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Second Language Acquisition and Social
Coordination
Seán RobertsLEC,
University of Edinburgh
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Second Language Acquisition
Child Acquisition
Rapid
Effortless
Implicit
Universal
Adult Acquisition
Slow
Difficult
Explicit
Rarely native competence
Why?
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Adult SLAWhy are adults worse at SLA?Constraints on Memory
Paradis (2004), Ullman (2001)
Hagen 2008: Memory changes to fit social structure (interactions between groups)
BUT: Language Changes to fit social structure(social structure of learners)Christiansen & Chater, 2008, Lupyan & Dale, 2010
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Procedural and Declarative Memory
Procedural Memory for GrammarDeclarative Memory for Lexicon
Paradis (2004), Ullman (2001), DiGiulio (2004)
The ability to incorporate knowledge into procedural memory atrophies in adults
So they compensate by using declarative memory
Procedural Declarative
Age
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Child vs. Adult Acquisition
Linguistic capacities provide insights into the evolutionary pressures acting on our ancestors
Hagen (2008):
Atrophy of procedural memory suggests that language acquisition was useful for children,but not for adults
Adult SLA was not selected for propagation.
Adult SLA erodes due to drift
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Human nature
Linguistic capacities provide insights into the societies of our ancestors
Adults are not good at SLA:Hobbesian competitiveness
Children are good at bilingualism:
Rousseauian egalitarianism
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Procedural Memory Declines in adulthood
Linguistic diversity suggests isolation
Not much opportunity for trade
Conquering another group is easier and more rewarding than learning their language
SLA and Social Structure
Decline of Procedural Memory starts late in the life of early humans.
Gareth Roberts (2010): Linguistic diversity may stem from competition
Nettle and Romanie (2000): Social investment when trade is redundant
Hirchfield (2008): Exogamous marriageNot much warfare if there is little contact
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Alternative Hypothesis
Languages change much faster than genesLanguages adapt to the cognitive niche of its
learnersChristiansen & Chater (2008)
HYP If children (the learners) are still developing declarative memory, then language will adapt to procedural memory.
So language is not adapted for adults using declarative memory
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Languages adapt to Social Structure
Lupyan & Dale (2010):
Esoteric populations:
Few speakers, small dispersal, little contact with other communities:
Language is Morphologically complex
Exoteric populations
Many speakers, widely dispersed, many second language speakers:
Language uses Lexical strategies
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Log PopulationEnglishFirst Language: 300-400 millionSecond Language: 200 - 14,000 million
(Ethnologue, SIL International)
Lupyan & Dale(2010)
Com
plex
ity S
core
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Summary
If there are many child learners(procedural memory users)the language will adapt to use morphological strategies of distinction which are easier to learn using procedural memory
If there are many adult learners (declarative memory users)the language will adapt to use lexical strategies of distinction which are easier to learn using declarative memory
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Conclusion
Hagen: Inferring social structure from the structure of memory: Memory adapts to small, isolated populations.
Alternative: Inferring social structure from language structure: Language adapts to learners
Inferences about past social structures may not be possible because of rate of change in languages