Search research articles

Related Concept Videos

Language and Cognition

Language and Cognition

Language serves as a bridge between ideas and communication, influencing how individuals perceive and interact with the world. Psychologists have long debated whether language shapes thought or vice versa. This discussion gained grip with Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf in the 1940s, who proposed that language determines thought, a concept known as linguistic determinism. They suggested that the vocabulary and structure of a language influence how its speakers think and perceive reality.

Language Development

Language Development

Children master language quickly and with relative ease, supported by both biological predisposition and reinforcement. B. F. Skinner (1957) proposed that language is learned through reinforcement, while Noam Chomsky (1965) argued that language acquisition mechanisms are biologically determined.
The critical period for language acquisition suggests that the ability to acquire language is at its peak early in life. As people age, this proficiency decreases. Language development begins very...

Components of Language

Components of Language

Language, whether spoken, signed, or written, consists of specific components: lexicon and grammar. The lexicon is the vocabulary of a language, comprising its words. Grammar is the set of rules used to convey meaning through the lexicon. For example, English grammar adds “-ed” to most verbs to indicate past tense. Words are formed by combining phonemes, which are the basic sound units of a language. Different languages have different sets of phonemes (e.g., “ah” vs.

Factors Affecting Dissolution: Polymorphism, Amorphism and Pseudopolymorphism

Factors Affecting Dissolution: Polymorphism, Amorphism and Pseudopolymorphism

Polymorphism refers to the existence of a drug substance in multiple crystalline forms, known as polymorphs. Recently, this term has been expanded to include solvates (forms containing a solvent), amorphous forms (non-crystalline forms), and desolvated solvates (forms from which the solvent has been removed).
Some polymorphic crystals possess lower aqueous solubility than their amorphous counterparts, leading to incomplete absorption. For instance, the oral suspension of Chloramphenicol, which...

Constraints and Statical Determinacy

Constraints and Statical Determinacy

In structural engineering, the equilibrium of a system is not only determined by its equations of equilibrium but also with the help of constraints. Constraints refer to restrictions on the motion of a system. The proper combinations of constraints can minimize the total number of constraints needed to maintain a system in mechanical equilibrium. When this happens, the system is said to be statically determinate. For such systems, the unknown reaction supports can be estimated using equilibrium...

The Availability Heuristic

The Availability Heuristic

A heuristic is a general problem-solving framework (Tversky & Kahneman, 1974). You can think of these as mental shortcuts that are used to solve problems. Different types of heuristics are used in different types of situations, and the impulse to use a heuristic occurs when one of five conditions is met (Pratkanis, 1989):

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Thinking About Multiword Constructions: Usage-Based Approaches to Acquisition and Processing.

Topics in cognitive science·2017

Same author

Salience in Second Language Acquisition: Physical Form, Learner Attention, and Instructional Focus.

Frontiers in psychology·2016

Same author

Language cognition: comments on Ambridge, Kidd, Rowland, and Theakston 'the ubiquity of frequency effects in first language acquisition'.

Journal of child language·2015

See all related articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Nov 5, 2025

Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effect of Induced Emotion on Grammar Learning

Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effect of Induced Emotion on Grammar Learning

Published on: January 29, 2020

Language Usage and Second Language Morphosyntax: Effects of Availability, Reliability, and Formulaicity.

Rundi Guo¹, Nick C Ellis¹

¹Language Learning Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States.

Frontiers in Psychology

|May 17, 2021

Summary

Second language learners

Keywords:

SLA availability elicited imitation task formulaicity morphosyntax phrase-superiority effects reliability

More Related Videos

Examining Online Syntactic Processing of Spoken Complex Sentences in Chinese Using Dual-Modal Interference Tasks

Examining Online Syntactic Processing of Spoken Complex Sentences in Chinese Using Dual-Modal Interference Tasks

Published on: September 5, 2019

Foreign Accent and Forensic Speaker Identification in Voice Lineups: The Influence of Acoustic Features Based on Prosody

Foreign Accent and Forensic Speaker Identification in Voice Lineups: The Influence of Acoustic Features Based on Prosody

Published on: September 27, 2024

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Nov 5, 2025

Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effect of Induced Emotion on Grammar Learning

Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effect of Induced Emotion on Grammar Learning

Published on: January 29, 2020

Examining Online Syntactic Processing of Spoken Complex Sentences in Chinese Using Dual-Modal Interference Tasks

Examining Online Syntactic Processing of Spoken Complex Sentences in Chinese Using Dual-Modal Interference Tasks

Published on: September 5, 2019

Foreign Accent and Forensic Speaker Identification in Voice Lineups: The Influence of Acoustic Features Based on Prosody

Foreign Accent and Forensic Speaker Identification in Voice Lineups: The Influence of Acoustic Features Based on Prosody

Published on: September 27, 2024

Area of Science:

Psycholinguistics
Second Language Acquisition
Morphology

Background:

Language processing and acquisition are influenced by linguistic construction distributions.
Statistical learning is a key mechanism in language acquisition.
Understanding how learners process morphosyntax is crucial for effective teaching.

Purpose of the Study:

Investigate how statistical distributions at morphological, lexical, and phrasal levels impact second language learners' morphosyntax processing and production.
Analyze Chinese English as a Second Language (ESL) learners' knowledge of four English inflectional morphemes.
Test hypotheses regarding morpheme availability and reliability in processing.

Main Methods:

Elicited Imitation Tasks (EITs) with length- and difficulty-matched sentences.
Analysis of Chinese ESL learners' reproduction of English inflectional morphemes (-ed, -ing, verb -s, plural -s).
Generalized Linear Mixed-Effects Logit Models (GLMMs) to analyze accuracy based on morpheme type, availability, reliability, and phrase frequency.

Main Results:

Morpheme type, availability, and reliability significantly affected accurate morpheme provision.
Lemma frequency did not impact morpheme accuracy.
Phrasal formulaicity (phrase-superiority effect) independently enhanced morpheme reproduction in high-frequency contexts.

Conclusions:

Second language morpheme acquisition is shaped by distributional properties in learner experience.
Mappings between lexis, morphology, phraseology, and semantics are critical.
Supports an emergentist view of statistical symbolic learning in morphology across multiple unit grain sizes.