The Frequency–Grammar Interface
Rules and regularities in first and second languages
Author
e-Book – Ordering information
ISBN 9789027246578 | EUR 120.00
| USD 156.00
Speakers and learners, based on memory and experience, implicitly know that certain language elements naturally pair together. However, they also understand, through abstract and frequency-independent categories, why some combinations are possible and others are not. The frequency-grammar interface (FGI) bridges these two types of information in human cognition. Due to this interface, the sediment of statistical calculations over the order, distribution, and associations of items (the regularities) and the computation over the abstract principles that allow these items to join together (the rules) are brought together in a speaker’s competence, feeding into one another and eventually becoming superposed. In this volume, it is argued that a specific subset of both first and second language grammar (termed ‘combinatorial grammar’) is both innate and learned. While not derived from language usage, combinatorial grammar is continuously recalibrated by usage throughout a speaker’s life. In the domain of combinatorial grammar, both generative and usage-based theories are correct, each shedding light on just one component of the two that are necessary for any language to function: rules and regularities.
[Bilingual Processing and Acquisition, 20] Expected December 2024. xii, 228 pp. + index
Publishing status: In production
© John Benjamins
Table of Contents
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List of abbreviations | pp. xi–xii
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Introduction | pp. 1–3
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Chapter 1. The frequency-grammar interface | pp. 4–36
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Chapter 2. The background | pp. 37–75
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Chapter 3. Rules and regularities | pp. 76–101
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Chapter 4. At the interface | pp. 102–119
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Chapter 5. The domain | pp. 120–136
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Chapter 6. The frequency grammar interface in second language acquisition | pp. 137–158
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Chapter 7. Superposition of frequency and grammar in a second language: A longitudinal eye-tracking study | pp. 159–188
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Chapter 8. Summary and implications | pp. 189–194
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References | pp. 195–222
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Index | pp. 223–227
Subjects
Main BIC Subject
CFDM: Bilingualism & multilingualism
Main BISAC Subject
LAN009070: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / Psycholinguistics / Language Acquisition