Specific topics for this workshop are:
- first language acquisition (1LA)
- second language acquisition (2LA)
- language acquisition under pathological conditions
Ever since Chomsky proposed the learnability criterion as a much-needed boundary condition in order to constrain the set of possible grammars for a language, the study of first language acquisition has been at the heart of linguistic research and argumentation. This area has received a new impetus with the advent of, first, parameter theory (in the 1980's) and, second, constraint-based approaches (in the 1990's). More recently, theoretical approaches have been applied to the other two areas mentioned above, too, inviting questions such as: if 2LA is different from 1LA, how can these differences be explained and formalized? In which way does the study of 2LA contribute to the study of 1LA (for instance in the area of markedness issues)? In which way can data from (early) pathological breakdown (aphasia, dyslexia, etc.) help us evaluate theoretical frameworks, or competing analyses within a framework?
Papers will be judged for inclusion in the Workshop principally on the basis of the extent to which:
- they discuss topics from these three areas in comparison with, or in combination with, one another;
- they are written in a coherent theoretical framework of language and language acquisition, and contribute to the advancement of that framework;
- their claims are based on transparently presented experimental data which test clearly presented predictions within the framework of choice; and/or their claims are based on existing or newly available files;
- they state future perspectives in the area of investigation.