| The Emergence of Hybrid Grammars Contributor(s): Aboh, Enoch Oladé (Author) |
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ISBN: 0521150221 ISBN-13: 9780521150224 Publisher: Cambridge University Press OUR PRICE: $44.64 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: May 2019 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Language Arts & Disciplines | Linguistics - Historical & Comparative |
| Dewey: 417.22 |
| Series: Cambridge Approaches to Language Contact |
| Physical Information: 0.76" H x 6" W x 9" (1.08 lbs) 364 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Children are extremely gifted in acquiring their native languages, but languages nevertheless change over time. Why does this paradox exist? In this study of creole languages, Enoch Olad Aboh addresses this question, arguing that language acquisition requires contact between different linguistic sub-systems that feed into the hybrid grammars that learners develop. There is no qualitative difference between a child learning their language in a multilingual environment and a child raised in a monolingual environment. In both situations, children learn to master multiple linguistic sub-systems that are in contact and may be combined to produce new variants. These new variants are part of the inputs for subsequent learners. Contributing to the debate on language acquisition and change, Aboh shows that language learning is always imperfect: learners' motivation is not to replicate the target language faithfully but to develop a system close enough to the target that guarantees successful communication and group membership. |
Contributor Bio(s): Aboh, Enoch Olade: - Enoch Oladé Aboh is Professor of Linguistics at Universiteit van Amsterdam. His publications include The Morphosyntax of Complement-head Sequences (2004). In 2012 he was awarded the renowned one-year NIAS fellowship, and in 2003 he obtained the prestigious Dutch Science Foundation (NWO) five-year vidi grant to study the relation between information structure and syntax. |