From the ancient Mediterranean world to the present day, our
conceptions of what is universal in language have interacted with
our experiences of language learning. This book tells two stories:
the story of how scholars in the west have conceived of the fact
that human languages share important properties despite their
obvious differences, and the story of how westerners have
understood the nature of second or foreign language learning. In
narrating these two stories, the author argues that modern second
language acquisition theory needs to reassess what counts as its
own past. The book addresses Greek contributions to the prehistory
of universal grammar, Roman bilingualism, the emergence of the
first foreign language grammars in the early Middle Ages, and the
Medieval speculative grammarians efforts to define the essentials
of human language. The author shows how after the renaissance
expanded people's awareness of language differences, scholars
returned to the questions of universals in the context of second
language learning, including in the 1660 Port-Royal grammar which
Chomsky notoriously celebrated in Cartesian Linguistics. The book
then looks at how Post-Saussurean European linguistics and American
structuralism up to modern generative grammar have each differently
conceived of universals and language learning. Universal Grammar in
Second Language Acquisition is a remarkable contribution to the
history of linguistics and will be essential reading for students
and scholars of linguistics, specialists in second language
acquisition and language teacher-educators.
General
Imprint: |
Routledge
|
Country of origin: |
United Kingdom |
Series: |
Routledge Studies in the History of Linguistics |
Release date: |
September 2012 |
First published: |
2004 |
Authors: |
Margaret Thomas
|
Dimensions: |
234 x 156 x 15mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback
|
Pages: |
272 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-415-65469-2 |
Categories: |
Books >
Language & Literature >
Language & linguistics >
General
|
LSN: |
0-415-65469-6 |
Barcode: |
9780415654692 |
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