Complexity and conflicting grammars in language acquisition
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11656201 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Marit Westergaard (0000-0003-2702-9615, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2014 |
| Volume | 30 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 85-89 |
| Publication date | 2014-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Second language Research (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0267-6583 • E-ISSN: 1477-0326 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0267658313518486 |
| OpenAlex | W2111182969 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 12 |
The article by Amaral and Roeper (this issue; henceforth A&R) presents many interesting ideas about first and second language acquisition as well as some experimental data convincingly illustrating the difference between production and comprehension. The article extends the concept of Universal Bilingualism proposed in Roeper (1999) to second language acquisition. As stated in the Introduction, the idea of Multiple Grammars (MG) is in some sense obvious in the context of second language acquisition and, in my opinion, it also accounts well for the increasing number of findings from psycholinguistic studies that the first language (L1) continues to affect the second language (L2) even at very advanced stages of acquisition. I am also very sympathetic to the Full Transfer / Full Access approach and the goal of dealing with apparent optionality in terms of more formal representations and testable predictions. In this commentary, I focus on some aspects of the theory that are left somewhat unclear. The issues that I address are the nature of complexity and the ‘size’ of rules as well as the question of what constitutes conflicting (sub-)grammars. I also compare the MG theory to my own model of microcues (Westergaard, 2009a, 2009b), discussing some similarities and differences, the latter mainly due to the micro-cue model claiming that the rules of early child language are smaller and more specific than has previously been assumed
Comprehension approach · Developmental linguistics · Linguistics · Natural language · Natural language processing · Rule-based machine translation · Second-language acquisition · Syntax · Computer Science · Language Development and Disorders · Multilingual Education and Policy · Philosophy · Psychology · Reading and Literacy Development · Artificial Intelligence
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0.17 |
| Citation span | 2014 - 2026 (13) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |