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Showing 1 to 20 of 28 for “"Universal grammar"”.
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Reindexing and some asymmetries in Universal Grammar
The goal of the present study is to explore Chomsky's proposal in Barriers (Chomsky (1986a)) that the ECP can be reduced to a single condition, namely, antecedent government, by examining some asymmetries, such as subject/object asymmetries, superiority effects, and that-trace effects. I claim that …
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Universal Grammar Parameter-Setting Model Revisited: Korean Learners' Acquisition of English Anaphora
Under the rubric of Universal Grammar, researchers have attempted to use the Parameter-Setting Model to explain the intricate nature of adult second language acquisition. This dissertation investigates the validity of applying the Subset Principle in second language contexts by examining Korean …
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Universal grammar and syntactic development in children : toward a theory of syntactic development
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, 1981.
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The Universal Grammar of the Laws of War: A Theory of Moral Discourse and International Norms
… I argue that the laws of war are rooted in a universal moral psychology, or what some theorists call a “universal grammar” of moral discourse. Importantly, this argument implies that the development of modern humanitarian laws and human rights norms was in some sense inevitable: although …
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The sensitive period for second language acquisition: An experimental study of age effects on universal grammar and language transfer
… were developed within the framework of the Universal Grammar Theory of Principles and Parameters. Thus sentences were constructed to test the subjects' knowledge on the Subjacency Principle and the Binding Principle for Anaphors in English.
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Universal Grammar and the Subset Principle in second language acquisition: The acquisition of the Governing Category Parameter by adult Korean learners of English
This study investigates the effects of Universal Grammar and the Subset Principle in second language acquisition. The phenomenon investigated was the acquisition of English reflexives by adult Korean learners of English. Wexler and Manzini (1987) propose the Governing Category Parameter for which …
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The fundamental difference between child and adult language acquisition: a longitudinal, naturalistic study of parameter resetting in Swedish interlanguage
This study addresses the question of Universal Grammar availability in second language acquisition within the framework of Bley-Vroman’s Fundamental Difference Hypothesis, contributing new empirical evidence from learners of Swedish. Johnson and Newport (1989) showed a strong negative correlation …
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Warlpiri : theoretical implications
… determining the possible range of variation in Universal Grammar. This dissertation investigates this issue in the context of Warlpiri, the prototypical non-configurational language. I argue that positing a macroparameter, a single parameter that distinguishes configurational languages from …
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Underspecification in Korean Phonology (Morphology)
… an unordered set of all the features supplied by universal grammar. By eliminating redundant features from underlying representation and specifying only unpredictable features, underspecification system constrains possible types of phonological processes in a given grammar.
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Givenness, focus, and prosody
… is the representation of givenness and focus in Universal Grammar. A phrase may raise out of the complement of G to its specifier, either overtly as in Hungarian, or covertly at LF.
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Elements of number theory
… language of Oklahoma. The central claim is that Universal Grammar provides three number features, concerned with unithood, existence of homogeneous subsets, and properties of those subsets. The features are used to analyze a wide variety of data. Semantic topics include the difference between …
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Word order and information structure in Romeyka: A syntax and semantics interface account of order in a minimalist system
… the syntax and semantics interface. Generative Grammar is the study of linguistic capacity as a component of human cognition. As such, Generative Grammar has made significant progress in identifying some of the computational mechanisms that distinguish man from animals; the basic tenet is that …
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Non-finite Complementation: A case study of Bùlì
… While the main concern of the dissertation is Universal Grammar (UG) and linguistic typology, I have, in the discussions, provided a substantial amount of descriptive as well as analytical material concerning these aspects of the grammar of Bùlì. The main claim of the dissertation is that …
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The Acquisition of Morphosyntactic Properties of English Compounding and Transitivity Alternations by L1 Speakers of Libyan Arabic
… language (L1) transfer into their L2 mental grammars, the extent to which L2 learners’ mental grammars are constrained by an innate language faculty (Universal Grammar (UG)), and the nature of the development of grammatical knowledge. Much of the evidence bearing on these topics has come from …
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A study of agrammatism with special reference to Hebrew
… that in agrammatism it is not the principles of Universal Grammar that are violated but the particular features of individual languages.
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Propositional attitudes and indexicality : a cross categorial approach
Universal Grammar uses the same distinctions (features) and the same interpretive procedures for reference to individuals, times, and possible worlds. We give a partial argument for this hypothesis: person, tense and (maybe) mood can be treated on a par when they occur in reported speech. We …
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Investigations of covert phrase movement
The status of covert movement in Universal Grammar has been a perennial source of trouble in the study of language. What kinds of structures does it derive? To what extent is it similar to overt movement? What is its place in the overall architecture of the grammar? In this thesis I present several …
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The perception and practice of silence in Australian and Jordanian societies : a socio-pragmatic study
… in social settings. This assumption supports the Universal Grammar of socio-pragmatic practice of silence in interpersonal communication. The results of the study contribute to an understanding of the perception and practice of silence in both societies. Practical suggestions for interpreting …
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Scientific laws and causality in the philosophy of second language acquisition: A neo-Aristotelian approach
… visible in the application of Chomsky’s Universal Grammar to SLA (e.g., White, 1989, 2003, 2007) and in Doughty and Long’s (2003) call for SLA to abide under the same disciplinary roof as cognitive science (see also Gregg, 2003). But cognitivism in SLA has not gone unchallenged. Block …
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