Beth L. Bailey
In the 19th century, men came to "call" on women. WOmen were in control of who could come in and visit; it was in the "woman's sphere"; and a man could come to call with no money in their pockets.
However, people in the city often had no parlors for callers. They, often poor and lower-class, went out on "dates" to the movies, to dance halls, or to restuarants, where no "respectable" woman was allowed to go. This moved the courtship into the man's "sphere." He took economic responsibility to pay for things, and often the economic exchange was understood to be for sexual favors. This change gave the power of courtship to men.
The rise of cars was coincidental, but gave young people a lot of freedom.
Contrary to popular belief, in the 19th century women had a great deal of power over whom they chose to allow to court them.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Neural Substrates of Language Acquisition
Patricia Kuhl and Maritza Rivera-Gaxiola
Neuroimaging is being used with infants. "The goal on experiments on infants has been to determine whether the initial state and the learning mechanisms are speech specific and species specific."
"The combination of computational and social abilities may be exclusive to humans (Kuhl 2007)."
"The studies suggest that exposure to language in the first year of life begins to set the neural architecture in a way that vaults the infant forward in the acquisition of language."
EEG/ERP is inexpensive, noiseless, "excellent temporal resolution"
At birth infants are capable of distinguishing between all phonemes that are possible in human languages, but with exposure to the native language, infants learn to "tune out" the phonemes that are not distinguished in their native language.
"By the end of the first year, the infant brain is no longer universally prepared for all languages, but instead primed to acquire the language(s) to which the infant brain has been exposed."
So adults truly cannot learn a second language the same way infants learn their first.
In a study (Kuhl et al 2003), a group of infants exposed to a live person speaking Mandarin were able to distinguish Mandarin sounds, while groups exposed to television and audio Mandarin tested the same as groups that were never exposed to Mandarin at all. So social interaction is very important to infant language acquisition. This could be due to the ways humans learned language for centuries--we could be evolutionary accustomed NOT to learn language from computers.
"A sudden increase in vocabulary typically occurs between 18 and 24 months of age--a "vocabulary explosion" (Granger & Brent 2004, Fernald et al. 2006)--but word learning begins much earlier. Infants show recognition of their own name at four and a half months (Mandel et al. 1995)." p. 520
"new words may be encoded in the same neural regions as previously learned words."
""Newborns tested by Imada et ak showed no activation in motor speech areas for any signals, whereas auditory areas responded robustly to all signals, suggesting that perception-action linkages for speech develop by three months of age as infants produce vowel-like sounds."
"Studies across languages showed that by one year of age infants do not accept mispronunciations of common words, words in stressed syllables, or monosyllabic words, indicating that their representations of these words are well-specified by that age." references omitted
Researchers are "strongly interested" in which comes first: phonemes or words, or if learning is bidirectional.
Data on bilingual infants has conflicting results.
Some believe that it may take bilingual infants longer to accumulate a normal vocabulary in their native languages because of decreased input. There have not been many studies on bilingual infants.
Neuroimaging is being used with infants. "The goal on experiments on infants has been to determine whether the initial state and the learning mechanisms are speech specific and species specific."
"The combination of computational and social abilities may be exclusive to humans (Kuhl 2007)."
"The studies suggest that exposure to language in the first year of life begins to set the neural architecture in a way that vaults the infant forward in the acquisition of language."
EEG/ERP is inexpensive, noiseless, "excellent temporal resolution"
At birth infants are capable of distinguishing between all phonemes that are possible in human languages, but with exposure to the native language, infants learn to "tune out" the phonemes that are not distinguished in their native language.
"By the end of the first year, the infant brain is no longer universally prepared for all languages, but instead primed to acquire the language(s) to which the infant brain has been exposed."
So adults truly cannot learn a second language the same way infants learn their first.
In a study (Kuhl et al 2003), a group of infants exposed to a live person speaking Mandarin were able to distinguish Mandarin sounds, while groups exposed to television and audio Mandarin tested the same as groups that were never exposed to Mandarin at all. So social interaction is very important to infant language acquisition. This could be due to the ways humans learned language for centuries--we could be evolutionary accustomed NOT to learn language from computers.
"A sudden increase in vocabulary typically occurs between 18 and 24 months of age--a "vocabulary explosion" (Granger & Brent 2004, Fernald et al. 2006)--but word learning begins much earlier. Infants show recognition of their own name at four and a half months (Mandel et al. 1995)." p. 520
"new words may be encoded in the same neural regions as previously learned words."
""Newborns tested by Imada et ak showed no activation in motor speech areas for any signals, whereas auditory areas responded robustly to all signals, suggesting that perception-action linkages for speech develop by three months of age as infants produce vowel-like sounds."
"Studies across languages showed that by one year of age infants do not accept mispronunciations of common words, words in stressed syllables, or monosyllabic words, indicating that their representations of these words are well-specified by that age." references omitted
Researchers are "strongly interested" in which comes first: phonemes or words, or if learning is bidirectional.
Data on bilingual infants has conflicting results.
Some believe that it may take bilingual infants longer to accumulate a normal vocabulary in their native languages because of decreased input. There have not been many studies on bilingual infants.
Un nase or una nase? What gender marking within switched DPs reveals about the architecture of the bilingual language faculty
Katja Francesca Cantone and Natascha Muller
MacSwan (1999,2000) postulated that the grammars of each language in a bilingual mind are differentiated.
The authors examined the speech of bilingual German and Italian children from ages 1-5. In this paper, the children's DPs (determiner phrases?) were examined, particularly when the children used a noun from one language in an utterance that was primarily in the other language. Genders were sometimes switched along with the noun. The authors propose that this means that "gender is an abstract lexical feature of nouns which is stored in the lexicon and thus reject the view that gender is a functional head in syntax."
MacSwan (1999, 2000) argued that bilinguals have 2 seperate lexicons but "one and the same Computational System"
"it is not the noun endings -o and -a which carry gender"
They say that in one phase of growth, bilingual children mix up gendres between the two semi-autonomous systems.
MacSwan (1999,2000) postulated that the grammars of each language in a bilingual mind are differentiated.
The authors examined the speech of bilingual German and Italian children from ages 1-5. In this paper, the children's DPs (determiner phrases?) were examined, particularly when the children used a noun from one language in an utterance that was primarily in the other language. Genders were sometimes switched along with the noun. The authors propose that this means that "gender is an abstract lexical feature of nouns which is stored in the lexicon and thus reject the view that gender is a functional head in syntax."
MacSwan (1999, 2000) argued that bilinguals have 2 seperate lexicons but "one and the same Computational System"
"it is not the noun endings -o and -a which carry gender"
They say that in one phase of growth, bilingual children mix up gendres between the two semi-autonomous systems.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Second language research using magnetoencephalography: a review
schmidt and roberts
This article first touts MEG as a very useful tool in studying SLA and neurolinguistics, then summarizes previous SLA MEG studies.
MEG is the magnetic version of EEg. Subjects are more comfortable doing an MEG than other neuroimaging devices. But it is expensive and subjects must stay very still.
Phiko and others (2001;2002) found that the L2 is processed more like the L3 than the L1 in early bilinguals.
Zhang and others (2001; 2005) found that Japanese can detect the difference in /r/ and /l/ when there is no vowel afterwards. This suggests "backward masking."
The MEG was used with Japanese and German speakers to determine that both groups recognized kanji "holistically, rather than piecemeal."
Ihara and Kakigi found that Koreans process Hangul and Kana in different parts of their brains.
Phonology can also be studied with the MEG. Differences in pitch changes resulting in changed meaning of words can be taught to SLL. French and Spanish speakers show different areas of the brain allotted to vowels because French has 7 more vowels than Spanish.
Bialystok et al 2005 examined whether bilinguals perform better than monolinguals at the Simon task. The two groups had speedy responses when different areas of the brain were activated. Bilinguals were fast when the "cingulate and superior and inferior frontal regions" and slower with the "right visual cortex." Monolinguals were fast with the "left middle frontal activation" and slow with the "right motor cortex."
Valaki et al (2004) found that Mandarin speakers' brains were less strongly lateralized.
This article first touts MEG as a very useful tool in studying SLA and neurolinguistics, then summarizes previous SLA MEG studies.
MEG is the magnetic version of EEg. Subjects are more comfortable doing an MEG than other neuroimaging devices. But it is expensive and subjects must stay very still.
Phiko and others (2001;2002) found that the L2 is processed more like the L3 than the L1 in early bilinguals.
Zhang and others (2001; 2005) found that Japanese can detect the difference in /r/ and /l/ when there is no vowel afterwards. This suggests "backward masking."
The MEG was used with Japanese and German speakers to determine that both groups recognized kanji "holistically, rather than piecemeal."
Ihara and Kakigi found that Koreans process Hangul and Kana in different parts of their brains.
Phonology can also be studied with the MEG. Differences in pitch changes resulting in changed meaning of words can be taught to SLL. French and Spanish speakers show different areas of the brain allotted to vowels because French has 7 more vowels than Spanish.
Bialystok et al 2005 examined whether bilinguals perform better than monolinguals at the Simon task. The two groups had speedy responses when different areas of the brain were activated. Bilinguals were fast when the "cingulate and superior and inferior frontal regions" and slower with the "right visual cortex." Monolinguals were fast with the "left middle frontal activation" and slow with the "right motor cortex."
Valaki et al (2004) found that Mandarin speakers' brains were less strongly lateralized.
Bilingual and Monolingual Brains Compared:
Bilingual and Monolingual Brains Compared: A
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Investigation
of Syntactic Processing and a Possible ‘‘ Neural
Signature’’ of Bilingualism
Ioulia Kovelman1,2, Stephanie A. Baker1, and Laura-Ann Petitto
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 2008
"Eleven Spanish-English right-handed bilinguals...and 10 English right-handed monolinguals" were asked to judge the plausibility of sentences containing relative clauses while in the fmri. OS and SO sentences were both used. Bilinguals judged twice as many sentences as monolinguals. Results indicate that bilinguals have differentiated language systems and use more left brain gray matter than monolinguals.
Because English is an analytic language and Spanish is syntactic, there was no difference in brain functioning when bilinguals were judging OS and SO in Spanish; English monolinguals showed more activity when processing SO ("difficult") than OS ("easy").
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Investigation
of Syntactic Processing and a Possible ‘‘ Neural
Signature’’ of Bilingualism
Ioulia Kovelman1,2, Stephanie A. Baker1, and Laura-Ann Petitto
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 2008
"Eleven Spanish-English right-handed bilinguals...and 10 English right-handed monolinguals" were asked to judge the plausibility of sentences containing relative clauses while in the fmri. OS and SO sentences were both used. Bilinguals judged twice as many sentences as monolinguals. Results indicate that bilinguals have differentiated language systems and use more left brain gray matter than monolinguals.
Because English is an analytic language and Spanish is syntactic, there was no difference in brain functioning when bilinguals were judging OS and SO in Spanish; English monolinguals showed more activity when processing SO ("difficult") than OS ("easy").
Sunday, June 21, 2009
A Neurolinguistic Theory of Bilingualism: Neuroimaging studies of the Bilingual Brain
Michael Paradis
Chapter 6
Neuroimaging studies have neglected to replicate other studies; therefore, all findings from this field are not proved.
Surely the left-brain is associated with most aspects of language and the right brain kicks in when pragmatics is needed to understand--usually, when the L2 left-brain knowledge is insufficient.
Also, declarative and procedural memory is surely processed in different areas. If the left brain is damaged in early life, the right brain will take on language-learning tasks.
"...a natural (ecological) task such as the comprehension of a short story..."
Don't use single-word recognition, because this is not "language."
"The majority of studies to date (28) have used single words as stimuli (173)."
Paradis looks for converging evidence in the truly linguistic (e.g. ecological) tasks from published studies: procedural memory for language = perisylvian area
"declarative memory and hence metalinguistic knowledge"= parahippocampal gyri, mesial temporal lobes, anterior cingulate
pragmatics=areas of the right hemisphere
Paradis 2000a: "Comprehension is easier than production"
It is almost impossible to fully control for all areas of processing the task. :-(
I think my dissertation should test and retest and retest subjects to ensure validity.
Chapter 6
Neuroimaging studies have neglected to replicate other studies; therefore, all findings from this field are not proved.
Surely the left-brain is associated with most aspects of language and the right brain kicks in when pragmatics is needed to understand--usually, when the L2 left-brain knowledge is insufficient.
Also, declarative and procedural memory is surely processed in different areas. If the left brain is damaged in early life, the right brain will take on language-learning tasks.
"...a natural (ecological) task such as the comprehension of a short story..."
Don't use single-word recognition, because this is not "language."
"The majority of studies to date (28) have used single words as stimuli (173)."
Paradis looks for converging evidence in the truly linguistic (e.g. ecological) tasks from published studies: procedural memory for language = perisylvian area
"declarative memory and hence metalinguistic knowledge"= parahippocampal gyri, mesial temporal lobes, anterior cingulate
pragmatics=areas of the right hemisphere
Paradis 2000a: "Comprehension is easier than production"
It is almost impossible to fully control for all areas of processing the task. :-(
I think my dissertation should test and retest and retest subjects to ensure validity.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
The Language of Love: the Semantics of Passion in Conversational English
Zoltan Kovecses
The metaphors we use in everyday English to talk about relationships reveal that we imagine love as a journey, the heart as a container, etc.
The Unity Metaphor: "We Are One" reveals that we imagine there is only 1 person out there for us. No other will do. I think this is a cause of depression after a relationship ends.
Love is spoken of as loss of control or insanity.
There is an ideal model (love at first sight, passion never wanes) and a typical model ("Fiery Passions Turn Into Warm Affection").
Nonprototypical cases include the metaphor of Love as a Game.
The metaphors we use in everyday English to talk about relationships reveal that we imagine love as a journey, the heart as a container, etc.
The Unity Metaphor: "We Are One" reveals that we imagine there is only 1 person out there for us. No other will do. I think this is a cause of depression after a relationship ends.
Love is spoken of as loss of control or insanity.
There is an ideal model (love at first sight, passion never wanes) and a typical model ("Fiery Passions Turn Into Warm Affection").
Nonprototypical cases include the metaphor of Love as a Game.
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