Sat, 26 Jul 2008 03:10:09 BST CiteULike: briordan japanese http://www.citeulike.org/user/briordan/tag/japanese CiteULike.org en-gb Copyright © 2004-2008 citeulike.org http://www.citeulike.org/user/briordan/article/2941819 <i>Language Acquisition, Vol. 15, No. 3. (2008), pp. 183-191.</i><br /><br />The acquisition of word order has been one of the central issues in the study of child language. One striking finding from the detailed investigation of various child languages is that from the earliest observable stages, children are highly sensitive to the basic word order of their target language. However, the evidence so far comes mainly from the acquisition of rigid word-order languages. In light of this background, this study presents new evidence that such early sensitivity to basic word order can be observed even in the acquisition of Japanese, a free word-order language. Early Acquisition of Basic Word Order in Japanese Koji Sugisaki doi:10.1080/10489220802142441 Language Acquisition, Vol. 15, No. 3. (2008), pp. 183-191. 2008-06-29T16:01:26-00:00 2008 Language Acquisition 15 3 183 191 Psychology Press japanese statistical-learning syntactic-acquisition http://www.citeulike.org/user/briordan/article/2923343 <i>Cognitive Psychology, Vol. 57, No. 1. (August 2008), pp. 56-74.</i><br /><br />Learning word order is one of the earliest feats infants accomplish during language acquisition [Brown, R. (1973). A first language: The early stages, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.]. Two theories have been proposed to account for this fact. Constructivist/lexicalist theories [Tomasello, M. (2000). Do young children have adult syntactic competence? Cognition, 74(3), 209-253.] argue that word order is learned separately for each lexical item or construction. Generativist theories [Chomsky, N. (1995). The Minimalist Program. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.], on the other hand, claim that word order is an abstract and general property, determined from the input independently of individual words. Here, we show that eight-month-old Japanese and Italian infants have opposite order preferences in an artificial grammar experiment, mirroring the opposite word orders of their respective native languages. This suggests that infants possess some representation of word order prelexically, arguing for the generativist view. We propose a frequency-based bootstrapping mechanism to account for our results, arguing that infants might build this representation by tracking the order of functors and content words, identified through their different frequency distributions. We investigate frequency and word order patterns in infant-directed Japanese and Italian corpora to support this claim. Bootstrapping word order in prelexical infants: A Japanese-Italian cross-linguistic study Judit Gervain Marina Nespor Reiko Mazuka Ryota Horie Jacques Mehler doi:10.1016/j.cogpsych.2007.12.001 Cognitive Psychology, Vol. 57, No. 1. (August 2008), pp. 56-74. 2008-06-24T10:59:35-00:00 2008 Cognitive Psychology 57 1 56 74 japanese syntactic-acquisition word-learning http://www.citeulike.org/user/briordan/article/2923333 <i>(2008)</i> Language and Education in Japan: Unequal Access to Bilingualism Yasuko Kanno (2008) 2008-06-24T10:54:29-00:00 2008 Palgrave Macmillan bilingualism japanese http://www.citeulike.org/user/briordan/article/2859050 <i>NeuroReport, Vol. 19, No. 11. (2008), pp. 915-919.</i> A functional near-infrared spectroscopy study on the basic word order in Japanese Yukika Nishimura Koji Sugisaki Noriko Hattori Yasushi Inokuchi Yoshihiro Nishimura Mariko Ogawa Motohiro Okada Yuji Okazaki Waro Taki Tetsuro Yamamoto Etsuko Yoshida Seiki Ayano NeuroReport, Vol. 19, No. 11. (2008), pp. 915-919. 2008-06-03T13:13:01-00:00 2008 NeuroReport 19 11 915 919 japanese optical-imaging http://www.citeulike.org/user/briordan/article/2399450 <i>J. Cogn. Neurosci., Vol. 17, No. 8. (1 August 2005), pp. 1229-1244.</i><br /><br />Several event-related potential (ERP) studies in second language (L2) processing have revealed a differential vulnerability of syntax-related ERP effects in contrast to purely semantic ERP effects. However, it is still debated to what extent a potential critical period for L2 acquisition, as opposed to the attained proficiency level in the L2, contributes to the pattern of results reported in previous ERP studies. We studied L2 processing within the model of a miniature version of a natural language, namely Japanese, specifically constructed to assure high proficiency of the learners. In an auditory ERP experiment, we investigated sentence processing of the "Mini-Japanese" in Japanese native speakers and German volunteers before and after training. By making use of three different types of violation, namely, word category, case, and classifier violations, native and nonnative ERP patterns were compared. The three types of violation elicited three characteristic ERP patterns in Japanese native speakers. The word category violation elicited an anteriorly focused, broadly distributed early negativity followed by a P600, whereas the case violation evoked a P600 which was preceded by an N400. The classifier violation led solely to a late left distributed negativity with an anterior focus. Although the P600 was similar for Japanese natives and learners, the N400 and the anterior negativities were not present in the learner group. The differences across groups suggest deviant neural processes in on-line syntactic and thematic processing in the L2 learners despite high behavioral skills. Native and Nonnative Speakers' Processing of a Miniature Version of Japanese as Revealed by ERPs Jutta Mueller Anja Hahne Yugo Fujii Angela Friederici J. Cogn. Neurosci., Vol. 17, No. 8. (1 August 2005), pp. 1229-1244. 2008-02-19T17:07:16-00:00 2005 J. Cogn. Neurosci. 17 8 1229 1244 artificial-grammars erps japanese statistical-learning syntactic-acquisition http://www.citeulike.org/user/briordan/article/2155756 <i>Applied Psycholinguistics, Vol. 29, No. 01. (2007), pp. 105-123.</i><br /><br />Recent research shows that speakers of languages with obligatory plural marking (English) preferentially categorize objects based on common shape, whereas speakers of nonplural-marking classifier languages (Yucatec and Japanese) preferentially categorize objects based on common material. The current study extends that investigation to the domain of bilingualism. Japanese and English monolinguals, and Japanese–English bilinguals were asked to match novel objects based on either common shape or color. Results showed that English monolinguals selected shape significantly more than Japanese monolinguals, whereas the bilinguals shifted their cognitive preferences as a function of their second language proficiency. The implications of these findings for conceptual representation and cognitive processing in bilinguals are discussed. Language and thought in bilinguals: The case of grammatical number and nonverbal classification preferences Panos Athanasopoulos Chise Kasai doi:10.1017/S0142716408080053 Applied Psycholinguistics, Vol. 29, No. 01. (2007), pp. 105-123. 2007-12-21T15:01:20-00:00 2007 Applied Psycholinguistics 29 01 105 123 bilingualism grammatical-number japanese http://www.citeulike.org/user/briordan/article/1676620 <i>Developmental Science, Vol. 6, No. 1. (2003), pp. 1-17.</i><br /><br />Past research shows that young language learners know something about the different category organizations of animals, objects and substances. The three experiments reported here compare Japanese-speaking and English-speaking children’s novel name generalizations for two kinds of objects: clear instances of artifacts and objects with ambiguous features suggestive of animates. This comparison was motivated by the very different nature of individuation in the two languages and by the boundary shift hypothesis that proposes that entities that straddle the individuation boundary of a language are assimilated toward the individuated side. The results of the three experiments support the hypothesis. An explanation in terms of mutually reinforcing correlations among language, perceptual properties and category structure is proposed. Shifting ontological boundaries: How Japanese- and English-Speaking children generalize names for animals and artifacts Hanako Yoshida Linda Smith Developmental Science, Vol. 6, No. 1. (2003), pp. 1-17. 2007-09-19T17:25:42-00:00 2003 Developmental Science 6 1 1 17 cross-situational japanese word-learning