{"id":847,"date":"2009-09-14T05:00:55","date_gmt":"2009-09-14T09:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/whamit.mit.edu\/?p=847"},"modified":"2009-09-13T17:09:12","modified_gmt":"2009-09-13T21:09:12","slug":"24-921-language-acquisition-variation-and-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/2009\/09\/14\/24-921-language-acquisition-variation-and-change\/","title":{"rendered":"24.921: Language acquisition, variation and change"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><P>Language acquisition, variation and change<BR><br clear='none'\/>\n24.921, Fall 2009<BR><br clear='none'\/>\nMichel DeGraff and Ken Wexler<\/P><\/p>\n<p><P>There&#8217;s a long and strong tradition, going back to at least the<br clear='none'\/>\nNeo-Grammarians, of attempting to explain language change via the<br clear='none'\/>\nprocesses of language acquisition.  Yet, in each of the relevant<br clear='none'\/>\nsub-disciplines of linguistic theory, historical linguistics and<br clear='none'\/>\nlanguage-acquisition research there are several competing hypotheses<br clear='none'\/>\nthat enlist incompatible assumptions about the nature of grammar and<br clear='none'\/>\nvariation.<\/P><\/p>\n<p><P>The purpose of this seminar is to discuss the most up-to-date<br clear='none'\/>\napproaches in the study of language acquisition and language change,<br clear='none'\/>\nas well as linguistic theory, toward providing the best possible<br clear='none'\/>\nframework for the connection among the corresponding empirical<br clear='none'\/>\ndomains.  We understand &#8220;language change&#8221; broadly&#8212;-to include<br clear='none'\/>\ndiachronic syntax (in the history, say, of English) alongside the<br clear='none'\/>\ncreation of &#8220;new&#8221; languages (in the history of, say, Haitian Creole).<br clear='none'\/>\nWe&#8217;ll examine all of these diachronic patterns as examples of the<br clear='none'\/>\nhuman linguistic capacity coming to terms with varying input in the<br clear='none'\/>\nlinguistic ecology.  Thus, processes of first- and second-language<br clear='none'\/>\nacquisition, and the differences between the two, should be crucial to<br clear='none'\/>\nunderstanding language-change phenomena.  The results of our<br clear='none'\/>\ndiscussion should contribute to our understanding of the nature of<br clear='none'\/>\nlanguage in the human mind and the conditions and limits whereby<br clear='none'\/>\nlanguage can vary.<\/P><\/p>\n<p><P>The first couple of lectures will discuss central issues in, and a sample<br clear='none'\/>\nof models from, the study of historical change and language<br clear='none'\/>\nacquisition, including:<\/P><br clear='none'\/>\n<UL><br clear='none'\/>\n<LI>the relationship between language contact and language change;<\/LI><br clear='none'\/>\n<LI>whether language change is ever possible in absence of language<br clear='none'\/>\n contact;<\/LI><br clear='none'\/>\n<LI>the nature of &#8220;creolization&#8221;;<\/LI><br clear='none'\/>\n<LI>the relationship between first- and second-language acquisition and<br clear='none'\/>\n language change;<\/LI><br clear='none'\/>\n<LI>whether the language acquirer comes equipped with a set of &#8220;cues&#8221;<br clear='none'\/>\n that enable parameters to be set.<\/LI><br clear='none'\/>\n<\/UL><\/p>\n<p><P>Then we&#8217;ll turn to particular domains of language variation related to<br clear='none'\/>\nbasic parameters of clause and nominal structure, possibly including<br clear='none'\/>\nthe following issues:<\/P><br clear='none'\/>\n<UL><br clear='none'\/>\n<LI>Does the language have V-to-I? Yes: French \/ No: Haitian Creole<\/LI><br clear='none'\/>\n<LI>Does the language have (non-residual) V-to-C? Yes: German \/ No: English<\/LI><br clear='none'\/>\n<LI>Is a (phonetically overt) copula required for non-verbal<br clear='none'\/>\n predication? Yes: English \/ No: Haitian Creole<\/LI><br clear='none'\/>\n<LI>Distribution and interpretation of determiners<\/LI><br clear='none'\/>\n<\/UL><\/p>\n<p><P>For each of these domains we&#8217;ll look for evidence in comparative<br clear='none'\/>\nsyntax, historical change, and language acquisition.<\/P><\/p>\n<p><P>We expect the seminar to be of interest to colleagues interested in:<\/P><br clear='none'\/>\n<UL><br clear='none'\/>\n<LI>linguistic theory;<\/LI><br clear='none'\/>\n<LI>first- and second-language acquisition;<\/LI><br clear='none'\/>\n<LI>language change\/creation;<\/LI><br clear='none'\/>\n<LI>the relationship between language and larger issues of cognition.<\/LI><br clear='none'\/>\n<\/UL><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Language acquisition, variation and change 24.921, Fall 2009 Michel DeGraff and Ken Wexler There&#8217;s a long and strong tradition, going back to at least the Neo-Grammarians, of attempting to explain language change via the processes of language acquisition. Yet, in each of the relevant sub-disciplines of linguistic theory, historical linguistics and language-acquisition research there are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-classes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=847"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":878,"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847\/revisions\/878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}