One of the great puzzles of language acquisition has been described as poverty of the stimulus: how are complex aspects of language acquired when they appear to be rare or even non-occurring in the input that a learner receives and comprehends? This article presents an emergentist solution to one aspect of this puzzle (involving relative clauses) by examining the longitudinal development of meaningful discourse produced by Ana, a 12-year-old Spanish learner of English. Relative clause constructions are considered in terms of learnable, non-abstract linguistic analyses (lexicalist signs and constructions; dependencies), informed by emergentist syntax (O'Grady 2005), analyses within Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (Sag 1997), and a comprehensive corpus grammar (Biber et al. 1999). The data show that complex aspects of language gradually emerged from item-based and compositional learning processes that interacted with the learner's environment, including input frequency and the functional purposes for which language is used. Item-based, sign-based, and compositional analyses of constructions are valuable for syllabus design (for synthetic syllabi) and for the evaluation of language proficiency (i.e. testing and measurement).
%0 Journal Article
%1 Mellow2006
%A Mellow, J Dean
%D 2006
%J Applied Linguistics
%K Ling{\"{u}}{\'{\i}}stica Segunda Sintaxis aplicada lengua
%T The Emergence of Second Language Syntax: A Case Study of the Acquisition of Relative Clauses
%U http://ejournals.ebsco.com/direct.asp?ArticleID=4EA09F60011A75022F14
%V 27
%X One of the great puzzles of language acquisition has been described as poverty of the stimulus: how are complex aspects of language acquired when they appear to be rare or even non-occurring in the input that a learner receives and comprehends? This article presents an emergentist solution to one aspect of this puzzle (involving relative clauses) by examining the longitudinal development of meaningful discourse produced by Ana, a 12-year-old Spanish learner of English. Relative clause constructions are considered in terms of learnable, non-abstract linguistic analyses (lexicalist signs and constructions; dependencies), informed by emergentist syntax (O'Grady 2005), analyses within Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (Sag 1997), and a comprehensive corpus grammar (Biber et al. 1999). The data show that complex aspects of language gradually emerged from item-based and compositional learning processes that interacted with the learner's environment, including input frequency and the functional purposes for which language is used. Item-based, sign-based, and compositional analyses of constructions are valuable for syllabus design (for synthetic syllabi) and for the evaluation of language proficiency (i.e. testing and measurement).
%Z Language: eng
@article{Mellow2006,
abstract = {One of the great puzzles of language acquisition has been described as poverty of the stimulus: how are complex aspects of language acquired when they appear to be rare or even non-occurring in the input that a learner receives and comprehends? This article presents an emergentist solution to one aspect of this puzzle (involving relative clauses) by examining the longitudinal development of meaningful discourse produced by Ana, a 12-year-old Spanish learner of English. Relative clause constructions are considered in terms of learnable, non-abstract linguistic analyses (lexicalist signs and constructions; dependencies), informed by emergentist syntax (O'Grady 2005), analyses within Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (Sag 1997), and a comprehensive corpus grammar (Biber et al. 1999). The data show that complex aspects of language gradually emerged from item-based and compositional learning processes that interacted with the learner's environment, including input frequency and the functional purposes for which language is used. Item-based, sign-based, and compositional analyses of constructions are valuable for syllabus design (for synthetic syllabi) and for the evaluation of language proficiency (i.e. testing and measurement).},
added-at = {2015-12-01T11:35:13.000+0100},
annote = {Language: eng},
author = {Mellow, J Dean},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/2784d31411ed93e8795253c637a95988b/sofiagruiz92},
interhash = {d632e67dde3333b8244c77b8d7c9f1ca},
intrahash = {784d31411ed93e8795253c637a95988b},
journal = {Applied Linguistics},
keywords = {Ling{\"{u}}{\'{\i}}stica Segunda Sintaxis aplicada lengua},
language = {eng},
timestamp = {2015-12-01T11:35:13.000+0100},
title = {{The Emergence of Second Language Syntax: A Case Study of the Acquisition of Relative Clauses}},
url = {http://ejournals.ebsco.com/direct.asp?ArticleID=4EA09F60011A75022F14},
volume = 27,
year = 2006
}