Linguistics

While it is widely agreed today that autism involves a cognitive change (Baron-Cohen, 1988), the main psychological models have put the explanatory weight on changes in such non-linguistic neurocognitive variables as “theory of mind” (ToM), weak central coherence, or executive functioning. Linguistic deficits, including ones identified as “pragmatic” and taken to be universal in people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) (Tager-Flusberg, 1996; Lord and Paul, 1997; Tager-Flusberg et al., 2001), or even the absence of functional language could then be seen as a secondary consequence of a primary defect in non-linguistic (particularly social) cognition (Mundy and Markus, 1997). (...) It is not clear [however] how independent of language human-specific forms of social interaction and communication can be, and it could be that a fundamental alteration in language competence is an inherent aspect of the cognitive change in question. Children with autism might construe language differently, reflecting a linguistic style different from that inherent in neurotypical cognition, which could then be reflected in altered patterns of social communication.

In the following article we try to find out what kind of semantic contribution is that of the prepositions (examples of English are used). As shown, through measurement techniques on interchange of mutual information, it is a very slight contribution.

Aquest article estudia la transmissió lingüística intergeneracional d’una mostra d’estudiants de secundària i batxillerat de dues zones de Catalunya caracteritzades per una alta presència del català com a llengua inicial i d’ús. Sobre la base d’un qüestionari distribuït entre alumnes d’origen migrant, es compara la llengua que parlen els pares entre si i la llengua que declaren els informants com a inicial per tal de determinar si hi ha indicis de substitució. Així mateix, es compara la llengua inicial declarada amb la llengua d’identificació per tal de detectar possible interrupció de la transmissió.

This article examines intergenerational language transmission based on a sample of secondary school students in two areas of Catalonia where, for the vast majority, Catalan is both the first language and the language  used. Based on a questionnaire distributed among immigrant students, the language which parents spoke to each other and the language which the students stated to be their first language were compared in order to determine any evidence of substitution. A comparison was also made between the reported first language and the language of (cultural) identification in order to detect whether transmission could come to cease.