Should it stay or should it go?

This paper tries to shed light on traditional and current observations that give support to the idea that language is subject to critical period effects. It is suggested that this idea is not adequately grounded on a view on language as a developmental phenomenon which motivates the suggestion of mo...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Balari, Sergio|||0000-0002-2531-2161, Lorenzo González, Guillermo|||0000-0003-0821-281X
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2015
País:España
Institución:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ddd.uab.cat:137834
Acceso en línea:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/137834
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Critical period
Faculty of language
Behavioral gradients
Cognitive hybridization
Scaffolding
Descripción
Sumario:This paper tries to shed light on traditional and current observations that give support to the idea that language is subject to critical period effects. It is suggested that this idea is not adequately grounded on a view on language as a developmental phenomenon which motivates the suggestion of moving from the now classic concept of language as a 'faculty' to a new concept of language as a 'gradient': i.e. an aggregate of cognitive abilities, the weight of which is variable from one to another developmental stage, and which exercise crucial scaffolding effects on each other. Once this well-supported view is assumed, the idea of 'critical period' becomes an avoidable one, for language can instantiate different forms of gradation, none of which is inherently normal or deviant relatively to each other. In any event, a notion of 'criticality' is retained within this view, yet simply to name the transitional effects of scaffolding influences within the gradient