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The concern regarding the gap between words and actions has spread through different contexts, in particular those relating to environmental education. Despite repeated warnings about the damaging impact of human behaviour on the environment and the effect of actions undertaken to teach people to protect the environment (pro-environmental behaviours), there have been few advances in relation to favourable responses from people's actions. The alternatives proposed in environmental education to reduce this gap include research relating to teaching pro-environmental rules and its impact on human behaviour. Rule learning poses challenges for the comprehension of human behaviour, especially for environmental education in general and climate change in particular as well as being proposed as an epistemological and theoretical approach to human behaviour insofar as it differs from the established approach in physiological, medical, attitudinal, cognitive, or motivational mediation models that explain behaviour on the basis of factors that are internal to the individual. This article discusses the origins, genetic or environmental [Chomsky (1959) vs. Skinner (1957, 1981)], of verbal behaviour with regards to its origin and development in ontogenesis. Afterwards, it considers the notion of rule-governed behaviour with the definitions and different taxonomies that have been proposed regarding rules, as well as the variables associated with (in) sensitivity to following them and the possible alternative approaches for each of the (in)sensitivity factors identified. Finally, it analyses the role of education in pro-environmental rules for regulating people's own behaviour and in the design of macro- and metacontingencies to incentivise environmental protection in large human groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concern regarding the gap between words and actions has spread through different contexts, in particular those relating to environmental education. Despite repeated warnings about the damaging impact of human behaviour on the environment and the effect of actions undertaken to teach people to protect the environment (pro-environmental behaviours), there have been few advances in relation to favourable responses from people’s actions. The alternatives proposed in environmental education to reduce this gap include research relating to teaching pro-environmental rules and its impact on human behaviour. Rule learning poses challenges for the comprehension of human behaviour, especially for environmental education in general and climate change in particular as well as being proposed as an epistemological and theoretical approach to human behaviour insofar as it differs from the established approach in physiological, medical, attitudinal, cognitive, or motivational mediation models that explain behaviour on the basis of factors that are internal to the individual. This article discusses the origins, genetic or environmental [Chomsky (1959) vs. Skinner (1957, 1981)], of verbal behaviour with regards to its origin and development in ontogenesis. Afterwards, it considers the notion of rule-governed behaviour with the definitions and different taxonomies that have been proposed regarding rules, as well as the variables associated with (in) sensitivity to following them and the possible alternative approaches for each of the (in)sensitivity factors identified. Finally, it analyses the role of education in pro-environmental rules for regulating people’s own behaviour and in the design of macro- and metacontingencies to incentivise environmental protection in large human groups.

This article explores the topic of language acquisition, with a specific focus on second language acquisition (SLA). It discusses Chomsky's generative model of language acquisition and its relevance to SLA. The article also delves into the Critical Period Hypothesis, which suggests that there is a specific age range during which individuals can achieve native-like competence in a language. The author argues that a theory of SLA should consider the role of Universal Grammar in the development of L2 mental grammar. The text also mentions the ongoing debate between nativists and empiricists regarding the nature of language acquisition. [Extracted from the article]

Copyright of Applied Linguistics Journal is the property of Brill Academic Publishers and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Tábano is the property of Pontificia Universidad Catolica Argentina and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

For decades, interdisciplinary research efforts have accumulated insights that diminish the significance of the classic nature versus nurture dichotomy, instead calling for a nuanced, multifactorial approach to ontogeny. Similarly, the role of genes in both phylogeny and ontogeny, once seen as rather deterministic, is now conceptualized as highly dependent on environmental factors, including behavior. Linguistic theories have, in principle, made an effort to incorporate these changing views. However, the central claim of the given paper is that this apparent compliance with biological insights remains superficial. As such, considerable disconnects between linguistic theory and what is known about the biological underpinnings of complex traits persist, negatively impacting pertinent views on language acquisition, language universals and the evolution of language. Given the breadth of these fields of study, the aim of this paper is to tackle the root of the problem: It begins by sketching out linguistic nativism as conceptualized within generativism, pointing to aspects within this position that stand in conflict with the interdisciplinary literature. It will then review select areas of research in a succinct manner in order to substantiate the criticism and characterize the counterposition as found within the biological sciences. The paper will culminate in addressing these disconnects on conceptual grounds, i.e. invoking the term emergence as employed in neuroscience as a possible means to reconcile those biological insights with linguistic nativism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores a view on language that is in line with the Strong Minimalist Thesis and that derives an evolutionary scenario predicting language variation in time and space. A stable and uniform UG making available recursive Merge shaped by laws of nature such as simplicity and efficiency has been integrated by a sudden rewiring of the brain into an existing biological system which is comparable to the concept of the faculty of language in the broad sense. The basic oppositions such as symmetry and asymmetry, internal language/thought and externalization, uniformity and diversity, universality and particular languages are derived as an automatic consequence of the architecture of the grammar as it evolved in the human species in concert with general principles of nature. A stable and simple system can be reconciled with a dynamic complex one.

Claims made by linguist Daniel Everett, that the Pirahã language, spoken by a small group of native Amazonians, lacks features thought to be universally present in languages, captured the imaginations of scholars and prompted broader questions on the nature of language, the diversity in languages, and the universals shared by them. Everett claimed that, in Pirahã, he had found a language without numbers, colors, mythology, abstract thinking, or recursive embedding. These claims were challenged by proponents of a universal grammar and by other biological linguists concerned with identifying shared faculties that undergird human cognitive capacities and by linguistic anthropologists concerned with the products of those potentials as they are actualized in the interactivity of speaking. Situating the Pirahã in historical and sociological context, I question the novelty of a faculty of language and many of Everett's claims of Pirahã exceptionality, and I explore the renewed interest in the nature of language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diachronic changes in phrase or clause structure are vectored rather than oscillating. A century ago, E. Sapir identified a drift towards fixed word order and another one towards the invariant word (including the levelling of the forms for subject and object marking). What is still missing is a theory that predicts such drifts. As will be argued, the theory that explains Sapir's observations and, in passing, makes the concept of Universal Grammar dispensable is the theory that grammars are targets and products of cognitive evolution. Sapir's drifts are shifts from systems based primarily on the consciously accessible declarative network to systems based on the consciously inaccessible procedural network. This also explains why the [S[VO]] clause-structure is a point of no return and why languages do not change in the reverse direction, starting from a grammar like English and eventually moving to a grammar like Sanskrit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

English is the primary second language learned in Saudi Arabia. Many Saudi students are learning English as a second language for several reasons. Still, almost all English second language learners in Saudi Arabia are willing to learn English proficiently as English natives. Chomsky's Universal Grammar is one of the primary theories that has discussed the idea of learning a second language. The primary purpose of this study is to develop an understanding of the role of Universal Grammar in second language acquisition by investigating how Saudi Learners of English use the English Adjective Phrase Structure. This research adopts the Full Transfer/Full Access Model as its model. This study used an online questionnaire method design and both quantitative and qualitative approaches to analyze data. This study assigned 118 participants from undergraduate students in Level Two and Level Five at English Language and Literature Department at Prince Sattam bin Abdul-Aziz University. The primary findings of this study indicate that native-like proficiency can be reached due to the fact there is full access to Universal Grammar when learning a second language. This study also found that Arabic as a first language plays a significant role in the beginning stages of learning English as a second language. Furthermore, the findings reveal that the effect of the first language on the second language can be overcome with more input the learner gets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Alustath is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper examines the understudied phenomenon of consonant gemination in the pronunciation of English among Levantine Arabic learners of English (LA learners). The very few studies that touched on gemination among LA learners attributed gemination to spelling in the target language (English). This study challenges this analysis and demonstrates that gemination is primarily a phonological phenomenon that is triggered by first language under-represented structural rules as well as Universal Grammar (UG) markedness principles. Data were elicited through semi-structured interviews with three groups of LA learners. Contrary to previous studies (on other phonological aspects), which argue that interference errors decrease over time, findings show that gemination is attested across all groups of LA learners and persists even among advanced learners. Results show that interface phenomena involving more than one phonological level pose a great challenge to second language learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

El objetivo de esta nota es brindar una revisión crítica y acotada del análisis contrastivo dentro del campo de adquisición de segundas lenguas. Las nociones teóricas que sustentan este recorrido son los conceptos de interlengua, gramática universal y gramática mental. En este recorrido, se reubica el fenómeno de la transferencia como producto de reglas subyacentes en la gramática mental de la segunda lengua. La noción de Jackendoff de una gramática mental posibilita reconciliar los aportes del estructuralismo y del generativismo al entendimiento de los fenómenos transferenciales.

The evolution (sensu lato) of the cosmos can be divided in three phases: cosmological evolution (sensu stricto), biological evolution and cultural evolution. Analogies between biological and cultural evolution date from the nineteenth century although it is only in the past two decades that so-called cultural evolution research has exploded. By contrast, comparisons between cosmological evolution and either biological or cultural evolution are uncommon. Here, we compare these three kinds of evolution and try to delineate their common grammar. Do their structure and underlying dynamics have characteristics in common? We believe that this is indeed the case and also that this Universal Grammar of Evolution can and should be used as a heuristic template in the study of these three kinds of evolution. Furthermore, this provisional template also might help scholars in their attempts to sketch the future course of a possible fourth kind of evolution, that of artificial intelligence and intelligent machines.

Current linguistic theory presumes languages to be essentially similar because individuals have a genetic inclination to acquire language. Linguists strive to create a model of this abstract universal grammar that captures the core commonalities among different languages while allowing room for all the subtle differences that naturally occur in human speech. This all-encompassing theory of universal grammar would accurately distinguish between possible grammars and impossible grammars. This paper examines the main tenets of the two major generative phonology models of universal grammar: SPE’s Generative Phonology theory representing rule-based, derivational universal grammar models, and Optimality Theory as a representative of constraint-based models of universal grammar.

Knowledge of language, its structure and grammar are an essential part of our education and daily activities. Despite the importance of language in our lives, linguistic theories that explain how the language system operates are often disconnected from our knowledge of the brain's neurocognitive mechanisms underpinning the linguistic function. This is reflected, for example, in the inclusion of abstract and often controversial elements into theories of language. Here, we discuss the case of the so-called null constituent and its smallest and the most controversial variant - the zero morpheme, a hypothetical morphosyntactic device that has no overt physical (phonological or orthographic) expression. Focusing on the putative inflectional zero morpheme, we discuss the theoretical origins and pitfalls of this approach and advocate the important role for neurobiological research that could try to elucidate the neurocognitive reality of such constructs in linguistic communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this note is to offer a critical review of the contrastive analysis hypothesis within the field of second language acquisition. The notions of interlanguage, universal grammar and mental grammar are discussed. Transfer is redefined as the output of underlying rules in the grammar of a second language. Through Jackendoff’s notion of a mental grammar we reconcile the contribution of structural and generative grammar to the understanding of the phenomenon of transfer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grammarists differed about the definition of the verb in the Arabic language, but they were in great agreement in dividing it from different sides. From these sides, we find the division of verbs according to the function of directing, which is the subject of this study. The view of the ancient grammarians to the function was affected by the grammatical direction followed (factor theory, semantics). It was noted in some of what they termed a clear dimension of the function of guidance, and with reference to the global grammar that created entrances between languages, even if the characteristics of languages differed among them, borrowing as a mechanism of linguistic development of the Arabic language has allowed, based on this way, to borrow many terms from Other languages were -sometimes- more compatible than that we find in the Arabic language used, for this reason, the researcher tried to study the guides verbs in the Arabic language; After enumerating them and clarifying their terms in the Arabic language, then comparing them with what is used in the French and English languages; It was found that some of the guides Arabic verbs were labeled with a term that is a sign of this function, and some of them were affected by the factor theory in grammar, so their terms did not express the function of directing, and after compare them with modern Arabic studies ,and also, in English and French, we were able to find an appropriate term to achieve the concept of directing. Therefore, the researcher suggested updating or changing these terms by creating appropriate terms that take advantage of the English and French languages, as well as modern Arabic conventions..

The article contains a critical review of modern problems of Universal Grammar theory by Noam Chomsky. It examines the origins of the theory, the process of its development, the transition to the ‘Second Cognitive Revolution’ and some recent objections to Chomsky’s hypothesis about the innate status of our knowledge of language.

Knowledge of language, its structure and grammar are an essential part of our education and daily activities. Despite the importance of language in our lives, linguistic theories that explain how the language system operates are often disconnected from our knowledge of the brain’s neurocognitive mechanisms underpinning the linguistic function. This is reflected, for example, in the inclusion of abstract and often controversial elements into theories of language. Here, we discuss the case of the so-called null constituent and its smallest and the most controversial variant – the zero morpheme, a hypothetical morphosyntactic device that has no overt physical (phonological or orthographic) expression. Focusing on the putative inflectional zero morpheme, we discuss the theoretical origins and pitfalls of this approach and advocate the important role for neurobiological research that could try to elucidate the neurocognitive reality of such constructs in linguistic communication.

Copyright of RumeliDE Journal of Language & Literature Research / RumeliDE Dil ve Edebiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi is the property of RumeliDE Uluslararasi Hakemli Dil & Edebiyat Arastirmalari Dergisi and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

After the translation of logical and philosophical works of Greeks in To Arabic, in the Islamic society, a serious conflict occurred between logic and Arabic grammar. The grammarians considered logic to be useless and irrelevant to their culture, and the logicians considered language just as a tool to convey the statements in the field of thought, and by the criteria of logic. This controversy is mainly represented within the famous debate between Abū Bishr Mattā ibn Yūnus and Abu Sa`īd Al-Sīrāfī, in which one (Mattā) emphasizes the instrumentality of Arabic syntax, and denies its functionality in guidance and correctness of thought; while the other (al-Sirāfī) emphasizes the obsoleteness of logic and sufficiency of Arabic syntax to ensure the accuracy of thought. In this conflict, Farabi (as a logician) took a third position, despite logicians such as Ahmad ibn al-Tayyib al-Sarakhsī, Yaḥyá ibn ʿAdī and Abū Sulaymān Muhammad Sijistānī. In the usual linguistic discussions of the Islamic society, he adopted a new perspective by taking philosophical-linguistic issues relating to preIslamic period into account. Afterward he would find different answers to the problems that had arisen. He believed in a kind of “science of language" ("Elm al-Lesān") common among all languages of all societies, which due to this commonality, would be considered equivalent to logic, and perhaps a part of that. Therefore, logic and grammar were considered to have the same component, which is common among all languages. According to Farabi, ideally all special grammars in setting their partial rules, should follow the rules of this component, because in all societies the words of the language should be able to imitate the meanings and the beings, and these logical rules can guarantee the imitation of relationships between meanings and categories that are derived from their beings in the Universe. Farabi's emphasis on the commonality of this kind of linguistic rules could be an evidence of his agreement on some sort of a universal grammar in which, the rules of utterances construction - specially the rules of construction of derivative words- plays the main role. Here is the evidence of Farabi's attention toward ancient traditions of linguistics, especially the ones influenced by Dionysius Thrax, Markus Terentius Varro and Priscianus Caesariensis. Dionysius Thrax wrote the first concise grammar of the Greek language influenced by Aristotelian thought. Varro Brings to light two significant distinctions within the rules of language, which had never been considered before: one is the distinction between morphology (rules of word construction) and syntax (rules of phrase construction); and the other is the distinction between morphological changes and derivational changes in the words, as well as the distinction between their features and rules. Also Priscianus is one of the first linguists whom in order to adapt the Latin grammar to the Greek grammar, considered the Aristotelian logic and categorization to be the criteria of the rules of the language structures. The act of taking the rules of the Greek language, as a pattern for the Latin language rules reveals that he considered common general aspects among different grammars. Farabi's statement on the newfound problem of the relation - or better to say, the opposition - of grammar and logic, which due to the cultural and religious condition specified to the Islamic world, was proposed for the first time in the history of linguistics; he introduces rules equivalent to logic rules, for construction of the words in all languages grammar. These rules are common among all languages, and they guarantee the words imitation of implied meanings. Farabi's understanding of the characteristics of these signified meanings, which themselves were derived from the beings of the external world, was based on a philosophical perspective toward the world and the beings; and he believed that among all different language rules, the rules of derivation have the greatest capacity to signify the beings, in the same way that they are understood in philosophy. Al-Farabi in different parts of his works especially in the book of letters makes extensive use of the rules of three types of word structure, i.e. the words "possessive primitive words", "non-possessive primitive words" and "derivative words": For naming different levels of knowledge (including knowledge consisting of/ knowledge of referable and perceptible like white (abyadh); and an abstract and imperceptible independent knowledge like whiteness (bayādh) in all languages, the structure of words signifying to categories (including both substantial species and genuses, accidental species and genuses) in all languages; and also the characteristics of the word signifying to the most important philosophical concept in All languages (of course, except Arabic language), which exactly imitates the characteristics of this concept in philosophy. Considering these linguistic opinions of Farabi, furthermore the history of linguistics after this era, we could truly consider Farabi beliefs on the unity of modes of being, modes of understanding and modes of signification, as well as a belief in an universal grammar prior to the Modists (the believers in speculative grammar); a Linguistic approach in the late Middle Ages, mostly influenced by Priscianus in the history of thoughts, which continued to the contemporary period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The many various definitions of the term 'language' make it improbable to account for the nature of the variations within the languages of the world. It seems that the recent and dominant concept of language has certain shortfalls with regard to the accountability and definitions of variations. By giving a different account of certain parameters and by arguing that the human language should be seen as a system of thought having only syntactic and semantic properties, the cross-linguistic variations are considered as various morpho-phonological systems of the many languages of the world, which ought not to be considered as part of the generative language computation. Such arguments will have significant implications to the understanding and definitions of the concept of language. The findings indicate that, if the goal of the linguistic theory is to seek a perfect system and to minimize variations within and across the languages, the term 'language' should be seen as a single, natural, universal, and invariant system without assuming that its computation is a double-interface. In such an understanding, the 'one' human language should be perceived as a system of thought which has only syntactic and semantic properties; whereas the 'many' languages of the world are considered to be the conventional morpho-phonological systems that should not be part of the generative language computation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evolution (sensu lato) of the cosmos can be divided in three phases: cosmological evolution (sensu stricto), biological evolution and cultural evolution. Analogies between biological and cultural evolution date from the nineteenth century although it is only in the past two decades that so-called cultural evolution research has exploded. By contrast, comparisons between cosmological evolution and either biological or cultural evolution are uncommon. Here, we compare these three kinds of evolution and try to delineate their common grammar. Do their structure and underlying dynamics have characteristics in common? We believe that this is indeed the case and also that this Universal Grammar of Evolution can and should be used as a heuristic template in the study of these three kinds of evolution. Furthermore, this provisional template also might help scholars in their attempts to sketch the future course of a possible fourth kind of evolution, that of artificial intelligence and intelligent machines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adverbs and Functional Heads: a Cross-Linguistic perspective (Cinque, Guglielmo. 1999. Adverbs and functional heads: A cross-linguistic perspective. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press)—one of the founding works of "Syntactic Cartography"—combines some of the developments in Syntactic Theory from the 1980s and 1990s with insightful contributions from Linguistic Typology. This paper has two interrelated goals. First, it aims to review the fundamental theses of Cinque's monography of 1999—which are far from controversial among scholars working in Cartography—; at the same time it provides conceptual support to them. Secondly, it aims to explore some methodological tools of Syntactic Cartography presented and discussed by Cinque, Guglielmo. 1999. Adverbs and functional heads: A cross-linguistic perspective. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press, namely the so-called precedence-and-transitivity tests—after a brief discussion on methodology used to recognise the functional categories, namely the criterion by Jackendoff, Ray. 1972. Semantic interpretation in generative grammar. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press—and the use of the hierarchies as tools to detect intra and interlinguistic variation. With regard to this latter issue, the paper gathers data from Brazilian Portuguese, Canadian English and Colombian Spanish on verb raising. The discussion of the data not only favours Cinque, Guglielmo. 2017. On the status of functional categories (heads and phrases). Language and Linguistics 18(4). 521–576 recent updates of his theoretical approach to the cartography of the clause but also shows how Cartography offers a natural scenario for a methodological approach to both micro and macro-variation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adults with no knowledge of sign languages can perceive distinctive markers that signal event boundedness (telicity), suggesting that telicity is a cognitively natural semantic feature that can be marked iconically (Strickland et al., 2015). This study asks if non-signing children (5-year-olds) can also link telicity to iconic markers in sign. Experiment 1 attempted three close replications of Strickland et al. (2015) and found only limited success. However, Experiment 2 showed that children can both perceive the relevant visual feature and can succeed at linking the visual property to telicity semantics when allowed to filter their answer through their own linguistic choices. Children's performance demonstrates the cognitive naturalness and early availability of the semantics of telicity, supporting the idea that telicity helps guide the language acquisition process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Haspelmath argues that linguists who conduct comparative research and try to explain patterns that are general across languages can only consider two sources of these patterns: convergent cultural evolution of languages, which provides functional explanations of these phenomena, or innate building blocks for syntactic structure, specified in the human cognitive system. This paper claims that convergent cultural evolution and functional-adaptive explanations are not sufficient to explain the existence of certain crosslinguistic phenomena. The argument is based on comparative evidence of generalizations based on Rizzi and Cinque's theories of cartographic syntax, which imply the existence of finely ordered and complex innate categories. I argue that these patterns cannot be explained in functional-adaptive terms alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of RumeliDE Journal of Language & Literature Research / RumeliDE Dil ve Edebiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi is the property of RumeliDE Uluslararasi Hakemli Dil & Edebiyat Arastirmalari Dergisi and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This work examines the nature of the so-called “mid-level generalizations of generative linguistics” (MLGs). In 2015, Generative Syntax in the 21st Century: The Road Ahead was organized. One of the consensus points that emerged related to the need for establishing a canon, the absence of which was argued to be a major challenge for the field, raising issues of interdisciplinarity and interaction. Addressing this challenge, one of the outcomes of this conference was a list of MLGs. These refer to results that are well established and uncontroversially accepted. The aim of the present work is to embed some MLGs into a broader perspective. I take the Cinque hierarchies for adverbs and adjectives and the Final-over-Final Constraint as case studies in order to determine their experimental robustness. It is showed that at least some MLGs face problems of inadequacy when tapped into through rigorous testing, because they rule out data that are actually attested. I then discuss the nature of some MLGs and show that in their watered-down versions, they do hold and can be derived from general cognitive/computational biases. This voids the need to cast them as language-specific principles, in line with the Chomskyan urge to approach Universal Grammar from below.

Introduction. Socio-political disciplines are an important component of the Humanities of the Soviet period of Russian history. Scientific communism, introduced as a compulsory subject in all Higher education institutions of the USSR in the last 30 years of the state's existence, was considered as the final expression of all the theoretical propositions of Marxism-Leninism. The article attempts to consider Scientific communism as a speculative speculative construction that, on the one hand, reproduces the terminological, logical, semantic and operational regulations of classical philosophical systems, and on the other hand, is a privileged mechanism of discursive production. As a typical example of how and through what tools the doctrine is legitimized, the texts of the work of A. K. Belykh, who for almost 30 years headed the Department of the theory of scientific communism at the faculty of philosophy of LSU (now SPBU).Methodology and sources. Methodologically, the work is based on a philosophical analysis of texts representative of the epoch (D. de Tracy, grammar of Port Royal, Soviet Russian philosophers who worked in the Marxist-Leninist tradition, monographs by A. K. Belykh), included in the approved canonical corpus of Marxism-Leninism.Results and discussion. Scientific communism, now virtually removed from historical memory, was an interesting example of how social thought evolved during the Soviet period of Russian history. The corpus of socio-political disciplines, which included Marxist-Leninist philosophy (dialectical materialism and historical materialism), political economy, history of the Communist party of the Soviet Union, and scientific communism, was a single complex of speculative doctrine. All these disciplines, positioned as scientific knowledge, can be fully evaluated only in the context of the main trends in the development of social and philosophical knowledge of the New time, set by the Enlightenment era. Symbolic points of reference here can be considered projects of ”universal grammar” (Port Royal) and ”ideology” (Destute de Tracy).Conclusion. Scientific communism is not an accidental, but characteristic of Russian thought, intellectual construct. Collective, i. e. a large number of people are involved in its implementation, which means it can be considered as a well-formed direction of social thought. Among the historical analogs that use the same strategic and tactical Arsenal of means of expression and discursive fixation, it can be compared and likened to the wellknown speculative constructs of a theological nature: high scholasticism.

This paper investigates the L2 acquisition of a specific syntactic phenomenon known as indexical shift. Indexicals are lexical items that pick their referents in discourse. For instance, ‘I’ and ‘you’ refer to the speaker and addressee of the conversation. In some languages, however, indexicals may shift to pick a different referent in the matrix clause when they are embedded in a finite complement clause. In other words, languages are largely divided into two groups: shifting and non-shifting languages. Therefore, a natural question to ask is to what extent does L1 affect the L2 acquisition of indexical shift? To answer this question, I carry out an experiment with learners of Turkish from shifting and non-shifting languages and find that L1 has no effect on the learners’ level of native-like performance. Turkish strongly favours shift and learners fall behind native speakers. But the difference between learners from shifting and non-shifting languages is insignificant. The paper also reiterates and elaborates on the judgments of native speakers previously attained elsewhere.

The logical problem of language acquisition has been at the forefront of psycholinguistics and behavioral neuroscience for decades. One of the most influential answers to the problem of how successful acquisition occurs on the basis of noisy input suggests that the child is aided by innate principles and parameters (P&P). These are conceived aspart of our biological endowment for language. Previous work on the computability of parametric models has focused on the process of parameter-setting,leaving settability unaddressed. Settability is a key notion in parametric models since it provides an answer to the logical problem of language acquisition: the setting of one parameter carries implications for the settability of others, minimizing the child’s task. However, a mathematical analysis of the expected probability of successful computation of settability relations has not been carried out. We report results from a novel program developed to calculate the probability of successful computation of a network of 62 linguistic parameters as attested in 28 languages, spanning across 5 language families. The results reveal that some parameters have an extremely low probability of successful computation, such that trillions of unsuccessful computations are expected before a successful setting occurs. Using the same program, we performed an additional second analysis to a different network, covering 94 parameters from58 languages and 15 language families. In this case, the estimated number of expected unsuccessful computations rose from trillions to quadrillions. These results raise concerns about the computational feasibility of the highly influential P&P approach to language development. Merging insights from various acquisition models, including some developed within P&P, a biologically plausible alternative is offered for the process of deciphering a target grammar in the acquisition of both spoken and signed languages. Overall, our analysis of the P&P approach to language acquisition centers learnability and computability constraints as the major factors for determining the psychological plausibility of grammar development.

Haspelmath argues that linguists who conduct comparative research and try to explain patterns that are general across languages can only consider two sources of these patterns: convergent cultural evolution of languages, which provides functional explanations of these phenomena, or innate building blocks for syntactic structure, specified in the human cognitive system. This paper claims that convergent cultural evolution and functional-adaptive explanations are not sufficient to explain the existence of certain crosslinguistic phenomena. The argument is based on comparative evidence of generalizations based on Rizzi and Cinque's theories of cartographic syntax, which imply the existence of finely ordered and complex innate categories. I argue that these patterns cannot be explained in functional-adaptive terms alone.

Phonological rules built from a single operation, priority union, can model both feature-filling and feature-changing processes. The distinction is handled by specifying which argument of priority union is defeasible. Priority union should be considered as a candidate for inclusion in phonological Universal Grammar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents data from Arabic loan word adaptation in Saraiki. The data are analyzed using Optimality Theory. The data show that speakers of a borrowing language sometimes change words of a source language obeying constraints which are neither operative in borrowing language, nor in a source language. Two types of repair strategy are discussed in the loanwords presented in this paper, namely gemination and stress shift. Vowel harmony also emerges in the context as a free ride natural effect. Based onthe evidence from Saraiki loanwords of Arabic origin, it is argued that in some contexts, speakers of a borrowing language develop a third phonology which is different from L1 (borrowing language) and L2 (source language) grammar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]