Language, Usage and Cognition

Abstract

Language demonstrates structure while also showing considerable variation at all levels: languages differ from one another while still being shaped by the same principles; utterances within a language differ from one another while exhibiting the same structural patterns; languages change over time, but in fairly regular ways. This book focuses on the dynamic processes that create languages and give them their structure and variance. It outlines a theory of language that addresses the nature of grammar, taking into account its variance and gradience, and seeks explanation in terms of the recurrent processes that operate in language use. The evidence is based on the study of large corpora of spoken and written language, what we know about how languages change, as well as the results of experiments with language users. The result is an integrated theory of language use and language change which has implications for cognitive processing and language evolution.

The Generative Approach to Sla and Its Place in Modern Second Language Studies

“…Such findings and others like it are suggestive of access to universal grammatical principles (e.g., Dekydtspotter, Sprouse, & Anderson, 1998;Dekydtspotter, Sprouse, & Swanson, 2001;Hopp, 2005 In principle, it should be relatively easy to disprove claims of a logical problem: Show that there are no instances of PoS or, when it is agreed by all that input alone is insufficient to explain resulting competence, that the grammatical knowledge in question falls out straightforwardly from domain general cognition and/or processing principles. That there is no logical problem has been argued rather extensively (e.g., Bybee, 2010;Evans, 2014;Gerken, Wilson, & Lewis, 2005;Goldberg, 2013;Gries, 2012;O'Grady, 2005;Redington, Charter, & Finch, 1998;Tomasello, 2003). No cognitive-based theory denies the reality of low or even zero input frequencies, that is, properties and constructions that appear rarely or not at all in the input.…”

A Socio-morphological Study of Selected Egyptian Place Names with Special Reference to Booij's Construction Morphology

“…In order to develop a coherent morphological analysis of a language, the diachronic aspect of that language should be taken into consideration, as diachronic changes allow for deeper comprehension of the basis of language (Bybee, 2010). The study follows a synchronic-diachronic approach.…”

The variable effect of form and lemma frequencies on phonetic variation: Evidence from /s/ realization in two varieties of Colombian Spanish

“…This suggests that the frequency information stored in the exemplar cluster of an individual word has a larger conditioning effect than the frequency information stored with other members in an inflectional paradigm, as transmitted through associative networks (Bybee 1985(Bybee , 2010. Consequently, even though there may exist an effect exerted by the frequency of other words in a paradigm, that is by lemma frequency, the influence of the frequency information stored with individual words, that is form frequency, appears to be more important.…”