Ianthi Tsimpli

First language attrition and syntactic subjects: a study of Greek and Italian near-native speakers of English

In this paper we present some results from an experimental study that we have been conducting into the effects of syntactic attrition on the L1 of Greek and Italian speakers who have achieved near-native proficiency in their L2 (English) but still use their L1 on a regular basis. In particular, we test the hypothesis, developed on the basis of assumptions regarding syntactic modularity, that the changes in L1 syntax will be restricted to the interface with the conceptual /intentional cognitive systems. The area of investigation is the domain of grammatical subjects in Greek and Italian. More specifically, we tested the participants on the production and interpretation of null and overt subjects, and of preverbal and postverbal subjects. We also elicited grammaticality judgments on subject extraction and subject position in various syntactic contexts. In this paper we report on the results of one of the production tasks (of preverbal and postverbal subjects) and two interpretation tasks. Attrition effects are found in the production of preverbal subjects in the Greek group whereas Italian speakers show attrition effects in the interpretation of overt pronominal subjects. We argue that these results are in the right direction, that is, that semantic features are vulnerable in language attrition whereas syntactic options remain intact.

Narrative abilities in bilingual children

The number of bilingual children is growing dramatically all over the world. In 2010 the International Organization of Migration documented 214 million migrants worldwide, many bilingual (Koser & Laczko, 2010). One of the challenges arising from the rapid increase of bilingual children is scientifically grounded assessment of linguistic proficiency in both of a childs languages in various language domains. Assessment in both languages is especially important to avoid misdiagnosis of language impairment. Specific language impairment (SLI) is among the most prevalent impairments, estimated to affect 7%–10% of children entering formal education (Grimm, 2003; Tomblin, Smith, & Zhang, 1997). Assessment tools for bilinguals in both the home language and the majority language are often lacking (for exceptions, see Gagarina, Klassert, & Topaj, 2010; Schulz & Tracy, 2011).

Language against the odds: the learning of British Sign Language by a polyglot savant

In this paper we report on our attempt to teach the polyglot savant Christopher (‘C’ hereinafter) British Sign Language (BSL). BSL presents C with a novel challenge in the use of hand-eye coordination, while at the same time offering him the linguistic ingredients he is obsessed with. Despite his deficits in key areas of intellectual ability, communication skills and visuo-spatial cognition, C has developed a working knowledge of BSL through processes of circumvention, adaptation and invention. As a form of control, we taught BSL to a comparator group of talented second-language learners. We do not discuss this comparison in depth here (see Morgan et al. in preparation) but refer to some of the test scores as a guide to how normal a sign learner C is. Results from formal tests of Cs linguistic knowledge, and observational study of his developing communicative ability in BSL, are analysed and described. These results illuminate the structure and use of BSL, highlighting the important role of visuo-spatial cognition in its acquisition and manipulation. Our findings support the assumption that the organisation of knowledge of language is largely modality independent, whereas the exploitation of specific grammatical devices is language and modality dependent. C has attained a certain level of linguistic competence in BSL, and his performance in the language is largely in conformity with his previously established mixed profile of abilities and disabilities.

Modality and structure in signed and spoken languages: The effects of modality on BSL development in an exceptional learner

This chapter reports on the findings of an experiment into the learning of British Sign Language (BSL) in Christopher, the Linguistic savant, and a control group of talented second language learners. The results from tests of comprehension and production of morphology and syntax, together with observations of his conversational abilities and judgments of grammaticality, indicate that despite his dyspraxia and visuo-spatial impairments, Christopher approaches the task of learning BSL in a way largely comparable to that in which he has learned spoken languages. However, his learning of BSL is not uniformly successful. Although Christopher approaches BSL as linguistic input, rather than purely visuo-spatial information, he fails to learn completely those parts of BSL for which an intact nonlinguistic visuo-spatial domain is required (e.g. the BSL classifier system). The unevenness of his learning supports the view that only some parts of language are modality-free. Accordingly, this case illuminates crossmodality issues, in particular, the relationship of sign language structures and visuo-spatial skills. By exploring features of Christopher’s signing and comparing it to normal sign learners, new insights can be gained into linguistic structures on the one hand and the cognitive pre-requisites for the processing of signed language on the other. In earlier work (see Smith and Tsimpli 1995 and references therein; also Tsimpli and Smith 1995; 1998; Smith 1996; Smith and Tsimpli 1996; 1997; Morgan, Smith, Tsimpli, and Woll 2002), we have documented the unique language learning abilities of a polyglot savant Christopher (date of birth: January, 6 1962). Christopher exhibits a striking dissociation between his linguistic and nonlinguistic abilities. Despite living in sheltered accommodation because his limited cognitive abilities make him unable to look after himself, Christopher can read, write, translate, and speak (with varying degrees of fluency) some 20 to 25 languages. This linguistic ability is in sharp contrast with his general intellectual and physical impairments. Due to a limb apraxia (a motor disorder which makes the articulation of planned movements of the arms and hands difficult or impossible), he has difficulty with everyday activities such as shaving,

Aspectual distinctions in the narratives of bilingual children

Abstract This study investigates the production of perfective and imperfective aspect in Greek by Greek-German and Greek-English bilingual children. Participants produced retellings of narratives (ENNI, Schneider et al. 2006), which were then coded for the use of grammatical aspect, perfective and imperfective, as well as for lexical and grammatical aspect combinations. Ninety children, 8 to 12 years old, participated in the study: thirty Greek-German bilinguals, thirty Greek-English bilinguals and thirty Greek monolinguals. Although German and English differ in the linguistic expression of aspect in that German lacks morphological aspect, while English marks the +/–progressive distinction, our results reveal that the two bilingual groups did not differ in their preference for perfective aspect. Perfective aspect was also preferred by the Greek monolingual children. Nevertheless, monolingual and Greek-German bilingual children produced fewer perfective verbs compared to the Greek-English children. Finally, all three groups preferred to use perfective aspect with accomplishment/achievement predicates, whereas a difference between the three groups is found in the use of imperfective aspect with stative, activity and semelfactive predicates. This provides partial support to theories which argue for lexical aspect guiding morphological aspect marking in developing grammars.

Biliteracy and reading ability in children who learn Greek as a second language

ABSTRACT The differences and similarities in the word recognition and reading comprehension skills of monoliterate Albanian-Greek (ML2), biliterate Albanian-Greek (BL2) and monolingual (L1) children in grades 3–6 were examined in two cross-sectional studies. Participants completed standardized and experimental tasks measuring cognitive, oral language and reading skills. The first study explored the effect of biliteracy on Greek word recognition taking into account the impact of oral expressive vocabulary in that language. 24 BL2 and 66 ML2 were compared to 78 L1 speakers in visual word recognition. It was revealed that the two groups of bilingual children differed in word recognition. In addition, it demonstrated that oral proficiency in the second language can play a key role in second language word reading. Study 2 examined the differences in reading comprehension skills of 21ML2, 13BL2 and 19L1 children. ML2 children performed proficiently on text comprehension as their monolingual peers. However biliterate Albanian-Greek children had poorer performance than their L1 peers.

Processing Coordinate Subject-Verb Agreement in L1 and L2 Greek

The present study examines the processing of subject-verb (SV) number agreement with coordinate subjects in pre-verbal and post-verbal positions in Greek. Greek is a language with morphological number marked on nominal and verbal elements. Coordinate SV agreement, however, is special in Greek as it is sensitive to the coordinate subjects position: when pre-verbal, the verb is marked for plural while when post-verbal the verb can be in the singular. We conducted two experiments, an acceptability judgment task with adult monolinguals as a pre-study (Experiment 1) and a self-paced reading task as the main study (Experiment 2) in order to obtain acceptance as well as processing data. Forty adult monolingual speakers of Greek participated in Experiment 1 and a hundred and forty one in Experiment 2. Seventy one children participated in Experiment 2: 30 Albanian-Greek sequential bilingual children and 41 Greek monolingual children aged 10–12 years. The adult data in Experiment 1 establish the difference in acceptability between singular VPs in SV and VS constructions reaffirming our hypothesis. Meanwhile, the adult data in Experiment 2 show that plural verbs accelerate processing regardless of subject position. The child online data show that sequential bilingual children have longer reading times (RTs) compared to the age-matched monolingual control group. However, both child groups follow a similar processing pattern in both pre-verbal and post-verbal constructions showing longer RTs immediately after a singular verb when the subject was pre-verbal indicating a grammaticality effect. In the post-verbal coordinate subject sentences, both child groups showed longer RTs on the first subject following the plural verb due to the temporary number mismatch between the verb and the first subject. This effect was resolved in monolingual children but was still present at the end of the sentence for bilingual children indicating difficulties to reanalyze and integrate information. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that (a) 10–12 year-old sequential bilingual children are sensitive to number agreement in SV coordinate constructions parsing sentences in the same way as monolingual children even though their vocabulary abilities are lower than that of age-matched monolingual peers and (b) bilinguals are slower in processing overall.