The Multilingual Mind

Transcription

1 The Multilingual Mind Language lies at the heart of the way we think, communicate, and view the world. Most people on this planet are in some sense multilingual. The Multilingual Mind explores, within a processing perspective, how languages share space and interact in our minds. The mental architecture proposed in this volume permits research across many domains in cognitive science to be integrated and explored within one explanatory framework, recasting compatible insights and findings in terms of a common set of terms and concepts. The MOGUL framework has already proven effective for shedding light on the relationship between processing and learning, metalinguistic knowledge, consciousness, optionality, crosslinguistic influence, the initial state, UG access, ultimate attainment, input enhancement, and even language instruction. This ground-breaking work will be essential reading for linguists working in language acquisition, multilingualism, language processing, and for those working in related areas of psychology, neurology, and cognitive science. michael sharwood smith is Emeritus Professor at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, and Honorary Professorial Fellow at Edinburgh University. He is also the founding editor of the journal, Second Language Research. john truscott is Professor at the National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan, and has extensive experience teaching English as a foreign language, along with classes in linguistics, psychology, and language teaching.

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3 The Multilingual Mind A Modular Processing Perspective Michael Sharwood Smith John Truscott

4 University Printing House, Cambridge CB2 8BS, United Kingdom Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence. Information on this title: / C 2014 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2014 Printed in the United Kingdom by CPI Group Ltd, Croydon CR0 4YY A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Sharwood Smith, Michael, 1942 The multilingual mind : a modular processing perspective / Michael Sharwood Smith, John Truscott. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN (hardback) 1. Multilingualism. I. Title. P115.S dc ISBN Hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

5 To Luke, Noah and Kate, and their future (MSS) To my parents, for everything (JT)

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7 Contents List of figures Preface List of abbreviations page xiii xv xvii 1 Introduction Overview Theories, frameworks, and safety zones Terminological and conceptual traps The pros and cons of compartmentalisation: SLA as a case in point Cross-fertilisation Some MOGUL prehistory MOGUL: the basics The main components Interface systems MOGUL in context An outline of the chapters to follow Chapter summary 25 Part I The framework 2 The language module: architecture and representations Chapter outline Modularity Modularity in general Modularity in language Jackendoff s version of modularity The language module(s) in MOGUL The general architecture Processors Lexical stores MOGUL and the nature of modularity Representations: the locus of language development Representations at SS Syntactic categories and combinations of syntactic categories Functional categories and their feature values I and its features Case items 48 vii

8 viii Contents 2.5 Representations at CS Conceptual role items Conceptual grids Connections among SS, CS, and PS items Words: whole-form vs. decompositional storage/access Beyond subcategorisation frames Functional categories: form and meaning A note on indexes Representations and the notion of knowledge Working memory Research and theory on working memory Working memory in MOGUL Chapter summary 61 3 Processing in the language module Chapter outline Theory and research on processing Processing and linguistic theory Modularity and interaction Competition Incremental processing Activation Dual storage and processing as a race Serial vs. parallel processing Processing in MOGUL Processing and linguistic theory Modularity and interaction Competition Incremental processing Activation Dual storage and processing as a race Serial vs. parallel processing Putting the elements together: the nature of processing activity The process An example Another example: input including a fixed expression Processing as dynamic equilibrium A note on neurological plausibility The place of an L2 in the language module Chapter summary 91 4 Growth of the language module: acquisition by processing Chapter outline Acquisition by processing The logic of APT APT and priming APT and dynamic systems APT and connectionism APT and emergentist approaches APT as a strong claim What is acquired? 102

9 Contents ix Development within a store: representations and their activation levels Development of connections between stores: indexes and their activation levels Conclusion The growth of syntactic structures Syntactic categories and combinations of syntactic categories Functional categories The growth of conceptual structures Conceptual role items Conceptual grids Crosslinguistic variation in conceptual role assignment The growth of some combinations of SS, CS, and PS items Words: whole-form vs. decompositional storage/access Beyond subcategorisation frames Constructions vs. principles and parameters Functional categories Influences of conceptual processing on the growth of SS APT in perspective Hypotheses and rules Principles guiding acquisition APT and working memory Language acquisition outside the language module The role of frequency Chapter summary Beyond the language module Chapter outline The overall architecture of the mind Processors and information stores Perceptual processing units Visual structures (VS) Auditory structures (AS) Perceptual output structures (POpS) Conceptual structures (CS) Affective structures (AfS) Modularity revisited Conclusion The nature of knowledge Non-linguistic knowledge Metalinguistic knowledge Word meaning Orthography The place of emotion in knowledge Growth The growth of non-linguistic knowledge The growth of metalinguistic knowledge The growth of word meaning Orthography The role of emotion Chapter summary 177

10 x Contents Part II Applying the framework 6 The bilingual mind introduced Chapter outline Setting the boundaries Bilingualism: an overview Multiple systems as the norm Language systems in the mind: the differentiation problem Avoiding Babel The Language Tagging Hypothesis The Conceptual Triggering Hypothesis Different types of conceptual trigger Bilingualism and the concept of native speaker Language dominance Language systems in the mind: crosslinguistic influence (CLI) Types of CLI Crosslinguistic influence in MOGUL Code-switching Conscious versus subconscious bilingual processing An overview Metalinguistic abilities in bilinguals Translation Interpreting Language systems in the brain: a neurolinguistic perspective Chapter summary The growth of a second language Chapter outline Studying second language acquisition: central issues First steps Creative construction Krashen s contribution to creative construction theory The UG group Bottleneck, Interfaces, and Interpretability Pienemann s Processability Theory VanPatten s input processing account Carroll s Autonomous Induction Theory The generalists in SLA MOGUL in relation to earlier approaches APT and new languages The growth of phonological and syntactic structures A sketch of PS growth Syntactic categories Subcategorisation frames Functional categories The growth of conceptual structures Case-conceptual role connections Conceptual grids Crosslinguistic variation in conceptual role assignment 239

11 Contents xi 7.6 The growth of some combinations of SS, CS, and PS items Word meaning Words: whole-form vs. decompositional storage/access Beyond subcategorisation frames Functional categories The growth of metalinguistic knowledge Language attrition Chapter summary Consciousness and attention Chapter outline Consciousness The nature and function of consciousness Awareness of knowledge and its development The nature of consciousness in MOGUL POpS and consciousness Affective structures and consciousness Explaining some characteristics of consciousness Conclusion Attention Channels, filters, and limited resources Limited resources and the MOGUL framework Development inside and outside the language module Development and the characteristics of automatic processes The trouble with attention as a theoretical entity Deriving attentional phenomena in the MOGUL framework Chapter summary The role of consciousness in language growth Chapter outline Consciousness and growth of a first language Consciousness and growth of the language module Consciousness and growth of metalinguistic knowledge Consciousness and growth of word meaning Consciousness and growth of orthography Conclusion: consciousness in the growth of language Consciousness and second language acquisition: noticing and understanding The trouble with noticing The MOGUL approach to noticing Noticing vs. global awareness of input Noticing vs. awareness at the level of understanding Noticing and form meaning connections Noticing/understanding and automatic processes Implicit learning revisited Noticing the gap Conclusion Implications for second language instruction Teaching for metalinguistic knowledge and its use in performance 301

12 xii Contents Adjusting learners input Teaching metalinguistic knowledge to help learners adjust their own input Chapter summary Issues in SLA revisited Chapter outline Stages and continua Stages and what s right about them Continua and what s right about them A MOGUL resolution The evidence revisited Conclusion The initial state and crosslinguistic influence The initial state Crosslinguistic influence Optionality The phenomena Optionality in MOGUL Conclusion Ultimate attainment The MOGUL approach to ultimate attainment The case of English past tense forms Optionality as an interface problem A note on individual differences Conclusion Anxiety in second language acquisition Chapter summary Conclusion Chapter outline The challenge revisited MOGUL summarised: the big picture On birds, dogs, apes, and humans More or fewer modules: the case for parsimony Some MOGUL reconceptualisations What is a representation? What is working memory? What is input in MOGUL? What is a lexical item in MOGUL? What is executive function? What is a parsing strategy? What is input enhancement in MOGUL? The MOGUL brain Closing comments 360 References 361 Index 401

13 Figures 1.1 Language broadly defined (version 1). page Language broadly defined (version 2) (a) The tripartite structure of language according to Jackendoff (2002). (b) The tripartite structure of language according to MOGUL Language input as a multiple phenomenon: an example with four separate inputs triggered by environmental stimuli MOGUL architecture The word lamp as a linking of a variety of representations Indexes The representation of tense forms Working memory Processing Ron kicked the football: three different cases An aspect of APT: successive activation of an item in working memory on each occasion raises that item s resting level The development of complex items during processing The interaction of rule-based and memory-based processing: comprehension of kick the ball Cognitive architecture: an example of four linked processing units Generic illustration of a complex representation with labelled connections An example of a structural ring for horse Perceptual Output Structures (POpS) as a combined store The Affective System MOGUL cognitive architecture Perceptual Output Structures as the Global Workspace in MOGUL Affective structures and POpS supporting conscious experience. 259 xiii

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15 Preface This book is the first detailed description of a particular theoretical framework for studying language development and language performance. The framework is called MOGUL (Modular On-line Growth and Use of Language). It has been the topic of numerous publications and presentations since the appearance of our 2004 keynote article in Bilingualism: Language and Cognition. MOGUL is not just about how a language grows in the individual child: it is about how the mind expands to accommodate more than one language both in childhood and later in life and how these various linguistic systems share space and interact. The intended audience is interdisciplinary so the more technical details of, for example linguistic theory, have been avoided where possible or explained so that the book can appeal to a wider audience interested in language, bilingualism and language acquisition including specialists and students at graduate level in linguistics, psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, and cognitive psychology. A detailed MOGUL glossary is currently available at the following website: /sharwoodsmith truscott. This book draws together insights from a number of related fields in cognitive science to provide an overall cross-disciplinary big picture perspective within which research in separate research domains can be viewed and re-evaluated. In demonstrating how the framework may be used it also makes a number of specific claims about the growth and use of languages. The work of Ray Jackendoff has been a major inspiration and starting point, although his views are developed and interpreted here in a number of ways peculiar to the MOGUL framework. Our aim has been to set out in some detail what may be the first explicit representational account of exactly how languages develop in the mind of an individual millisecond by millisecond as well as month by month in response to exposure to utterances in the environment. It is an on-line processing-based account that is broadly compatible with logical explanations in the generative linguistics literature which focus on the properties of developmental grammars at different stages and not how they actually change over time. In other words, this is a symbolic representational account as well as a processing one. xv

16 xvi Preface MOGUL, as set out in this book, is definitely unfinished business. Its future depends in large measure on its usefulness to the disciplines to which it seeks to contribute. To the extent that it has already got somewhere interesting, we can attribute its value to a mixture of serendipity and the valuable help we have received along the way from friends, students, colleagues, and also anonymous reviewers both of this book and of the various MOGUL-related publications that have appeared since In particular, we are grateful for the help and encouragement we have received from many friends, colleagues, and students, including members of the Developmental Linguistics group at Edinburgh University, but particularly to Harald Clahsen, Ray Jackendoff, Donna Lardiere, William O Grady, Monika Schmid, Ianthi Tsimpli, Paul van Buren, Melinda Whong, and Bill VanPatten. In all fairness we should include in our acknowledgements the inspirational city of Edinburgh itself, which might well be regarded as the home of MOGUL (MOGUL s midwife!), but not forgetting its MOGUL sister, Hsinchu in Taiwan, and the much travelled digital highway that links these two cities. Much of the work on this book was done during two research leaves that Truscott spent in Edinburgh, allowing us to go beyond the inevitable limitations of the digital highway. We wish to thank National Tsing Hua University for these opportunities. Last but definitely not least very special thanks are due to Ewa for her support and infinite patience with this long-lasting and time-consuming project.

17 Abbreviations AfS: Affective structure(s) APT: Acquisition by Processing Theory AS: Auditory structure(s) CLI: Crosslinguistic influence CS: Conceptual structure(s) GS: Gustatory structure(s) GW: Global workspace L1: A first language L2: Any language learned after the first language L2A (also SLA): Second language acquisition LTM: Long-term memory MS: Motor structure(s) OfS: Olfactory structure(s) POpS: Perceptual output structure(s) PS: Phonological structure(s) PU: Processing unit SLA (also L2A): Second language acquisition SmS: Somatosensory structure(s) SS: Syntactic structure(s) UG: Universal Grammar VS: Visual structure(s) WM: Working memory A glossary of MOGUL terms, concepts and notation may be found at: /sharwoodsmith truscott xvii