Abnormal Language

Readings

SES #	TOPICS	READINGS
1	Introduction: Abnormal Language [Wexler and Hirsch]
Syntactic Theory
2	Syntax Review I: Finiteness, Binding Theory [Wexler]	Cowper, Elizabeth A. Chapter 1-4 in A Concise Introduction to Syntactic Theory: The Government-binding Approach. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992. pp. 1-171. ISBN: 0226116441.
Language Acquisition
3	Syntax Review II: A/A’-Movement [Hirsch]	Cowper, Elizabeth A. Chapter 5-6, 8 in A Concise Introduction to Syntactic Theory: The Government-binding Approach. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992. pp. 1-171. ISBN: 0226116441.
4	Animal Communication [Hirsch]	Terrace, H. S., L. A. Petitto, R. J. Sanders, and T. G. Bever. “Can an Ape Create a Sentence?” Science 206, no. 4421 (Nov 23, 1979): 891-902. Hauser, M. D., N. Chomsky, and W. T. Fitch. “The faculty of Language: What is It, Who has It, and How Did it Evolve?” Science 298, no. 5598 (Nov 22, 2002): 1569-79. Optional Readings Michelsen, A. “Karl Von Frisch Lecture. Signals and Flexibility in the Dance Communication of Honeybees.” J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol 189, no. 3 (March, 2003): 165-74. Epub 2003 Mar 05. Shanker, S. G., and B. J. King. “The Emergence of a New Paradigm in Ape Language Research.” Behav Brain Sci. 25, no. 5 (Oct, 2002): 605-20. Discussion 620-56.
5	L1: Finiteness [Wexler]	Guasti, Maria T. Chapter 4, “The Emergence of Syntax.” Language Acquisition: the growth of grammar. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002, pp. 101-150. ISBN: 9780262072229. [Buy at MIT Press] Wexler, Kenneth. “Optional Infinitives, Head Movement and the Economy of Derivations.” Chapter 14 in Verb Movement. Edited by David Lightfoot, and Norbert Hornstein. Cambridge; New York, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press, 1994, pp. 305-350. ISBN: 0521456614. Optional Readings ———. “Very Early Parameter Setting and the Unique Checking Constraint: A New Explanation of the Optional Infinitive Stage.” Lingua 106 (1998): 23-79.
6	L1: Binding Theory [Wexler]	Guasti, Maria T. Chapter 8, “Acquisition of Binding Principles.” Language Acquisition: the growth of grammar. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002, Part 1. ISBN: 9780262072229. [Buy at MIT Press] ———. Chapter 8, “Acquisition of Binding Principles.” Language Acquisition: the growth of grammar. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002, Part 2. ISBN: 9780262072229. [Buy at MIT Press] Chien, Yu-Chin, and Kenneth Wexler. “Children’s Knowledge of Locality Conditions in Binding as Evidence for the Modularity of Syntax and Pragmatics.” Language Acquisition 1, no. 3 (1990): 225-295.
7	L1: A/A’-Movement [Wexler]	Guasti, Maria T. Chapter 7, “Acquisition of A-Movement.” Language Acquisition: the growth of grammar. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002. ISBN: 9780262072229. [Buy at MIT Press] Borer, Hagit, and Kenneth Wexler. “The Maturation of Syntax.” In Parameter Setting. Edited by Thomas Roeper, and Edwin Williams. Dordrecht, Boston: D. Reidel Pub. Co., and Norwell; MA: Sold and distributed in the U.S.A. and Canada by Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1987. pp. 123-172. ISBN: 902772315X. Optional Readings Maratsos, M., D. E. Fox, J. A. Becker, and M. A. Chalkley. “Semantic Restrictions on Children’s Passives.” Cognition 19, no. 2 (March, 1985): 167-91.
8	L2: Part 1 [Wexler]	Haznedar, Belma, and Bonnie D. Schwartz. “Are there Optional Infinitives in Child L2 Acquisition?” BUCLD 21 Proceedings. Edited by E. Hughes, and et al., 1997, pp. 257-268. Optional Readings Prevost, Philippe, and Lydia White. Finiteness and Variability in SLA: More Evidence for Missing Surface Inflection. BUCLD 23. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press, 1999, pp. 575-586. ISBN 1574730428.
9	L2: Part 2 [Wexler]	Johnson, J. S., and E. L. Newport. “Critical Period Effects in Second Language Learning: The Influence of Maturational State on the Acquisition of English as a Second Language.” Cognit Psychol. 21, no. 1 (Jan, 1989): 60-99.
10	Language Lateralization and Hemispherectomies [Hirsch]	Curtiss, S., and S. De Bode. “How Normal is Grammatical Development in the Right Hemisphere Following Hemispherectomy? The Root Infinitive Stage and Beyond.” Brain Lang. 86, no. 2 (Aug, 2003): 193-206.
	Midterm
Language Loss
11	Aphasia: Production [Hirsch]	Friedmann, N., and Y. Grodzinsky. “Tense and Agreement in Agrammatic Production: Pruning the Syntactic Tree.” Brain Lang. 56, no. 3 (Feb 15, 1997): 397-425. Froud, Karen. “Aphasic Evidence for the Syntactic Determination of Unaccusativity.” UCL Working Papers in Linguistics 10 (1998). Optional Readings Grodzinsky, Y. “The Neurology of Syntax: Language Use without Broca’s Area.” Behav Brain Sci. 23, no. 1 (Feb, 2000): 14-17.
12	Aphasia: Comprehension I [Hirsch]	Grodzinsky, Y. “The Neurology of Syntax: Language Use Without Broca’s Area.” Behav Brain Sci. 23, no. 1 (Feb, 2000): 1-14. Optional Readings Grodzinsky, Y. “The Neurology of Syntax: Language Use Without Broca’s Area.” Behav Brain Sci. 23, no. 1 (Feb, 2000): 15- 71.
13	Normal Aging and Syntactic Working Memory [Fedorenko]
14	Aphasia: Comprehension II [Hirsch]	Bastiaanse, R., J. Koekkoek, and R. van Zonneveld. “Object Scrambling in Dutch Broca’s Aphasia.” Brain Lang. 86, no. 2 (Aug, 2003): 287-99. Beretta, A., C. Schmitt, J. Halliwell, A. Munn, F. Cuetos, and S. Kim. “The Effects of Scrambling on Spanish and Korean Agrammatic Interpretation: Why Linear Models Fail and Structural Models Survive.” Brain Lang. 79, no. 3 (Dec, 2001): 407-25.
15	Parkinson’s Disease [Hirsch]	Ullman, Michael T., Suzanne Corkin, Marie Coppola, Gregory Hickok, John H. Growdon, Walter J. Koroshetz, and Steven Pinker. “A Neural Dissociation within Language: Evidence that the Mental Dictionary Is Part of Declarative Memory, and that Grammatical Rules Are Processed by the Procedural System.” Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 9, no. 2 (1997): 266-276.
Genetic Disorders
16	SLI: Extended Optional Infinitive Stage [Wexler]	Rice, M. L., and Kenneth Wexler. “Toward Tense as a Clinical Marker of Specific Language Impairment in English-speaking Children.” J Speech Hear Res. 39, no. 6 (Dec, 1996): 1239-57. Wexler, Kenneth. “Lenneberg’s Dream: Learning, Normal Language Development and Specific Language Impairment.” In Language Competence Across Populations: Towards a Definition of Specific Language Impairment. Edited by J. Schaffer, and Y. Levy. Earlbaum, 2002.
17	SLI: Alternative Accounts and FOXP2 [Wexler and Modyanova]	Marcus, G. F., and S. E. Fisher. “FOXP2 in Focus: What can Genes Tell us About Speech and Language?” Trends Cogn Sci. 7, no. 6 (Jun, 2003): 257-262. Fisher, S. E., C. S. Lai, and A. P. Monaco. “Deciphering the Genetic Basis of Speech and Language Disorders.” Annu Rev Neurosci 26 (2003): 57-80. Epub Jan 08, 2003.
18	Abnormal Research and How to Select Control Groups [Perovic]	Kjelgaard, Margaret M., and Helen Tager-Flusberg. An Investigation of Language Impairment in Autism: Implications for Genetic Subgroups. Waltham, MA: Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center, 1999. Mervis, Carolyn B. “Cross-Etiology Comparisons of Cognitive and Language Development.” Chapter 8. In M.L. Rice and S.F. Warren, eds. Developmental language disorders: from phenotypes to etologies. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2004, pp. 153-185. Optional Readings Bol, Gerard W. “MLU-Matching and the Production of Morphosyntax in Dutch Children with Specific Language Impairment.” Chapter 10. In Y. Levy and J.C. Schaeffer, eds. Language Competence Across Populations: Toward a Definition of Specific Language Impairment. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2003, pp. 259-271.
19	Down Syndrome and Autism [Perovic]	Perovic, Alexandra. Knowledge of Binding in Down Syndrome: Evidence from English and Serbo-Croatian. PhD thesis, University College London. 2004. Kjelgaard, Margaret M., and Helen Tager-Flusberg. An Investigation of Language Impairment in Autism: Implications for Genetic Subgroups. Waltham, MA: Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center, 2003. Optional Readings Perovic, Alexandra. “Knowledge of binding in Down syndrome.” In Do, A. H.J., Dominguez, L. & A. Johansen, eds., Proceedings of the Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development 26, Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press, 2002. Fowler, A. E., Gelman, R., and Gleitman, L. R. “The course of language learning in children with Down Syndrome.” In Tager-Flusberg, Helen, ed. Constraints on language acquisition: studies of atypical populations. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 1994, pp. 91-140. ISBN:0805806679.
20	Williams Syndrome [Perovic]	Clahsen, H., and M. Almazan. “Syntax and Morphology in Williams Syndrome.” Cognition 68, no. 3 (Sep, 1998): 167-98. Bellugi, U., S. Marks, A. Bihrle, and H. Sabo. “Dissociation Between Language and Cognitive Functions in Williams Syndrome.” In Spatial Cognition: Brain Bases and Development. Edited by Joan Stiles-Davis, Mark Kritchevsky, and Ursula Bellugi. Hillsdale, NJ: L. Erlbaum Associates, 1988, pp. 177-189. Spatial Cognition Workshop (1984: Salk Institute for Biological Studies). ISBN: 0805800468.
21	Critical Periods [Hirsch and Modyanova]	Curtiss, S., S. de Bode. “How Normal is Grammatical Development in the Right Hemisphere Following Hemispherectomy? The Root Infinitive Stage and Beyond.” Brain Lang. 86, no. 2 (Aug, 2003): 193-206. Senghas, A., S. Kita, and A. Ozyurek. “Children Creating Core Properties of Language: Evidence from An Emerging Sign Language in Nicaragua.” Science 305, no. 5691 (Sep 17, 2004): 1779-82. Optional Readings Hensch, T. K. “Critical Period Regulation.” Annu Rev Neurosci. 27 (2004): 549-79.
22	Creoles and Second Language Acquisition [DeGraff]	DeGraff, Michel. “Against Creole Exceptionalism.” Language 79, no. 2 (2003): 391-410.
23	What it All Means [Wexler and Hirsch]
	Final Exam