In:The Frequency–Grammar Interface: Rules and regularities in first and second languages
Stefano Rastelli
[Bilingual Processing and Acquisition 20] 2024
► pp. v–x
Published online: 29 August 2024
https://doi.org/10.1075/bpa.20.toc
https://doi.org/10.1075/bpa.20.toc
Table of contents
List of abbreviations
Introduction
Chapter 1.The frequency-grammar interface
1.1What’s in this chapter
1.2What the FGI is and what it does
1.3Interaction at the FGI and its consequences
1.4The theory of snowflakes
1.5The FGI amid a tidal change in language theory
1.6The FGI and the ‘three factors in language design’
1.7The reunification of the discipline
1.8The FGI is an interface
1.9Statistical information concerns regularities in the input
1.10Grammatical information concerns abstract labels
1.11Two examples of abstract labels in Italian
1.12Statistical information reprograms grammatical information
1.13The neural basis of reprogramming the grammar
1.14The information the FGI deals with is redundant
1.15The information the FGI deals with is implicit
1.16Evidence for the FGI: Predictions in language processing
1.16.1Patterns, rules and speakers’ expectations
1.16.2The electrophysiology of language predictions
1.16.3Negativities appearing within the 400–600 ms window
from the critical word onset
from the critical word onset
1.16.4The Sustained Anterior Negativity indexes the cognitive costs
of expectations
of expectations
1.16.5To sum up: Expectations are formed upon a speaker’s repeated exposure and language use
1.17Evidence for the FGI: The coexistence of the lexical and phonological route in reading
1.18To sum up
Chapter 2.The background
2.1What’s in this chapter
2.2Resetting the scene
2.3The ‘words and rules’ paradigm in the 1990s and its evolution
2.4Unifying statistics and grammar
2.5Storage and computation within the faculty of language
2.6The FL hosts a separate statistical component
2.7Three ways for frequency and grammar to coexist in the FL
2.8The tolerance principle
2.9Nature meets nurture
2.10Necessity and probability in language
2.11Non-generative theories concerning the frequency-grammar interaction
2.12Coexistence and simultaneity of syntagmatic and paradigmatic relationships
2.13Entrenchment and representational redundancy in cognitive linguistics
2.14Entrenchment in diachrony: Broken grammaticalization
2.15Statistics and the grammar in the acquisition of an artificial language
2.16Sequence-based and rule-based dependencies in artificial languages
2.17The role of Broca’s area in sequential and nonsequential processing
2.18Type-frequency and grammatical learning
2.19‘Good-enough’ processing and syntactic predictions
2.20Frequency and grammar in language acquisition: A general framework
2.21Statistical and grammatical learning in first language
acquisition theories
acquisition theories
2.22The Starting Big approach
2.23The traceback method
2.24SL and GL in second language acquisition (SLA) theories
2.25The developmental shift in ERP studies
2.26Regularity effects in word naming and morphosyntax
2.27Logan’s instance theory of automatization
2.28The dual process model
2.29Sentence grammar and thetical grammar
2.30To sum up
Chapter 3.Rules and regularities
3.1What’s in this chapter
3.2A role for rules
3.3Asymmetric merge
3.4Combine/Concatenation and label
3.5Where is the labeler in a sentence and when does it do its job
in the derivation?
in the derivation?
3.6Which labels are processed at the FGI?
3.7Labels and frequency
3.8An example of frequency-independent labeling: Auxiliary selection in Italian
3.9Auxiliary selection from a regularity-driven perspective
3.10Regularities do not concern isolated items
3.11Statistical information features two kinds of regularity
3.12The statistical information in absentia concerns patterns-of-usage
3.13Statistical information is supported by procedural memory
3.14Linear statistical information: Chunks and chunking
3.15Vertical statistical information: Skewed associations and asymmetric chunks
3.16Asymmetric chunks and contingency learning
3.17Related and unrelated contingency
3.18To sum up
Chapter 4.At the interface
4.1What’s in this chapter
4.2Statistical and grammatical learning at the FGI
4.3A four-step operation
4.3.1Step 1: Inactivated labels
4.3.2Step 2: Building chunks
4.3.3Step 3: Variation sets
4.3.4Step 4: Contingency learning
4.4Labeling takes time
4.5Why variation sets?
4.6Variation sets in language acquisition
4.7Variation sets and frequent frames
4.8Theoretical implications for the use of variation sets
4.9Variation sets and contingency learning of asymmetric chunks
are a perfect match
are a perfect match
4.10To sum up
Chapter 5.The domain
5.1What’s in this chapter
5.2Only combinatorial grammar is regular
5.3Examples of combinatorial grammar
5.4Auxiliary selection in Italian
5.5Adjective position in French
5.6Prepositions in Spanish and English
5.7Aspectual coercion in English
5.8Non-combinatorial grammar
5.8.1Empty categories
5.8.2Constraints
5.8.3Phenomena at the interfaces
5.9Examples of non-combinatorial grammar
5.9.1Null subjects in pro-drop languages
5.9.2Grammatical aspect
5.10To sum up
Chapter 6.The frequency grammar interface in second
language acquisition
language acquisition
6.1What’s in this chapter
6.2The discontinuity model
6.3The shift between statistical and grammatical learning is ordered,
but not gradual
but not gradual
6.4SLA facit saltus (takes a leap)
6.5SL triggers GL in SLA
6.6The discontinuous acquisition of double auxiliary predicates
by L2 Italian learners
by L2 Italian learners
6.7SL precedes GL in SLA
6.8Two predictions for the learnability of L2 morphosyntax
6.9The intra-language
6.10The study of L2 intra-language with ΔP
6.11ΔP longitudinal scores in individual learner data
6.12To sum up
Chapter 7.Superposition of frequency and grammar in a second language: A longitudinal eye-tracking study
7.1What’s in this Chapter
7.2Recap: The FGI in SLA
7.3Recap: Statistical and grammatical pivots in SLA
7.4Can statistical and grammatical learning be distinguished experimentally?
7.5Quasi-superposition in L2 acquisition: Rationale for the eye-tracking study
7.6Eye-tracking
7.7Target-feature and motivation for the study: L2 Aux are often mistaken
7.8Background: Auxiliary knowledge in L1 and L2 Italian
7.9The processing of Aux in L2 Italian
7.9.1Optimal processing of Aux in L2 Italian
7.9.2Non-optimal processing of Aux in L2 Italian
7.10The target feature and the critical zones for reading pattern analysis
7.11Research questions
7.12Methods
7.12.1Participants
7.12.2Materials and design
7.12.3Apparatus
7.12.4Procedure
7.12.5Reading measures
7.12.6Data analysis and experimental variables
7.13Results
7.13.1Accuracy and reaction time
7.13.2Reading patterns
7.14Discussion
7.14.1Summary of findings
7.14.2Responses to research questions
7.14.3Limitations
7.15Conclusions and direction for future research
Chapter 8.Summary and implications
8.1The FGI in short
8.2Combinatorial grammar
8.3Contingency learning connects frequency and grammar
8.4Statistics access grammar
8.5An idea of grammar
8.6Both are right
8.7Superposition
8.8The knowability issue and superposition rules
8.9The bottom line
References
Index
