sound to meaning correspondences facilitate word learning

Nygaard et al. 2009

1. This article appears to fall into the processing theories category of cognitive approaches to SLA. While most cognitive theorists are concerned with transition theories and this one (I think) is driven by property theory, the authors of this article assume that language ability is innate and also that processing time will decrease as practice increases. These assumptions are central to processing theories of cognition.

2. The article addresses property theory because it challenges an assumption about the nature of natural language—that the sound-symbol relationship is arbitrary—and is not primarily concerned with how people acquire language. The authors do note that sensitivity to cross-linguistic sound symbols can facilitate language learning, but they are actually focused more on what this means in terms of the nature of human languages.

3. I find the entire article fascinating and inherently significant. Challenging long-held assumptions is always important and this study introduces a very mysterious phenomenon. It reminds me of those studies that try to show that people have some ESP. It sends a chill down my spine. This is a great article.

Checking Theory and the Dative Subject Constructions in Japanese and Korean

hiroyuki ura

Goes over how dative constructions display subjecthood, and also how in some respects they do not seem to be subjects.

He (or she?) refers to Chomsky often. He never conclusively says whether or not dative subject constructions are really dative subjects or not.

Words in Context: A Japanese perspective on language and culture

takao suzuki

The book includes an contrastive lexical study of the English lip and the Japanese kuchibiru: In Japanese, you cannot say "hair grew on her lip" because kuchibiru does not encompass the skin above the lip. Lip does not equal kuchibiru.

He discusses covert and overt culture: rice is eaten in both Japan and Italy, but it holds a different place in both places. Its cultural role differs, though the substance is almost the same.

Suzuki discusses how unwanted dogs are killed by their English masters, but the Japanese usually abandon them. He attributes this to differing ideas of man's control over nature. He says the English control their dogs utterly, up to and including their lives. He says the Japanese do not think they control dogs at all.

Kinship terms and self- and other- referents in Japanese are also discussed. He says that Indo-European languages are self-oriented: I am me no matter the circumstance. Japanese (and, I think, other honorific languages) is other-oriented: the speaker cannot express his views unless he can locate the other in a social hierarchy. He says that the Japanese are not accomplished lanaguge-learners because of this other-orientation. It makes them loathe to express their opinions without knowing the addressee's opinion.

He builds up to this argument using the facts that kinship terms are used fictively (calling a stranger "Uncle" or "Big Brother" AND a wife calling her husband "Father") in ways not possible in English. Personal pronouns are generally avoided.

"man does not use words to describe things which exist in the objective world; rather words, which reflect a particular view of the world or a specific way of dissecting, make us feel as though objects with such characteristics and properties actually exist." 54

linguistic rituals for thanking in japanese: balancing obligations

jun ohashi

"The data of this investigation are naturally ocurring telephone conversations which took place in the Japanese enf-of-year gift-giving seaosn, seibo."

"This study reveals that conversational participants cooperate to achieve a mutual pragmatic goal of 'debt-credit equilibrium'."

"o-rei does not free the debtor form debt."

"the mutual and reciprocal aspects need to be taken into account."

"The norm of reciprocity--the social obligation to reciprocate benefits to one another--is claimed to be universal (Goulder, 1960)..."

"THe social goal of reciprocity is not debtless or creditless state in social relationship, but the continuation of the relationship."

rei can mean politness/social hierarchy or a bow

"'the giver and the thanker collabortate in the development of a successful thanking episode' (Eisenstein and Bodman, 1993: 74)"

"were also told that any conversations they had reservations about presenting to the researcher should be erased....The transcripts ...are simplified and modified for the purpose of this study."

"A(11) can be interpreted as a topic change to end an o-rei. This exmaple is unique because the beneficiary changed the topic. In other xamples it was always the benefactor who changed the topic."

"benefactive verbs emphasises imbalance and 'ie ie' denigrates it."

"...'thanking' and 'apologizing' are hardly distinguishable in Japanese; they are closely related in the indebtedness the speaker feels towards the interlocutor."

speakers repeat "'No, not at all'."

"It is often the case that doomo is used alone, that is, the later parts are unsaid. The frequent se of doomo supports the view that Japanese native speakers may not be conscious of distinguishing the speech act of thanking and apology in particular contexts where the speaker needs to express indebtedness."

"Imbalance is overtly acknowledged by beneficiary and the imbalance is dneied by benefactor."

"Such a sudden topic change, which is initiated by the benefactor, is observed frequently in the data."

"Working on the debt-credit equilibrium emerged clearly as a common practice outside a family circle."

'The more intimate the interlocutors were, the more a 'complimenting-gladness' pair tended to emerge. This is clearly a norm for intimate situations."

"Both ends of the continuum of social distance tend to have predictable sequences; the minimum end tends to be complimenting-gladness', while the maximum end tends to be 'thanking, apology, debt-sensitive speech formula, and/or a benefactive verb-denial."

"Working on debt-credit equilibrium is observed as a default except for conversations between family members."

"Overlaps:
When conversationsl participants work together on debt-crdit equilibrium, overlapping speech frequently ocurred. In otehr words, as soon as the beneficiary indicates his/her pragmatic intention of compensating debt, even partially with thanking apology, debt-sensitive formulae or a benefactive verb, the benefactor counteracts with a 'dneial'. A 'denial' serves the pragmatic function of de-burdening the beneficiary, thus, it often overlaps, or at least is latched with the beneficiary's attempt to work on o-rei. This conversational overlap or harmony is also evidence that mutual work on the debt-credit equilibrium is in operation. If I use the notion of face, as a motivational drive, derived from Goffman (1967:5): "the positive value a person effetively claims for himself by the line others assume he has taken during a particular contact", the state of being in debt without an acknowldgment is dishonorable, and for the benefactor, claiming that s/he is a creditor is seen as arrogant and a social disgrace. 'Dnial', as an expected follow up of beneficiary's acknowledgement of benefit/debt, may in fact care for both beneficiary's and benefactor's face."

"This supports Apte's description of thanking (verbalization of gratitude) in Marathi and Hindi, that is "verbalization of gratitude indicates a distant relationship" (Apte, 1974:75), and thus it should be avoided among family members."

Subject and Topic: A New Typology of Language

charles n. li and sandra a. thompson
1975

subject-prominent lanaguges: English
Topic-Prominent Languages: Chinese
Subject-Prominent and Topic-Prominent Langauges: Japanese, Korean
Neither Subject nor Topic Prominent Languages: Tagalog

Mandarin (TP):
"here very hot
'It is hot in here.'

possible this-CLASS war will soon end aspect
'It is possible that this war will soon end.'"

double subject constructions:
Japanese:
"fish-TOPIC red snapper SUBJ delicious
'Fish (topic), red snapper is delicious

Korean:
airplane-top. 747-subj. big-stative
'Airplanes (topic), the 747 is big.'

Mandarin:
that tree leaves big
'That tree (topic) the leaves are big.'"

the acquisition of relative clauses in relation to language typology

bernard comrie

noun phrase accessibility hierarchy (NPAH)
subject>direct object>other object>genitive/possessor

"...for native speakers of European languages learning japanese or korean as a second lanaguge (L2), the articles in this collection suggest surprisingly little transfer..."

"RCS in Japanese and Korean are so different structurally form their European translation equivalents...that learners simply treat them as a new strcture to be learned rather than as variants of any structure familar to them form their native language."

"Each position on the NPAH is justified empirically by the existence of at least one languge that relativizes on that position but on no lower position."