160148 SE Seminar in Psycho-, Patho- or Neurolinguistics (2012W)

Approaches to language acquisition, processing and production that do not take language to be a specialized processing device or a ’language organ’ with a dedicated seat in the brain are gaining more and more support; the aim of this reading seminar is to review and evaluate evidence pointing in that direction from several fields. We will look into constructivist approaches proposing a less abstract model of grammar and domain-general learning mechanisms like categorization, intention-reading, statistical learning, analogy, distributional analysis, structure-mapping and generalization, and see how well these processes are able to explain language acquisition phenomena. Although debates about the specificity of language are perhaps most heated when it comes to language acquisition, we will also examine results from brain imaging together with neurological conditions where the core impairment does not target but might affect language (like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s). A last set of data will come from experimental research on adult processing arguing for a central role of frequency, analogy, the pragmatics of the discourse situation, intention reading, memory and executive functions in grammar and questioning the specificity of language processing mechanisms.