 2010; Montrul et al., 2011). To …
Pragmatic deficits with syntactic consequences: L2 pronominal subjects and the syntax-pragmatics interface
Heritage speaker competence differences, language change, and input type: Inflected infinitives in Heritage Brazilian Portuguese
It has been argued that colloquial dialects of Brazilian Portuguese (BP) have undergone significant linguistic change resulting in the loss of inflected infinitives (e.g., Pires, 2002, 2006). Since BP adults, at least educated ones, have complete knowledge of inflected infinitives, the implicit claim is that they are transmitted via formal education in the standard dialect. In the present article, I test one of the latent predictions of such clai…
What variables condition syntactic transfer? A look at the L3 initial state
This study investigates transfer at the third-language (L3) initial state, testing between the following possibilities: (1) the first language (L1) transfer hypothesis (an L1 effect for all adult acquisition), (2) the second language (L2) transfer hypothesis, where the L2 blocks L1 transfer (often referred to in the recent literature as the ‘L2 status factor’; Williams and Hammarberg, 1998), and (3) the Cumulative Enhancement Model (Flynn et al.,…
Clitic-doubled left dislocation and focus fronting in L2 Spanish: A case of successful acquisition at the syntax–discourse interface
This experimental study tests the Interface Hypothesis by looking into processes at the syntax–discourse interface, teasing apart acquisition of syntactic, semantic and discourse knowledge. Adopting López’s (2009) pragmatic features [±a(naphor)] and [±c(ontrast)], which in combination account for the constructions of dislocation and fronting, we tested clitic left dislocation and fronted focus in the comprehension of English native speakers learn…
Heritage language acquisition: What it reveals and why it is important for formal linguistic theories
This paper discusses the interplay between acquisition and theory construction. It endeavors to show how a more direct and crucially bi-directional relationship between formal linguistic theory and the study of heritage language bilingualism can provide mutual benefit. It will be argued that data from acquisition-not exclusively but indeed especially from heritage language bilingualism-provide windows into the tenability of formal linguistic prop…
The Mind-Context Divide: On acquisition at the linguistic interfaces
Exploring the source of differences and similarities in L1 attrition and heritage speaker competence: Evidence from pronominal resolution
Discourse-sensitive clitic-doubled dislocations in heritage Spanish
Introduction: Some notes on the generative study of L3 acquisition
This article serves as a state-of the-science review of the blossoming field of generative third language (L3) acquisition as well as an introduction to this special issue on the same topic. We present and argue for the relevance of adult L3/L n acquisition for many perennial questions that have sat at the core of linguistic approaches to adult language acquisition since the Principles and Parameters framework was first adopted into second langua…
Modeling individual differences in vocabulary development: A large-scale study on Japanese heritage speakers
This study examines when the vocabulary knowledge of Japanese heritage speakers (HSs; N = 427, M age = 9.96, female = 213) begins to diverge from monolingual counterparts (N = 136, M age = 6.69, female = 65) and what factors explain individual differences in HS development. Vocabulary of HSs began to diverge from 5.61 years and this difference lasted until they were young adults. We also administered a fit-for-purpose questionnaire in 2021–2023 a…
Lexical interference and prediction in sentence processing among Russian heritage speakers: An Individual Differences Approach
In line with emerging trends examining sentence processing in heritage language (HL) bilingualism and adopting an individual differences approach, the present study investigated the role of prediction and lexical interference in 68 Russian HL bilinguals in North America. The former was investigated by examining how Russian HL bilinguals processed sentences with semantically constraining verbs, whereas the latter was assessed examining how context…
Bilectal Exposure Modulates Neural Signatures to Conflicting Grammatical Properties: Norway as a Natural Laboratory
The current study investigated gender (control) and number (target) agreement processing in Northern and non-Northern Norwegians living in Northern Norway. Participants varied in exposure to Northern Norwegian (NN) dialect(s), where number marking differs from most other Norwegian dialects. In a comprehension task involving reading NN dialect writing, P600 effects for number agreement were significantly affected by NN exposure. The more exposure …
Evidence from neurolinguistic methodologies: Can it actually inform linguistic/language acquisition theories and translate to evidence-based applications
This special issue is a testament to the recent burgeoning interest by theoretical linguists, language acquisitionists and teaching practitioners in the neuroscience of language. It offers a highly valuable, state-of-the-art overview of the neurophysiological methods that are currently being applied to questions in the field of second language (L2) acquisition, teaching and processing. Research in the area of neurolinguistics has developed dramat…
Linguistic epistemology and the notion of monolingualism
This article sets out to understand why monolingualism is taken to be the ‘norm’ in linguistic inquiry, from sociolinguistics to formal linguistic theory. I will take the position that comparing instances of multilingualism to so-called monolingualism is an unfair and inevitably inaccurate comparison since, among other variables, the social environments and access to input of multilinguals compared to monolinguals is most often different (Cruz-Fe…
Bidialectal language representation and processing: Evidence from Norwegian ERPs
This study investigates bilectal grammatical representation and processing using three ERP reading experiments in two Norwegian dialect regions. Northern Norwegian bilectals were tested in two separate sessions in two written varieties: the local written standard (Bokmål, n = 83) and Northern Norwegian dialect writing (n = 68). The study included both non-contrastive gender (control) and dialect-specific number (target) agreement conditions. In g…
Language change in Japanese–English bilingual returnee children over the course of five years: Evidence from accent-rating
Few studies have examined global foreign accent (GFA) in bilingual children, and little is known about how GFA changes over time and what factors determine change. Here, we examine GFA trajectories in Japanese–English bilingual returnees (Japanese children who returned to Japan after having lived in a majority English environment for several years). In two accent-rating tasks, first language (L1) speakers of English or Japanese rated returnee spe…
Avoiding the cum hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy: Comments and questions regarding Full Transfer Potential
In this commentary to Westergaard (2021), we focus on two main questions. The first, and most important, is what type of L3 data may be construed as supporting evidence–as opposed to a compatible outcome–for the Linguistic Proximity Model. In this regard, we highlight a number of areas in which it remains difficult to derive testable predictions from the model that go beyond compatibility with multiple outcomes that should, in principle, be mutua…
Why All Counter-Evidence to the Critical Period Hypothesis in Second Language Acquisition Is not Equal or Problematic
That adult and child language acquisitions differ in route and outcome is observable. Notwithstanding, there is controversy as to what this observation means for the Critical Period Hypothesis' (CPH) application to adult second language acquisition (SLA). As most versions of the CPH applied to SLA claim that differences result from maturational effects on in-born linguistic mechanisms, the CPH has many implications that are amendable to empirical…
Heritage speaker competence differences, language change, and input type: Inflected infinitives in Heritage Brazilian Portuguese
It has been argued that colloquial dialects of Brazilian Portuguese (BP) have undergone significant linguistic change resulting in the loss of inflected infinitives (e.g., Pires, 2002, 2006). Since BP adults, at least educated ones, have complete knowledge of inflected infinitives, the implicit claim is that they are transmitted via formal education in the standard dialect. In the present article, I test one of the latent predictions of such clai…
Spanish as a World Language: The Interplay of Globalized Localization and Localized Globalization
This article argues that two movements in constant interplay operate within the historical trajectory of the Spanish language: the localization that becomes globalized and the globalization that becomes localized. Equally, this article illustrates how, at the same time that Spanish is expanding in the world, new idiosyncratic and localized forms of the language are emerging. This article deals with the issues of standardization and language ideol…
Bilingualism and identity: Spanish at the crossroads with other languages
How Pragmatically Odd! Interface Delays and Pronominal Subject Distribution in L2 Spanish
Sorace (2000, 2005) has claimed that while L2 learners can easily acquire properties of L2 narrow syntax they have significant difficulty with regard to interpretation and the discourse distribution of related properties, resulting in so-called residual optionality. However, there is no consensus as to what this difficulty indicates. Is it related to an insurmountable grammatical representational deficit (in the sense of representation deficit ap…
Linguistic epistemology and the notion of monolingualism
This article sets out to understand why monolingualism is taken to be the ‘norm’ in linguistic inquiry, from sociolinguistics to formal linguistic theory. I will take the position that comparing instances of multilingualism to so-called monolingualism is an unfair and inevitably inaccurate comparison since, among other variables, the social environments and access to input of multilinguals compared to monolinguals is most often different (Cruz-Fe…
Why All Counter-Evidence to the Critical Period Hypothesis in Second Language Acquisition Is not Equal or Problematic
That adult and child language acquisitions differ in route and outcome is observable. Notwithstanding, there is controversy as to what this observation means for the Critical Period Hypothesis' (CPH) application to adult second language acquisition (SLA). As most versions of the CPH applied to SLA claim that differences result from maturational effects on in-born linguistic mechanisms, the CPH has many implications that are amendable to empirical…
Understanding the nature and outcomes of early bilingualism: Romance languages as heritage languages
In this introduction to the special issue on Romance languages as heritage languages, I aim to contextualize the scope of this issue and the contribution it makes to the emerging field of linguistic studies to heritage language bilingualism. Key issues pertaining to the empirical study and epistemology of heritage language bilingualism are presented as well as a critical introduction to the individual articles that comprise this issue
Knowledge of A/A'-dependencies on subject extraction with two types of infinitives in non-native Portuguese adult bilingualism
Within generative L2 acquisition research there is a longstanding debate as to what underlies observable differences in L1/L2 knowledge/ performance. On the one hand, Full Accessibility approaches maintain that target L2 syntactic representations (new functional categories and features) are acquirable (e.g., Schwartz & Sprouse, 1996). Conversely, Partial Accessibility approaches claim that L2 variability and/or optionality, even at advanced level…
Disentangling sources of incomplete acquisition: An explanation for competence divergence across heritage grammars
This article brings to light an important variable involved in explaining a type of competence divergence in an instance of bilingual acquisition: heritage speaker (HS) bilingualism. We present results of experiments with European Portuguese (EP) heritage speakers (HSs), showing that they have full morpho-syntactic and semantic competence of inflected infinitives, similar to EP monolinguals. We show this constitutes clear evidence of competence m…
Pragmatic deficits with syntactic consequences: L2 pronominal subjects and the syntax-pragmatics interface
What variables condition syntactic transfer? A look at the L3 initial state
This study investigates transfer at the third-language (L3) initial state, testing between the following possibilities: (1) the first language (L1) transfer hypothesis (an L1 effect for all adult acquisition), (2) the second language (L2) transfer hypothesis, where the L2 blocks L1 transfer (often referred to in the recent literature as the ‘L2 status factor’; Williams and Hammarberg, 1998), and (3) the Cumulative Enhancement Model (Flynn et al.,…
Introduction: Some notes on the generative study of L3 acquisition
This article serves as a state-of the-science review of the blossoming field of generative third language (L3) acquisition as well as an introduction to this special issue on the same topic. We present and argue for the relevance of adult L3/L n acquisition for many perennial questions that have sat at the core of linguistic approaches to adult language acquisition since the Principles and Parameters framework was first adopted into second langua…
L1 acquisition across Portuguese dialects: Modular and interdisciplinary interfaces as sources of explanation
Theoretical Linguistics Meets Pedagogical Practice: Pronominal Subject Use in Spanish as a Second Language
This article attempts to highlight the importance of theoretical linguistics and empirical cognitive linguistics studies for the practical teaching of Spanish as a second language. Looking at the domain of subject pronominal use as an example, I endeavor to show how formal linguistics can be useful to language instructors. This is a significant enterprise since language instructors could benefit from both a better understanding of the linguistic …
L3 syntactic transfer selectivity and typological determinacy: The typological primacy model
The present article addresses the following question: what variables condition syntactic transfer? Evidence is provided in support of the position that third language (L3) transfer is selective, whereby, at least under certain conditions, it is driven by the typological proximity of the target L3 measured against the other previously acquired linguistic systems (cf. Rothman and Cabrelli Amaro, 2007, 2010; Rothman, 2010; Montrul et al., 2011). To …
An integrated perspective on comparative bilingual differences: Beyond the Interface problem
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The Mind-Context Divide: On acquisition at the linguistic interfaces
Multilingualism and Identity
The term “multilingualism” is most often used to refer to a state of linguistic knowledge, environments, or speakers in relation to which a minimum of three languages are implicated.
Third language acquisition in adulthood
L3 morphosyntax in the generative tradition: The initial stages and beyond
Linguistic interfaces and language acquisition in childhood: Introduction to the special issue
Much contemporary L1 acquisition theory and empirical research are guided by the hypothesis that acquisition delays in children are often related to the integration of information across grammatical and other cognitive modules, such as syntax and discourse-pragmatics (see e.g., Grinstead, 2010). This special issue brings together cutting edge research from all relevant paradigms addressing interface issues in child language acquisition and provid…
Clitic-doubled left dislocation and focus fronting in L2 Spanish: A case of successful acquisition at the syntax–discourse interface
This experimental study tests the Interface Hypothesis by looking into processes at the syntax–discourse interface, teasing apart acquisition of syntactic, semantic and discourse knowledge. Adopting López’s (2009) pragmatic features [±a(naphor)] and [±c(ontrast)], which in combination account for the constructions of dislocation and fronting, we tested clitic left dislocation and fronted focus in the comprehension of English native speakers learn…
The syntax-semantics of bare and definite plural subjects in the L2 Spanish of English natives
This study investigates the extent to which advanced native-English L2 learners of Spanish come to acquire restrictions on bare plural preverbal subjects in L2 Spanish (e.g. gatos “cats” vs. definite plurals such as los gatos “the cats”). It tests L2 knowledge of available semantic readings of bare plurals and definite plurals in Spanish, where [+specific] and [+generic] interpretations are syntactically represented differently from English. Assu…
Some caveats to the role of input in the timing of child bilingualism
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What does current generative theory have to say about the explicit-implicit debate?
Taking a generative perspective, we divide aspects of language into three broad categories: those that cannot be learned (are inherent in Universal Grammar), those that are derived from Universal Grammar, and those that must be learned from the input. Using this framework of language to clarify the “what” of learning, we take the acquisition of null (and overt) subjects in languages like Spanish as an example of how to apply the framework. We dem…
Linguistics (58 works) · Psychology (57 works) · Computer Science (45 works) · Language Development and Disorders (32 works) · Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism (32 works) · Philosophy (31 works) · Neuroscience of multilingualism (24 works) · Cognitive psychology (23 works) · Cognition (22 works) · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation (21 works)