DOCSLIB.ORG

Noam Chomsky: Politics Or Science?

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Noam Chomsky: Politics Or Science? Noam Chomsky: Politics or Science? Chris Knight OAM CHOMSKY ranks among the leading of Scientific Research, Air Research and N intellectual figures of modern times. He has Development Command), and the Navy (Office of changed the way we think about what it means Naval Research); and in part by the National to be human, gaining a position in the history of Science Foundation and the Eastman Kodak ideas – at least according to his supporters – Corporation.” comparable with that of Darwin or Descartes. Two large defence grants subsequently went Since launching his intellectual assault against directly to generativist – that is, Chomskyan – the academic orthodoxies of the 1950s, he has research in university linguistics departments – succeeded – almost single-handedly – in one to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology revolutionizing linguistics and establishing it as in the mid-1960s and the other, a few years later, a modern science. to the University of California Los Angeles. Aspects Such victories, however, have come at a cost. of the Theory of Syntax (Chomsky 1965) contains The “Linguistics Wars” (Harris 1993) began when, this acknowledgment: as a young anarchist, Chomsky published his “The research reported in this document was first book. He might as well have thrown a bomb. made possible in part by support extended the “The extraordinary and traumatic impact of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Research publication of Syntactic Structures by Noam Laboratory of Electronics, by the Joint Services Chomsky in 1957”, recalls one witness (Maclay Electronics Programs (U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, and 1971: 163), “can hardly be appreciated by one who U.S. Air Force) under Contract No. DA36-039- did not live through this upheaval.” From that AMC-03200(E); additional support was received moment, the battles have continued to rage. from the U.S. Air Force (Electronic Systems Division under Contract AF19(628)-2487), the “Command and Control” National Science Foundation (Grant GP-2495), the How could a technical book on syntax have National Institutes of Health (Grant MH-04737- produced such dramatic effects? By his own 04), and the National Aeronautics and Space admission, the author knew little about the Administration (Grant NsG-496).” world’s different languages. Indeed, he outraged Several questions arise. Why did Chomsky – traditionalists by claiming he didn’t need to know. an outspoken anarchist and antimilitarist – take Chomsky was not interested in documenting the money? Secondly, what did the military think linguistic diversity. Neither did he care about the they were buying? Both questions are sharpened relationship between language and human by the fact that MIT at this time had no tradition thought or social life. As far as his opponents could in linguistics. This confronts us with a third see, he was not really interested in linguistics at puzzle: why didn’t the investment of military all. He seemed to be more interested in computers. funds go to an institution with a proven record By 1957, Chomsky’s “Research Laboratory of in linguistic research? Electronics” at the Massachusetts Institute of Explaining his decision to choose MIT, Technology had begun attracting the attention of Chomsky recalls that he felt in no mood to serve the US military. It was not that they were an established department of linguistics. He disturbed about Chomsky’s anarchist politics. needed somewhere where original thinking could Aware of his other activities, they were anxious be freely explored: to benefit from his ideas. Moreoever, they were in “I had no prospects in a university that had a position to pay. The preface to Syntactic Structures a tradition in any field related to linguistics, (1957: 1) concludes: whether it was anthropology, or whatever, “This work was supported in part by the because the work that I was doing was simply U.S.A. Army (Signal Corps), the Air Force (Office not recognized as related to that field – maybe 17 rightly. Furthermore, I didn’t have real professional new generation of linguists because it chimed in credentials in the field. I’m the first to admit that. with the spirit of the times. Younger scholars were And therefore I ended up in an electronics becoming impatient with linguistics conceived as laboratory. I don’t know how to handle anything the accumulation of empirical facts about locally more complicated than a tape recorder, and not variable linguistic forms and traditions. Chomsky even that, but I’ve been in an electronics promised simplification by reducing language to laboratory for the last thirty years, largely because a mechanical “device” whose design could be there were no vested interests there and the precisely specified. Linguistics was no longer to director, Jerome Wiesner, was willing to take a be tarnished by association with “unscientific” chance on some odd ideas that looked as if they disciplines such as anthropology or sociology. might be intriguing. It was several years, in fact, Avoiding the obscurities of sociocultural or before there was any public, any professional psychosocial studies, linguistics would be community with which I could have an inter- redefined as the study of a “natural object” – the change of ideas in what I thought of as my own specialised module of the brain which (according field, apart from a few friends. The talks that I gave to Chomsky) was responsible for speech. in the 1950s were usually at computer centers, Excluding social factors and thereby transcending psychology seminars, and other groups outside mere politics and ideology, the reconstructed of what was supposed to be my field” (Chomsky discipline would at last qualify as a natural science 1988a: 15-16). akin to mathematics and physics. As for the military, they saw a practical value If a theory is sufficiently powerful and simple, in Chomsky’s theoretical agenda. In a 1971 inter- said Chomsky, it should radically reduce the amount view (Newmeyer 1986: 85-6), Colonel Edmund P. of knowledge needed to understand the relevant Gaines explained: data. As he explains (Chomsky 1988a: 17): “In fact, “The Air Force has an increasingly large the amount that you have to know in a field is investment in so called ‘command and control’ not at all correlated with the success of the field. computer systems. Such systems contain Maybe it’s even inversely related because the more information about the status of our forces and are success there is, in a sense, the less you have to used in planning and executing military know. You just have to understand; you have to operations. For example, defense of the continental understand more, but maybe know less.” United States against air and missile attack is Syntactic Structures infuriated established possible in part because of the use of such computer linguists – and delighted as many iconoclasts – systems. And of course, such systems support our because its message was that much of the forces in Vietnam. profession’s work had been a waste of time. Why “The data in such systems is processed in laboriously collect concrete, detailed observations response to questions and requests by comm- as to how the world’s variegated languages are anders. Since the computer cannot ‘understand’ spoken, if a simplifying short-cut is available? English, the commanders’ queries must be In an ice-cool, starkly logical argument that translated into a language that the computer can magisterially brushed aside most current linguistic deal with; such languages resemble English very theory, Syntactic Structures evaluated some little, either in their form or in the ease with which conceivable ways of constructing the ultimate they are learned and used. Command and control “language machine”: systems would be easier to use, and it would be “Suppose we have a machine that can be in easier to train people to use them, if this translation any one of a finite number of different internal were not necessary. We sponsored linguistic states .... the machine begins in the initial state, research in order to learn how to build command runs through a sequence of states (producing a and control systems that could understand English word with each transition), and ends in the final queries directly.” state. Then we call the sequence of words that has Chomsky’s followers were by then engaged in been produced a ‘sentence’. Each such machine just such a project at the University of California thus defines a certain language; namely the set of Los Angeles, prompting Colonel Gaines to sentences that can be produced in this way” comment: “Of course, studies like the UCLA study (Chomsky 1957: 18). are but the first step toward achieving this goal. As his argument unfolds, Chomsky rules out It does seem clear, however, that the successful this first, crude design for his envisaged machine operation of such systems will depend on insights – it clearly wouldn’t work. By a process of gained from linguistic research....” The colonel elimination, he then progressively narrows the went on to express the Air Force’s “satisfaction” range of designs which – on purely theoretical with UCLA’s work. grounds – ought to work. Thrillingly, Chomsky opens up the prospect of discovering in effect “the Versions of the Machine philosopher’s stone”: the design specifications of On the eve of the computer age, Chomsky’s a “device” capable of generating grammatical Syntactic Structures (1957) excited and inspired a sentences (and only grammatical ones) not only 18 in English but in any language spoken (or capable Linguistics as Physics of being spoken) on earth. To his academic colleagues in the humanities and Syntactic Structures itself, as it happened, proved social sciences, Chomsky’s programme has caused unequal to the extraordinary task. Aware of this, predictable astonishment, exasperation and even Chomsky in his next book (1965) proposed a outrage.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Handbook of East Asian Psycholinguistics, Volume 1: Chinese Edited by Ping Li, Li Hai Tan, Elizabeth Bates and Ovid J
    Cambridge University Press 0521833337 - The Handbook of East Asian Psycholinguistics, Volume 1: Chinese Edited by Ping Li, Li Hai Tan, Elizabeth Bates and Ovid J. L. Tzeng Frontmatter More information The Handbook of East Asian Psycholinguistics A large body of knowledge has accumulated in recent years on the cognitive processes and brain mechanisms underlying language. Much of this knowl- edge has come from studies of Indo-European languages, in particular English. Chinese, spoken by one-fifth of the world’s population, differs significantly from most Indo-European languages in its grammar, its lexicon, and its writ- ten and spoken forms – features which have profound implications for the learning, representation, and processing of language. This handbook, the first in a three-volume set on East Asian psycholinguistics, presents a state-of-the- art discussion of the psycholinguistic study of Chinese. With contributions by over fifty leading scholars, it covers topics in first and second language acquisition, language processing and reading, language disorders in children and adults, and the relationships between language, brain, culture, and cogni- tion. It will be invaluable to all scholars and students interested in the Chinese language, as well as cognitive psychologists, linguists, and neuroscientists. ping li is Professor of Psychology at the University of Richmond. His main research interests are in the areas of psycholinguistics and cognitive science. He specializes in crosslinguistic studies of language acquisition, bilingual lan- guage processing, and neural network modeling of monolingual and bilingual lexical development. li hai tan is Associate Professor in the Department of Linguistics and Director of the State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Hong Kong.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction: Karmiloff-Smith from Piaget to Neuroconstructivisim a History of Ideas
    Thinking Developmentally from Constructivism to Neuroconstructivism Introduction: Karmiloff-Smith from Piaget to neuroconstructivisim A history of ideas Michael S. C. Thomas Developmental Neurocognition Lab, Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London Mark H. Johnson Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, and Centre for Brain & Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London Introduction Annette Karmiloff-Smith was a seminal thinker in the field of child development in a career spanning more than 45 years. She was the recipient of many awards, including the European Science Foundation Latsis Prize for Cognitive Sciences (the first woman to be awarded this prize), Fellowships of the British Academy, the Cognitive Science Society, the Academy of Medical Sciences, and the Royal Society of Arts, as well as honorary doctorates from universities across the world. She was awarded a CBE for services to cognitive development in the 2004 Queen’s Birthday Honours list. Annette passed away in December 2016, but she had already selected a set of papers that charted the evolution of her ideas, which are collected in this volume. At the time of her death, Annette was engaged in an innovative research project studying development and ageing in Down syndrome (DS) as a model to study the causes of Alzheimer’s disease. This multidisciplinary project, advanced by the LonDownS consortium, brought together experts in cognitive development, psychiatry, brain imaging, genetics, cellular biology, and mouse modelling. Annette’s focus in this project was to explore early development in infants and toddlers with Down syndrome. How could this inform Alzheimer’s disease? The logic is a mark of Annette’s brilliant theoretical insight.
    [Show full text]
  • Campus Notice Office of The
    CAMPUS NOTICE OFFICE OF THE CHAIR - DEPARTMENT OF COGNITIVE SCIENCE OFFICE OF THE ACTING DIRECTOR - CENTER FOR RESEARCH IN LANGUAGE December 19, 2003 ALL ACADEMICS AND STAFF AT UCSD (including UCSD Healthcare) ALL STUDENTS AT UCSD SUBJECT: Renowned UCSD Cognitive Scientist Elizabeth Bates, Director, Center for Research in Language, Dies At 56 An internationally recognized authority in the science of how the brain is organized to process language, Elizabeth Bates, professor of cognitive science at the University of California, San Diego, died Dec. 13 after a year long battle with pancreatic cancer. She was 56. Bates was one of the founding members of the UCSD Department of Cognitive Science, the first such academic department created in the United States. As director of the Center for Research in Language and the Project for Cognitive and Neural Development, she led groups of researchers seeking to understand the relationship between brain function and language learning. Bates had a global reputation for her pioneering work in child development and language acquisition. She also headed-up groundbreaking studies in the fields of post-stroke language affect, comparative linguistics and the psychology of adult language learning. In a prolific career over three decades, Bates and her teams of international collaborators conducted studies in over 20 languages on four continents. She was author, or co-author, of 10 books and more than 200 articles. Much of her work was interdisciplinary, involving teams of neurologists, pediatricians, linguists, psychologists, computer scientists and cognitive scientists. Her ideas and research influenced work in fields as disparate as neuroscience, linguistics, psychology, computer science, biology, and medicine.
    [Show full text]
  • Language, Gesture & Brain Development 1 Running Head
    Language, Gesture & Brain Development 1 Running head: LANGUAGE, GESTURE, & BRAIN DEVELOPMENT Language, Gesture, and the Developing Brain Elizabeth Bates and Frederic Dick Center for Research in Language and Department of Cognitive Science, University of California, San Diego Abstract Do language abilities develop in isolation? Are they mediated by a unique neural substrate, a "mental organ" devoted exclusively to language? Or is language built upon more general abilities, shared with other cognitive domains and mediated by common neural systems? Here we review results suggesting that language and gesture are ‘close family’, then turn to evidence that raises questions about how real those ‘family resemblances’ are, summarizing dissociations from our developmental studies of several different child populations. We then examine both these veins of evidence in the light of some new findings from the adult neuroimaging literature and suggest a possible reinterpretation of these dissociations, as well as new directions for research with both children and adults. Please address all correspondence to Elizabeth Bates, Center for Research in Language 0526, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0526. Phone: 858-534-3007-- Fax: 858-822-5097 -- [email protected], [email protected] Language, Gesture & Brain Development 2 Language, Gesture, and the Developing Brain "late talkers". At first glance, these dissociations Do language abilities develop in isolation? seem to preclude a transparent mapping between Are they mediated
    [Show full text]
  • On the Emergence of Grammar from the Lexicon
    ON THE EMERGENCE OF GRAMMAR FROM THE LEXICON Elizabeth Bates University of California, San Diego Judith C. Goodman University of Missouri, Columbia In B. MacWhinney (Ed.), The emergence of language. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum (1999). Support for the research reported here has been provided by a grant to Judith Goodman by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Early Childhood Transitions, and by NIDCD 401-DC00216, NINDS P50 NS22343 and NIDCD P50 DC01289-0351 to Elizabeth Bates. Portions of this manuscript are adapted from E. Bates and J. Goodman, “On the inseparability of grammar and the lexicon,” Language and Cognitive Processes, 1997. Please address all correspondence to Elizabeth Bates, Center for Research in Language 0526, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0526, or [email protected]. ON THE EMERGENCE OF GR4AMMAR FROM THE LEXICON Where does grammar come from? How does it develop in par with the elements of our common nature that cause children? Developmental psycholinguists who set out to answer us to grow arms and legs rather than wings. This ver- these questions quickly find themselves impaled upon the horns sion of the classical doctrine is, I think, essentially cor- of a dilemma, caught up in a modern variant of the ancient war rect." (p. 4) between empiricists and nativists. Indeed, some of the fiercest Of course Chomsky acknowledges that French children learn battles in this war have been waged in the field of child language. French words, Chinese children learn Chinese words, and so on. Many reasonable individuals in this field have argued for a middle But he believes that the abstract underlying principles that gov- ground, but such a compromise has proven elusive thus far, in ern language in general and grammar in particular are not learned part because the middle ground is difficult to define.
    [Show full text]
  • Elizabeth Bates: a Scientific Obituary by Frederic Dick, Jeffrey Elman and Joan Stiles
    Cognitive Science Online, Vol.2, 2004 http://cogsci-online.ucsd.edu Elizabeth Bates: A scientific obituary by Frederic Dick, Jeffrey Elman and Joan Stiles On December 13, 2003, Elizabeth Bates died, after a courageous year-long struggle with pancreatic cancer. In passing away, Liz leaves an enormous hole, both in the field and in the lives of her many friends. But she leaves an enormous legacy as well. Over the course of more than thirty years, Liz established herself as a world leader in a number of fields – child development, language acquisition, aphasia research, cross-linguistic research, and adult psycholinguistics. She was passionate about science and about ideas. Fearless and bold in following these ideas wherever they took her, and unafraid of controversy, Liz inspired many to follow in her footsteps. One can paint the landscape of a great career in different shades and hues, but for Liz one needs a full pallet of colors, and certainly of intensities. Her contributions to the field of cognitive science were rich and varied, and defy any simple categorization. A summary of just the research initiatives and empirical instruments she produced would fill the space of this brief note. To give a sense of the breadth of her achievement we begin with a list of some of the most tangible products of her career. MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory. This instrument has become one of the most widely used tools in the field for assessing communicative development. There are now versions of the CDI in 35 languages. The International Picture Naming Project. Liz initiated and headed the International Picture Naming project, which has provided the field with a wealth of developmental and adult behavioral data on action and object naming in 7 languages.
    [Show full text]
  • Language and Cognition Catherine L Harris, Boston University, Massachusetts, USA
    Galley: Article - 00559 Level 1 Language and Cognition Catherine L Harris, Boston University, Massachusetts, USA CONTENTS Introduction Cognitive linguistics Concepts of cognition and language The Cognitive neuroscience movement Connectionism Conclusion Cognitive scientists have long debated whether lan- The second way ofconceptualizing human cog- 0559.003 guage and cognition are separate mental faculties, nition emphasizes the differences between lan- or whether language emerges from general cogni- guage and other abilities. A key idea is that many tive abilities. distinct domains ofcognition exist and must be learned separately, using different mental mechan- INTRODUCTION isms. This approach is referred to as the `modular- ity ofcognition' or `mental modules' approach. At 0559.001 What is the relationship between language and first glance it may seem contrary to the interdiscip- cognition? Do people who speak different lan- linary spirit ofcognitive science and to the possibil- guages think differently? Is a certain level of ity ofa unified theory ofcognition. However, the cognitive development required for language ac- unifying theory is the thesis of distinct mental quisition? These questions were ofkeen interest to modules, which are believed to have evolved to thinkers in the early twentieth century and remain accomplish specific tasks relevant to mammalian important in anthropology, linguistics and psych- evolution, such as visual exploration, or relevant ology. However, the cognitive revolution ofthe to human evolution, such as language use. Much of 1950s brought a new question about the relation- the appeal of this approach comes from findings in ship between language and cognition: is language neuropsychology showing that distinct areas ofthe the same type ofmental entity as other cognitive brain serve distinct functions such as vision, lan- abilities, or is it fundamentally different? guage processing, motor coordination, memory, 0559.002 A hallmark ofmodern cognitive science is the and face recognition.
    [Show full text]
  • Emergentism: Elizabeth Bates's Vision of Language and Cognitive Development
    Emergentism: Elizabeth Bates's Vision of Language and Cognitive Development A review of Beyond Nature-Nurture: Essays in Honor of Elizabeth Bates by Michael Tomasello and Dan Isaac Slobin (Eds.) Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2005. 339 pp. ISBN 0-8058-5027-9. $69.95. Reviewed by David Yun Dai Reviewing this edited volume turned out to be a very challenging task, because it covers a wide range of issues regarding biological foundations and psychological mechanisms underlying language functions and language development. My task as a reviewer is to try to (a) understand the underlying logic of Elizabeth Bates's thinking on the basis of this edited volume, as all chapters one way or another bear the imprint of her theoretical influence, and (b) evaluate the significance of her and her colleagues' work in a broader context of research on human cognitive development, while deferring judgment and evaluation of specific pieces of evidence, interpretations, and conclusions to experts in respective areas. Nativism: Searching for the Key in the Wrong Place? It is well known that Chomsky (1988), with his proposal for universal grammar, among others, has inspired generations of researchers to search for innate structures, rules, and intuitions for a broad range of knowledge and skills that cannot be explained by mere inductive learning. Related to this assumption of innateness are three key concepts: domain specificity, modularity, and genetic programming. Domain specificity in this context refers to some innate principles and rules governing children's learning and cognitive development. The notion of modularity goes one step further, assuming special brain structures that are hard wired to handle specific types of information (Fodor, 1983).
    [Show full text]
  • What Is the Human Language Faculty? Two Views
    DISCUSSION NOTE What is the human language faculty? Two views RAY JACKENDOFF Tufts University In addition to providing an account of the empirical facts of language, a theory that aspires to account for language as a biologically based human faculty should seek a graceful integration of linguistic phenomena with what is known about other human cognitive capacities and about the character of brain computation. The present discussion note compares the theoretical stance of bi- olinguistics (Chomsky 2005, Di Sciullo & Boeckx 2011) with a constraint-based PARALLEL ARCHI- TECTURE approach to the language faculty (Jackendoff 2002, Culicover & Jackendoff 2005). The issues considered include the necessity of redundancy in the lexicon and the rule system, the ubiq- uity of recursion in cognition, derivational vs. constraint-based formalisms, the relation between lexical items and grammatical rules, the roles of phonology and semantics in the grammar, the combinatorial character of thought in humans and nonhumans, the interfaces between language, thought, and vision, and the possible course of evolution of the language faculty. In each of these areas, the parallel architecture offers a superior account both of the linguistic facts and of the rela- tion of language to the rest of the mind/brain.* Keywords: narrow faculty of language, recursion, parallel architecture, Merge, Unification, lexi- con, consciousness, evolution 1. ISSUES FOR LINGUISTIC THEORY. The human language faculty is a cognitive capacity shared by all normal humans but no other species on the planet. Addressing its charac- ter scientifically involves engaging (at least) three issues. The first two have been themes of generative grammar for fifty years; the third has become more prominent in the past two decades.
    [Show full text]
  • Differential Effects of Unilateral Lesions on Language Production in Children and Adults
    Brain and Language 79, 223±265 (2001) doi:10.1006/brln.2001.2482, available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on Differential Effects of Unilateral Lesions on Language Production in Children and Adults Elizabeth Bates University of California, San Diego Judy Reilly San Diego State University Beverly Wulfeck San Diego State University and University of California, San Diego Nina Dronkers VA Northern California Health System, Audiology & Speech Pathology Meiti Opie University of California, San Diego Judi Fenson, Sarah Kriz, and Rita Jeffries San Diego State University LaRae Miller and Kathryn Herbst University of California, San Diego We present the ®rst direct comparison of language production in brain-injured children and adults, using age-corrected z scores for multiple lexical and grammatical measures. Spontan- eous speech samples were elicited in a structured biographical interview from 38 children (5±8 years of age), 24 with congenital left-hemisphere damage (LHD) and 14 with congenital right-hemisphere damage (RHD), compared with 38 age- and gender-matched controls, 21 adults with unilateral injuries (14 LHD and 7 RHD), and 12 adult controls. Adults with LHD showed severe and contrasting pro®les of impairment across all measures (including classic differences between ¯uent and non¯uent aphasia). Adults with RHD (and three nonaphasic adults with LHD) showed ¯uent but disinhibited and sometimes empty speech. None of these Address correspondence and reprint requests to Elizabeth Bates, Center for Research in Language 0526, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0526. Fax: 858-534-6788. E-mail: [email protected]. Support for the research reported here has been provided by the following grants to Elizabeth Bates: NIH/NIDCD 2 R01 DC00216 (Crosslinguistic Studies in Aphasia), NIH/NINDS P50 NS-22343 (Center for the Study of the Neurological Basis of Language and Learning), and NIH/NIDCD Program Project P50 DC01289-0351 (Origins of Communication Disorders).
    [Show full text]
  • The Emergence of Competing Modules in Bilingualism
    The emergence of competing modules in bilingualism Arturo Hernandez 1, Ping Li 2 and Brian MacWhinney 3 1Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204, USA 2Department of Psychology, University of Richmond, Richmond, VA 23173, USA 3Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA In Trends in Cognitive Sciences Vol. 9 No. 5 May 2005 pp. 220-225 How does the brain manage to store and process depends on prosodic differences. If the languages are as multiple languages without encountering massive inter- close in prosodic and segmental structure as, for example, ference and transfer? Unless we believe that bilinguals Castilian and Catalan [6] then it will take children a few live in two totally unconnected cognitive worlds, we more months to pick up the specific segmental differences would expect far more transfer than actually occurs. that separate the two languages. By the time they begin However, imaging and lesion studies have not provided producing their first words, bilingual children have spent consistent evidence for the strict neuronal separation at least 16 months learning to segment the speech stream predicted by the theory of modularity. We suggest that [7] and differentiate between the two languages. During emergentist theory offers a promising alternative. It this long preverbal period, we see the emergence of emphasizes the competitive interplay between multiple weakly separated modules to process the two incoming languages during childhood and by focusing on the dual speech streams. action of competition and entrenchment, avoids the The child’s first words demonstrate a great deal of need to invoke a critical period to account for age of phonological interaction between these still rather labile acquisition effects in second-language learning.
    [Show full text]
  • Opportunistic Processing of Language
    Language Sciences 57 (2016) 34–48 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Language Sciences journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/langsci Opportunistic processing of language J. Carlos Acuña-Fariña* Department of English and German, Facultad de Filología, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Coruña, Spain article info abstract Article history: This paper is an attempt to tackle the idea of opportunism in language processing seriously Received 22 January 2015 – and its implications for language theory if one is to avoid what Poeppel and Embick Received in revised form 24 May 2016 (2005) call “interdisciplinary cross-sterilization”, that is the failure of linguistics and Accepted 24 May 2016 psycholinguistics to communicate with each other. It is also an attempt to force a deeper Available online 28 June 2016 reflection on 1) the shape of a viable and useful theory of language, and 2) the relation between (and respective place of) linguistics and experimental psycholinguistics in the Keywords: study of language. Towards that, I review a number of psycholinguistic findings with a Syntactic processing ‘ ’ Incremental view to showing how routinely parsers opt for opportunistic (as opposed to elegant ) Opportunism wayouts from processing dilemmas. Most of the evidence reviewed involves research of a cross-linguistic type, the common thread being that different languages resort to different solutions to the same processing problems, even when a unitary solution to at least many of these problems would be computationally within easy reach. The main purpose of this review is to provide a quantitatively suggestive account of how massively opportunism works in setting processing biases.
    [Show full text]