Frightening or enlightening? An appraisal of the functions of the military metaphor in the aids context

No Abstrac

A closer look at Negative Concord in Afrikaans

No abstract available

Less is more: On the tolerance principle as a manifestation of maximize minimal means

The formalist perspective on language acquisition Yang outlines may be ‘personal’ (Yang, 2018, p.1), but it offers a valuable illustration of the spirit guiding much 21st-century generative work. Central here is the drive to “reduce[] the explanatory burden traditionally placed on innate linguistic parameters” (Yang, 2018, p.5) by pursuing a three- (1a) rather than two-factor (1b) model of grammar acquisition and structur

Factors 2 and 3: Towards a principled approach

This paper seeks to make progress in our understanding of the non-UG components of Chomsky's (2005) Three Factors model. In relation to the input (Factor 2), I argue for the need to formulate a suitably precise hypothesis about which aspects of the input will qualify as 'intake' and, hence, serve as the basis for grammar construction. In relation to Factor 3, I highlight a specific cognitive bias that appears well motivated outside of language, while also having wide-ranging consequences for our understanding of how I-language grammars are constructed, and why they should have the crosslinguistically comparable form that generativists have always argued human languages have. This is Maximise Minimal Means (MMM). I demonstrate how its incorporation into our model of grammar acquisition facilitates understanding of diverse facts about natural language typology, acquisition, both in "stable" and "unstable" contexts, and also the ways in which linguistic systems may change over time.Aquest treball pretén fer progressos en la comprensió dels components que no són UG del model de tres factors de Chomsky (2005). En relació amb l'entrada (factor 2), argumento la necessitat de formular una hipòtesi adequada i precisa sobre quins aspectes de l'entrada es qualificaran com a "ingesta" i, per tant, seran la base de la construcció gramatical. En relació amb el factor 3, destaco un biaix cognitiu específic que apareix força motivat fora del llenguatge, alhora que té àmplies conseqüències per a la nostra comprensió de com es construeixen les gramàtiques del llenguatge I, i per què haurien de tenir la forma interlingüísticament comparable als generativistes. Es tracta de maximitzar els mitjans mínims (MMM). Demostro que la seva incorporació al nostre model d'adquisició gramatical facilita la comprensió de fets diversos sobre tipologia de llenguatge natural, adquisició, tant en contextos "estables" com "inestables", i també de les maneres de canviar els sistemes lingüístics amb el pas del temps

Some thoughts on the complexity of syntactic complexity

Walkden & Breitbarth (henceforth: W&B) outline an innovative research programme which, among other things, aims to probe the notion of syntactic complexity by approaching it from a sociolinguistically informed second-language (L2) perspective. Given the valuable insights, synchronic and diachronic, that have been emerging from sociolinguistically sensitive generative work, there can be little dispute about the feasibility and value of going beyond the classic idealized generative paradigm in advancing our understanding of language variation and change in general. The purpose of this short commentary is to consider three aspects of W&B’s proposed sociolinguistically informed interpretation of (syntactic) complexity in terms of L2 difficulty: sections 2 and 3 are concerned with conceptual matters, while section 4 focuses on technicalities associated with the proposed operationalization of ‘syntactic complexity’ in terms of uninterpretable features.Non

Afrikaans as Standaard Gemiddelde Europees:Wanneer ‘n lid uit sy taalarea beweeg

A recent trend in the study of Standard Average European is the extraterritorial perspective of examining the extent to which non-European languages have converged with this Sprachbund as a result of contact with one or more of its members. The present article complements this line of research in that it investigates the extent to which a European language has diverged from Standard Average European after leaving the linguistic area. The focus is on Dutch, a nuclear member of the Sprachbund, and Afrikaans, its colonial offshoot. The two languages are compared with respect to twelve of the most distinctive linguistic features of Standard Average European. Afrikaans is found to share ten of them with Dutch, including anticausative prominence and formally distinguished intensifiers and reflexives, and could therefore still be considered a core member of the Sprachbund, despite deviations in the expression of negative pronouns and the grammaticality of external possessor constructions. This relatively low degree of divergence may be attributed to the continuity from Settler Dutch to at least the variety of Afrikaans on which the standard language is based and to the important role that Dutch continued to play in the history of Afrikaans

A global experiment on motivating social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic

Finding communication strategies that effectively motivate social distancing continues to be a global public health priority during the COVID-19 pandemic. This cross-country, preregistered experiment (n = 25,718 from 89 countries) tested hypotheses concerning generalizable positive and negative outcomes of social distancing messages that promoted personal agency and reflective choices (i.e., an autonomy-supportive message) or were restrictive and shaming (i.e., a controlling message) compared with no message at all. Results partially supported experimental hypotheses in that the controlling message increased controlled motivation (a poorly internalized form of motivation relying on shame, guilt, and fear of social consequences) relative to no message. On the other hand, the autonomy-supportive message lowered feelings of defiance compared with the controlling message, but the controlling message did not differ from receiving no message at all. Unexpectedly, messages did not influence autonomous motivation (a highly internalized form of motivation relying on one’s core values) or behavioral intentions. Results supported hypothesized associations between people’s existing autonomous and controlled motivations and self-reported behavioral intentions to engage in social distancing. Controlled motivation was associated with more defiance and less long-term behavioral intention to engage in social distancing, whereas autonomous motivation was associated with less defiance and more short- and long-term intentions to social distance. Overall, this work highlights the potential harm of using shaming and pressuring language in public health communication, with implications for the current and future global health challenges