scholarly journals Humans store about 1.5 megabytes of information during language acquisition

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 181393 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francis Mollica ◽  
Steven T. Piantadosi
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Word Frequency ◽  
Upper Bound ◽  
Lexical Semantics ◽  
Linguistic Analysis ◽  
Amount Of Information ◽  
English Speaking

We introduce theory-neutral estimates of the amount of information learners possess about how language works. We provide estimates at several levels of linguistic analysis: phonemes, wordforms, lexical semantics, word frequency and syntax. Our best guess is that the average English-speaking adult has learned 12.5 million bits of information, the majority of which is lexical semantics. Interestingly, very little of this information is syntactic, even in our upper bound analyses. Generally, our results suggest that learners possess remarkable inferential mechanisms capable of extracting, on average, nearly 2000 bits of information about how language works each day for 18 years.

The Hindu Renaissance and its Apologetic Patterns

1970 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 267-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agehananda Bharati
Keyword(s):  
Linguistic Analysis ◽  
Caste System ◽  
Protestant Ethic ◽  
Social Discourse ◽  
Urban Populations ◽  
Large Segment ◽  
Grass Roots ◽  
Political Talk ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Scientific Base

An anthropological and linguistic analysis of the idiom of modern Hindu religious specialists and their followers, an audience which embraces all English speaking Indians and a large segment of the urban populations of India. The highly eclectic, quasi-secular and neo-Hindu ideology inaugurated by such charismatics as Vivekananda, other “Swamis” and interiorized by Indian nationalists, expresses itself in a highly stereotyped coded parlance, informed by Victorian English as well as by diffuse elements which could be described as a Hindu Protestant Ethic. Both systematic and conscious obfuscation of scriptural categories as well as complex but predictable patterns of dissimulation extending over virtually all types of cultural and social discourse—the caste-system, “superstitions,” the “scientific” base of Hinduism, political talk, etc., are adduced and investigated as paradigms of contemporary Indian parlance, which is not the grass-roots idiom, but which is gathering momentum as the forensic instrument of India's leadership and of Indian administrators, educators, and the Indian intellectuals.

scholarly journals The Return to English in a Non-English Speaking Country: Russian Immigrants and Native Israelis in Israel

2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Lang ◽  
Erez Siniver
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Cross Section ◽  
Host Country ◽  
English Language ◽  
English Language Acquisition ◽  
Highly Educated ◽  
Russian Immigrants ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Low Levels

Abstract Using a unique sample of Russian immigrants and native Israelis, we examine the return to English knowledge. Panel and cross-section estimates of the return to English are substantial for highly educated immigrants and natives. Hebrew and English language acquisition contribute to immigrant/native earnings convergence, but most convergence is explained by other factors. While immigrants with low levels of education do not benefit from knowing English, native Israelis may. Conditional on occupation, English and Hebrew acquisition are largely orthogonal. Therefore earlier work on the importance of knowledge of the host-country language (Hebrew) is not significantly biased by unmeasured English knowledge.

Hebrew Poetry and the Appositive Style: Parallelism, Requiescat in pace

2019 ◽  
Vol 69 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 617-648
Author(s):  
Robert D. Holmstedt
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Semantics ◽  
Linguistic Analysis ◽  
Traditional Model ◽  
Teaching Resources ◽  
Hebrew Poetry ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Verse Structure

AbstractMichael O’Connor (whose 1980 opus, Hebrew Verse Structure, provides a compelling linguistically grounded description of the poetic line) has called the endurance of Lowthian parallelism a “horror” that wreaks havoc on lexical semantics and “is beyond the comprehension of any sensitive student of language.” Why does a model known to be a descriptive failure for a century persist in teaching resources and commentaries? It is because nothing compelling has risen to replace it. O’Connor’s linguistic analysis of the line offered the first piece to replacing the traditional model, but O’Connor’s model was more compelling for the structure of the poetic line than for the relationship of lines. In this study I take up interlineal syntax and offer an analysis that compliments and completes O’Connor’s approach, allowing us to provide a proper burial for the admirable but ultimately unworkable Lowthian parallelism.

A restudy of postcolonial Palau after two decades

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 34-59
Author(s):  
Kazuko Matsumoto
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Linguistic Analysis ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Future Scenarios ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Social Division ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Ethnographic Analysis

Abstract This paper reports results from a reinvestigation of multilingualism in postcolonial Palau, conducted twenty years after the first study. The first-ever ethnographic language survey conducted in 1997–1998 highlighted the diglossic nature of Palau where English replaced Japanese as the ‘high’ language, while indigenous Palauan remained as the ‘low’ spoken language. It indicated three possible future scenarios: (a) shift from multilingualism to bilingualism after the older Japanese-speaking generation passes away; (b) stability of diglossia with a clear social division between an English-speaking elite and a predominantly Palauan-speaking non-elite; (c) movement towards an English-speaking nation with Palauan being abandoned. The restudy conducted in 2017–2018 provides real-time evidence to assess the direction and progress of change, whilst the ethnographic analysis of recent changes in language policies and the linguistic analysis of teenagers’ narratives reveal the unpopularity of Palauan as a written language and the emergence of their own variety of English.

Facilitative transfer only?

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanyu Guo ◽  
Boping Yuan
Keyword(s):  
Word Frequency ◽  
Strong Evidence ◽  
Specific Property ◽  
Structural Similarity ◽  
Learning Situation ◽  
Transfer Effects ◽  
Final Particle ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
English Speaking

Abstract This study investigates transfer effects and later development in English-Cantonese bilinguals’ L3 Mandarin grammar. Three types of Mandarin sentence-final particle clusters are involved as the target structures. The results show that L3 learners with the knowledge of Cantonese behave in a less native-like way than their English-speaking L2 counterparts on the illicit Mandarin cluster [*de le/* le de] that has a licit corresponding cluster in Cantonese, and outperform their L2 counterparts on the licit Mandarin cluster [le ne] that has a Cantonese equivalent. This is regarded as strong evidence of transfer effects from Cantonese, which is typologically and structurally more similar to Mandarin than English. We hence argue that L3 initial transfer is not determined by the order of the languages previously acquired but the structural similarity. More importantly, our study shows that transfer effects can be facilitative as well as detrimental. In addition, our data cross different proficiency levels show that factors such as the learning situation (learning or unlearning), word frequency and form-meaning relationship can influence the success of acquisition of a specific property in the L3.

scholarly journals I English Language

2019 ◽  
Vol 98 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-166
Author(s):  
Viktorija Kostadinova ◽  
Nuria Yáñez-Bouza ◽  
Gea Dreschler ◽  
Sune Gregersen ◽  
Beáta Gyuris ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
English Language ◽  
Lexical Semantics ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Section 8 ◽  
History Of

Abstract This chapter has fourteen sections: 1. General; 2. History of English Linguistics; 3. Phonetics and Phonology (not covered this year); 4. Morphology; 5. Syntax; 6. Semantics; 7. Lexicography, Lexicology, and Lexical Semantics; 8. Onomastics; 9. Dialectology and Sociolinguistics; 10. New Englishes and Creolistics; 11. Second Language Acquisition. 12. English as a Lingua Franca; 13. Pragmatics and Discourse. 14. Stylistics. Section 1 is by Viktorija Kostadinova; section 2 is by Nuria Yáñez-Bouza; sections 4 and 5 are by Gea Dreschler and Sune Gregersen; section 6 is by Beáta Gyuris; section 7 is by Kathryn Allan; section 8 is by Maggie Scott; section 9 is by Lieselotte Anderwald; section 10 is by Sven Leuckert; section 11 is by Tihana Kraš; section 12 is by Tian Gan, Ida Parise, Sum Pok Ting, Juliana Souza da Silva and Alessia Cogo; section 13 is by Beke Hansen; section 14 is by Jessica Norledge.

scholarly journals Age of word acquisition effects in treatment of children with phonological delays

2011 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
JUDITH A. GIERUT ◽  
MICHELE L. MORRISETTE
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Experimental Design ◽  
Word Frequency ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Age Of Acquisition ◽  
Multiple Baseline ◽  
Single Subject ◽  
Phonological Learning ◽  
Word Acquisition

ABSTRACTThe effects of the age of acquisition (AoA) of words were examined in the clinical treatment of 10 preschool children with phonological delays. Using a single-subject multiple-baseline experimental design, children were enrolled in one of four conditions that varied the AoA of the treated words (early vs. late acquired) relative to their corresponding word frequency (high vs. low frequency). Phonological generalization to treated and untreated sounds in error served as the dependent variable. Results showed that late acquired words induced greater generalization, with an effect size four times greater than early acquired words, whereas the effects of word frequency were minimized. Results are discussed relative to hypotheses about the role of AoA in language acquisition and the relevance of this variable for phonological learning.

Identifying German–English cognates, false cognates, and non-cognates: methodological issues and descriptive norms

2001 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 249-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian M. Friel ◽  
Shelia M. Kennison
Keyword(s):  
Word Frequency ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Performance Measures ◽  
English Translation ◽  
Specific Character ◽  
Methodological Issues ◽  
German Word ◽  
Similarity Ratings ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Translation Accuracy

We investigated 563 German–English nouns for the purposes of identifying cognates, false cognates and non-cognates. Two techniques for identifying cognates were used and compared: (i) De Groot and Nas's (1991) similarity-rating technique and (ii) a translation-elicitation task similar to that of Kroll and Stewart (1994). The results obtained with English-speaking participants produced 112 cognates, 94 false cognates, and 357 non cognates and indicated that the two techniques yielded similar findings. Rated similarity of German–English translation pairs and translation accuracy were positively correlated. We also investigated whether the presence of German-specific characters and the availability of German pronunciation information influenced similarity ratings and translation accuracy. Ratings for translation pairs in which the German word contained a language-specific character were lower and the word was translated less accurately. Participants provided with pronunciation information rated German–English translation pairs as being more similar and translated German words correctly more often than participants who did not receive pronunciation information. We also report the relationships among word frequency, rated imageability and the performance measures. The resulting database of information is intended to be a resource for researchers interested in cognitive processing in German–English bilinguals.

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