Neurolinguistics

The first part of the research is devoted to the assessment of the cognitive abilities of children with dyslexia and developmental language disorders (DLD), which are related to spatial conception through the use of image schemata. The performance of the clinical cases is compared to the performance of typically developing children, matched for chronological and language age. The second part of the research focuses on the neurodevelopmental framework of image schema acquisition and spatial cognition in typically developing children, through the use of the Greek preposition ‘se’, σε.

- Les représentations mentales; les connaissances intuitives; les schémas mentaux; le lexique mental; les stéréotypes; les connaissances intuitives; les biais cognitifs et heuristiques de jugement; les facteurs psychologiques influençant les juges. (Mis à jour le 25 juillet 2015.)
- Mental representations; intuitive knowledge; schemas; mental lexicon; stereotypes; cognitive biases and judgment heuristics; psychological biases of judges. (Updated July 25th, 2015)

This is an updated, improved version of my BA thesis from 2013. Only cosmetic changes were made; the meaning of the sentences is unaffected.

I researched Michael Ullman’s claims about the explanatory power of his declarative/procedural model of lexicon and grammar, which states that lexical information is stored in declarative memory, whereas grammatical rules (in this case, verbal inflection) are accessed “in real time” using procedural memory. I reviewed existing literature on the subject and ultimately found that even though Ullman’s model is neurologically accurate, it is not sufficiently powerful to explain the psycholinguistics of verb inflection.

English translation available.

Аннотация. Существующие модели построения высказывания описывают построение текста,  молчаливо допуская, что те же операции автоматически приводят и к построению соответствующего контекста.  Вслед за М.Томаселло, мы рассматриваем контекст как рамку совместного внимания говорящего и слушающего (пишущего и представляемого адресата). Внимание как функциональная система, участвующая в подготовке к действию, включает и автоматические процессы, и произвольные. В случае построения рассказа по картинке автоматические процессы запускают выбор схем, а именно выбор модели ситуации, изображенной на картинке. Для выполнения этой задачи наиболее оптимальны мозговые структуры правого полушария. За автоматическим сбором «досье»  следует принятие активного решения о смысле картинки, если он неоднозначен, и планирование речевого действия. Это обеспечивается нисходящими влияниями, т.е. мотивацией и дополнительным торможением или активацией схем - механизмом «уделения ресурсов внимания», реализуемым преимущественно структурами лобных отделов левого полушария. Такое понимание подготовки к речевому действию, хорошо совместимое с характеристиками структуры и функций мотива, мысли и внутренней речи, данными Л.С. Выготским, проверялось в исследовании смысловой организации рассказов по серии картинок дошкольников и младших школьников, как группы нормы (N=63), так и с отклонениями в развитии (N=131). Нейропсихологическое обследование детей позволило разделить их на группы с относительной слабостью функций левого или правого полушария. Обнаруженные типичные ошибки детей обеих групп - смысловая неполнота и уход от контекста - подтверждают выдвинутые гипотезы.

Department of Linguistics
The University of Adelaide
2012

An investigation into the challenge of writing Chinese characters and kanji for native speakers of languages using logographic scripts.

Comment and constructive criticism most welcome. Neurolinguistics is not part of the undergraduate linguistics curriculum, but it is something I would like to study at post-graduate level. Please bring any blatant errors of understanding to my attention.

Nach Jakobson (1941) lassen sich in der frühen phonologischen Entwicklung zwei diskrete Phasen unterscheiden. Eine erste Phase, in der vorsprachliche Lalllaute produziert werden und keine phonologischen Kontraste gegeben sind, und eine zweite Phase, die eigentliche Sprachstufe, in der eben diese sprachsystematischen Kontrastbildungen sukzessive ausgebaut werden. Ausgehend von diesem strukturalistischen Paradigma wurden Protowörter, die im Übergang von der Lallphase zur Zielwortproduktion realisiert werden und bei einer relativ stabilen Bedeutungszuweisung keine overte Ähnlichkeit zu Zielwörtern zeigen, entweder als artikulatorische Muster analysiert oder unter der Perspektive der Generativen Grammatik als nicht-phonologische Wortformen gänzlich ignoriert. Im Gegensatz zu diesen tradierten Ansätzen wird in dieser Arbeit ein neuer Ansatz vertreten, nach dem dreidimensionale (mit segmentaler, silbischer und metrischer Ebene) phonologische Repräsentationen ab ovo in der Sprachverarbeitung aktiv sind und sich gemäß der klassischen Kompetenz-Performanz-Unterscheidung in frühen Wortproduktionen auch linguistisch analysieren lassen. Das adäquate Instrumentarium für diese Analyse können gerade nicht zielsprachliche Merkmalskontraste mit bedeutungsunterscheidender Funktion sein, sondern genuin phonologische Kontraste. Zielführend ist hier die Anwendung der Demisilbentheorie von Clements (1990), mit deren Hilfe die phonologische Komplexität von Demisilben nach Maßgabe von Sonorität berechnet werden. Wurde diese Theorie bisher erfolgreich in der Aphasiologie angewendet, wird sie hier erstmals in der Untersuchung der Protowortproduktion, appliziert. Die Daten stammen aus der im Rahmen dieser Arbeit durchgeführten Einzelfallstudie, in der die Spontansprachproduktionen von Kind J., 1;4 Jahre, jeweils einmal wöchentlich für 30 Minuten aufgezeichnet wurden. Die Aufnahmen endeten zu dem Zeitpunkt, als Kind J. keine Protowörter mehr produzierte. Wesentliche Ergebnisse einer linguistisch-qualitativen wie auch einer statistisch-quantitativen Analyse dieser Daten waren, dass Proto- und Zielwortproduktion korrelierten, d.h., bei Abnahme der Protowortproduktion die Zielwortproduktion zunahm; beide Wortklassen tendenziell aus nicht-komplexen Demisilben aufgebaut waren und Protowörter in dem Sinne als Vorläufer von Zielwörtern angesehen werden können, als dass bei ihnen nicht die zielsprachliche Bedeutungszuweisung, sondern die Etablierung phonologischer Repräsentationen maßgeblich ist. Ausgehend von diesen Ergebnissen wird ein differenziertes Schalenmodell der frühen phonologischen Entwicklung vorgestellt, nach welchem der segmentale Merkmalsausbau und seine Integration in die Silbe mittels Sonorität noch vor der metrischen Betonungszuweisung stattfindet. Unter Hinzunahme der Parallelen Architektur von Jackendoff (2002) wird abschließend eine kognitiv-linguistische Definition von Protowörtern gegeben, die nicht zuletzt auch zu diagnostischen Zwecken in der sprachtherapeutischen Praxis gebraucht werden kann.

Penelitian terhadap kompetensi mahasiswa dalam memproses berbahasa sangat penting dilakukan karena saat ini mahasiswa sering dianggap kurang mampu berkomunikasi dengan baik dan benar, baik segi penggunaannya maupun pragmatiknya. Kedua aspek tersebut sangat ditentukan oleh fungsi otak kanan (hemisfer kanan) seseorang. Untuk itu dilakukan uji kompetensi fungsi hemisfer kanan dalam proses berbahasa dengan menggunakan metode “Pemeriksaan Komunikasi Hemisfer Kanan” (PKHK) oleh Dharmaperwira-prins. Penelitian ini dilakukan terhadap 38 mahasiswa Sastra Inggris Universitas Andalas. Data diambil melalui tes tertulis yang dirancang untuk menguji kemampuan mahasiswa terhadap tiga kompetensi, yaitu leksiko-semantik, makrostuktur, dan pragmatik. Penilaian terhadap kompetensi ini meliputi kompetensi reseptif (persepsi) dan kompetensi ekspresif (produksi).
Hasil dari penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa terdapat beberapa gangguan terhadap beberapa kompetensi kebahasaan. Untuk kompetensi leksiko-semantik, terdapat beberapa mahasiswa yang mengalai gangguan dalam memahami makna kiasan (21,05%)  dan asosiasi kata (28,95%). Untuk kompetensi makrostruktur reseptif, kebanyakan mahasiswa mengalami kesulitan dalam menangkap informasi penting (68,42%), menangkap adjektiva (84,21 %), dan menangkap perasaan (84,21%). Sementara itu, untuk kompetensi makrostruktur ekspresif, kebanyakan mahasiswa mengalami gangguan dalam meringkas cerita (55,26%), memahami tema cerita (63,16%), koherensi (50%), dan menyatakan emosi (42,11%). Untuk kompetensi prakmatik reseptif, mahasiswa kesulitan dalam memahami makna konotatif (42,11%), motivasi pembicara (78,95%), dan nilai moral (50%). Untuk kompetensi pragmatik ekpresif, kebanyakan mahasiswa mengalami gangguan dalam memproduksi ujaran yang tepat (21,05%) dan gangguan inhibisi sosial (31,58%). Berdasarkan hasil penelitian di atas dapat disimpulkan bahwa partisipan mengalami gangguan kompetensi hemisfer kanan dalam berbahasa.

Il presente elaborato si pone l’obiettivo di delineare un quadro generale dello sviluppo della glottodidattica e della neurolinguistica, mostrando come il loro percorso sia interconnesso e come queste si siano influenzate reciprocamente. Si è posta inoltre particolare attenzione a come il concetto di bimodalità emisferica, elaborato da psicologi e neurolinguisti, abbia rifunzionalizzato i protagonisti dell’apprendimento linguistico, specialmente alle conseguenze di questo nuovo paradigma sui soggetti più piccoli, ovvero i bambini dai 5 agli 11 anni circa.
Nel primo capitolo si delinea una storia degli sviluppi più significativi, dalla metà del secolo scorso in poi, prima riguardanti la glottodidattica e, successivamente, la neurolinguistica, mostrando come siano ricorrenti innovazioni e nuove scoperte.
Nel secondo capitolo si espongono le conseguenze di questi percorsi neurologici e psicologici e la loro applicazione nella glottodidattica, definita ora umanistico-affettiva, mostrando come vengano ripensati e rifunzionalizzati i protagonisti dell’apprendimento linguistico, quindi docenti, discenti e materiale scolastico.
Il terzo e ultimo capitolo indaga come questi sviluppi e percorsi interconnessi abbiano influenzato la docenza di una lingua straniera, L2 o LS, nel caso specifico degli studenti della scuola primaria, con una breve analisi esemplificativa del manuale Ambarabà, edito da Alma Edizioni.
Il lavoro svolto cerca di offrire uno sguardo teorico e pratico sullo sviluppo della glottodidattica e di come, grazie alla sua interdisciplinarietà, si sia arrivati alle moderne teorie, definite umanistico-affettive, le quali hanno portato un importante ripensamento dell’intero processo dell’apprendimento linguistico.

"This article has two main purposes. The first one is to prove that the alleged superiority of the alphabet to other writing systems (syllabic and logosyllabic ones) is an ethnocentric prejudice and that the optimality of a writing system has to be measured following a series of criteria which cannot be reduced to the faithful mapping of sounds. The second one is to incorporate into the graphemic theory external data and new approaches to develop new methods of investigation and to emancipate graphemics from phonology. The structure of the article is composed of seven parts. First of all, we discuss some definition problems; then, in the introduction, the main points of view about the alphabetic principle are exposed and in chapter 2 the relationships between writing systems and language perception
are investigated. In chapter 3 we attempt to define some criteria to judge the degree of optimality of the different writing systems. In chapter 4 we try to find some patterns of predictability of the degree of opacity and transparency of some of the main European writing systems (the opaque English, French and Danish orthographies and the shallow Finnish and
Italian orthographies). In chapter 5 we shortly examine the natural evolution of writing in recent times: Internet, SMS and new writing systems. Finally, in chapter 6 we try to draw some temporary conclusions."

Sam Harris, in his book The Moral Landscape, argues that “science can determine human values.” Against this view, I argue that while secular moral philosophy can certainly help us to determine our values, science—at least as that word is commonly understood—must play a subservient role. To the extent that science can “determine” what we ought to do, it is only by providing us with empirical information, which can then be slotted into a chain of deductive (moral) reasoning. The premises of such reasoning, however, can in no way be derived from the scientific method: they come, instead, from philosophy—and common sense.

The current thesis tackles the question “Why is music the way it is?” within a comparative biomusicology framework by focusing on musical syntax and its relation to syntax in language. Comparative biomusicology integrates different comparative approaches, biological frameworks as well as levels of analysis in cognitive science, and puts forward principled explanations, regarding cognitive systems as different instances of the same principles, as its central research strategy. The main goal is to provide a preliminary answer to this question in form of hypotheses about neurocognitive mechanisms, i.e., cognitive and neural processes, underlying a core function of syntactic computation in language and music, i.e., mapping hierarchical structure and temporal sequence. In particular, the relationship between language and music is discussed on the basis of a top-down approach taking syntax as combinatorial principles and a bottom-up approach taking neural structures and operations as implementational principles. On the basis of the top-down approach, the thesis identifies computational problems of musical syntax, cognitive processes and neural correlates of music syntactic processing, and the relationship to language syntax and syntactic processing. The neural correlates of music syntactic processing are investigated by ALE meta-analyses. The bottom-up approach then studies the relationship between language and music on the basis of neural processes implemented in the cortico-basal ganglia-thalamocortical circuits. The main result of the current thesis suggests that the relationship between language and music syntactic processing can be explained in terms of the same neurocognitive mechanisms with different expressions on the motor-to-cognitive gradient. The current thesis, especially its bottom-up approach, opens up a possible way going toward comparative cognitive biology, i.e., a comparative approach to cognitive systems with a greater emphasis on the biology.

In a much-publicized paper, Zhong and Liljenquist (2006) reported evidence that feelings of moral cleanliness are grounded in feelings of physical cleanliness: a threat to people’s moral purity leads them to seek, literally, to cleanse themselves. In an attempt to replicate and build upon these findings, we conducted a pilot study in which we unexpectedly failed to replicate the original results from the second study of Zhong and Liljenquist’s report. To investigate the source of this issue, we conducted a series of direct replications of Study 2 as reported in Zhong and Liljenquist (2006). We used the authors’ original materials and methods; we investigated samples that were more representative of the general population than in the original experiments; we investigated samples from different countries and cultures; and we substantially increased the power of our statistical tests. Nevertheless, we still failed to replicate Zhong and Liljenquist’s initial reported findings. Our research suggests that more work is needed to clarify the scope and robustness of the original results.

The term Mental Lexicon, sometimes seen as an online version of a dictionary, is often taken to refer to the part of our language system that hosts the word forms we know and their corresponding meanings. Unlike a dictionary, words in the Mental Lexicon are not organized strictly alphabetically (although speech errors such as malapropisms, e.g., appointment –> apartment, suggest that words having a form relationship are somehow relatedly represented) but stored according to principles of meaning, form, frequency, and possibly other aspects. Form refers to the phonological make-up of words, but also to orthography (spelling) or gestures. Moreover, words must be mentally represented and organized in an easily accessible way to support efficient processing —both in comprehension and production. However, how are words represented and connected to each other in the Mental Lexicon? It is clear that our brain must have the capacity to store word forms and their meanings because understanding and producing words are important skills of the human language user and both processes involve form and meaning. Theories of language comprehension and language production include ideas about the organization and representation of words in the Mental Lexicon. Comprehension and production is one important dichotomy reflected in this article. Another contrast is the difference between representation and processing. Representation of units in the Mental Lexicon, be it bundles of words, individual words, morphemes, syllables, phonemes, or features, is rather static. When we learn a word, it is important to store the correct pronunciation, spelling, or gestures with the particular meaning. Processing, however, is more dynamic. When we hear or produce a word, a number of (dynamic) cognitive processes are being executed that operate on (static) representations in the Mental Lexicon. When we hear an acoustic signal corresponding to words we know, our language comprehension system can recognize those words and map them to corresponding meanings resulting in speech comprehension. A similar process takes place when we read text written in a language we can read. Visual word forms are being recognized and mapped onto meanings leading to text comprehension. If word forms are not stored in our brain, we cannot recognize them and thus we are not able to understand what is being said or written down. This happens when we listen to speech or read words in a language we do not know. When we produce speech, we start with the intention to convey a certain message making access to stored information in the Mental Lexicon necessary. The exact information that is being stored in the Mental Lexicon and how it is stored and accessed, is still being investigated. This bibliography will especially be concerned with features of form representation of words, i.e., morphology and phonology, and less so with the representation of meaning, i.e., semantics.

El propósito de este artículo es ofrecer una caracterización y sistematización del lenguaje de los pacientes con Trastorno de espectro autista (TEA) y la relación que existe entre los diferentes rasgos que los caracterizan. De manera especial, hemos distinguido entre los rasgos de los sujetos con TEA con déficit cognitivo y los rasgos lingüísticos de los sujetos que no tienen déficit cognitivo. Hemos distinguido, asimismo, las relaciones que tienen todas estas características lingüísticas con el componente pragmático del lenguaje. Esto es, queremos mostrar que muchas deficiencias de carácter fonético/fonológico o morfosintáctico están relacionadas con el componente pragmático. En nuestra opinión, el hecho de que el déficit pragmático tenga repercusiones en el fonético/fonológico y el morfosintáctico prueba que la pragmática está presente en el lenguaje como una totalidad  y que, por consiguiente, la pragmática no debería ser concebida como un componente/módulo del lenguaje sino como una perspectiva (López GarcíaMolins, 1989 or Pons Bordería, 2005).

The paper demonstrates that onomastics may significantly benefit from the results of psychoand neurolinguistics, while the limits on the use of these advances are also discussed. In psycholinguistics, the category of proper names has appeared only rarely for many decades; the word
group has only been researched since the 1980s. However, these relevant analyses are still considered relatively peripheral. In the 2000s, interests in the representation of proper names in the nervous system were expressed by neuroscience, especially in neurolinguistics, akin to psycholinguistics. Since then researchers have applied rapidly developing electrophysiological and imaging
techniques, and have been eager to explore the relevant neural relations. The author highlights four fields in which the results of these research projects may help name studies: 1. the meaning of proper names, 2. the categorisation of proper names into a word class, 3. the unit status of proper names, 4. the acquisition of proper names.

Le chemin qui conduit de la psychomécanique à la neurolinguistique n’est pas un agréable sentier de campagne. Ce serait plutôt une « voie rocailleuse », à la Sénèque, ou encore, à l’instar du surréalisme, « une toute petite passerelle au dessus de l’abîme », ce gouffre qui existe, dans le monde académique européen, entre la linguistique et les neurosciences. Il se trouve que le modèle chomskyen a permis aux chercheurs américains d’éviter la dissociation radicale entre les sciences du langage et les sciences du cerveau, mais au prix d’une absorption un peu rude des premières dans les secondes, puisque le point de vue de Chomsky est celui d’une conception du langage comme système biologique. Si la cohérence et la radicalité scientiste de ce point de vue occultent de nombreux aspects des langues humaines, il est peu contestable qu’elles ont cependant conduit à d’intéressantes études sur les pathologies du langage à partir des années 1990, notamment sur l’aphasie . Mais il demeure que dans le contexte français de naissance et de développement de la linguistique guillaumienne, la recherche sur les applications ou les implications neuropsychologiques de la théorie est restée à l’état embryonnaire. A cet égard, les travaux de Maurice Toussaint font exception : conduisant jusqu’à ses ultimes conséquences une réinterprétation – voire une refondation – matérialiste de l’œuvre de Guillaume, il fut conduit tout naturellement à exiger un ancrage neuronal de la sémantique, ce qui l’amena à concevoir une « neurosémantique ». Si la psychomécanique de Maurice Toussaint est une psychomécanique, sa neurosémantique est également une neurolinguistique, d’un genre très particulier .
Classiquement, la neurolinguistique est considérée comme une branche de la neuropsychologie, cette dernière étant consacrée à l’étude des fonctions mentales supérieures (pensée, mémoire, attention, langage, perception, motricité) dans leurs rapports avec les structures cérébrales. Dans cette perspective, la neurolinguistique est donc une sous-discipline de la neuropsychologie (humaine), consacrée à l’étude des relations entre le cerveau et le comportement langagier . On remarquera toutefois qu’au plan historique, la neuropsychologie a commencé avec la neurolinguistique, puisque c’est à partir des travaux sur les pathologies du langage de Gall, Bouillaud, Broca, Wernicke, et bien d’autres savants du XIXe siècle qu’on a commencé à établir d’une façon sérieuse des corrélations entre certaines structures spécifiques du cerveau et des comportements humains, en l’occurrence ici langagiers. La neurolinguistique fut donc à son origine une analyse des corrélations entre des lésions cérébrales et des troubles du langage associés, c’est-à-dire essentiellement des aphasies. Mais aujourd’hui, outre les troubles du langage acquis, elle s’intéresse également aux troubles de l’acquisition du langage (dysphasies) et au fonctionnement du langage non-pathologique.
La neurolinguistique a-t-elle quelque chose à dire au sujet de l’humain ? En quoi le point de vue des neurosciences sur le langage pourrait-il contribuer à « repenser la condition humaine » ? Il faut en premier lieu reconnaître que la question se pose effectivement, car rien n’est moins évident que le rapport à l’humain du neurologique ou plus largement de l’organique, et le fait qu’il s’agisse ici de langage, activité proprement humaine, ne doit pas faire illusion ; car si le langage peut être conçu comme proprement humain, il ne l’est pas nécessairement en tant que gestualité bucco-phonatoire rapportée à un substrat neuronal. Il convient en outre d’apprécier la teneur de cette question dans un contexte contemporain fortement marqué par une sensibilité naturaliste qui se formule, selon les cas, comme projet de naturalisation de l’esprit, voire de la culture, ou encore, plus largement, comme une ambition d’en finir avec « l’exception humaine » . Car ce qui me semble irréversiblement acquis, et qui se révèle notamment dans la méthodologie expérimentale qui caractérise les sciences cognitives – dont le néo-naturalisme est l’ordinaire épistémologique –, c’est qu’une approche purement théorique ou philosophique du « mind-body problem » a perdu toute légitimité et ne peut être perçue autrement que comme un aimable bavardage. Aucune approche sérieuse de ces questions liées à l’ancrage neuro-biologique de l’humanité ne peut désormais faire l’économie d’une information précise en matière scientifique, qu’il s’agisse de sciences dures, de sciences du vivant ou de sciences humaines. C’est donc en ce sens que l’on peut espérer que l’approche neurolinguistique du langage nous apporte quelques lumières pour penser ou repenser la condition humaine. Or, si l’on admet qu’il n’existe pas de faits bruts en neurolinguistique – ni ailleurs –, c’est-à-dire de données objectives irrécusables en elles-mêmes, mais que toute information scientifique se construit dans le cadre d’un modèle ou d’une théorie au sein desquels elle prend son sens, il convient d’ancrer la réflexion dans une perspective théorique explicite. C’est la linguistique de Gustave Guillaume qui nous fournira ici ce cadre théorique.

Research, by its nature, is a critical challenging task requires in depth knowledge of the subject matter, planning, care, and hard work. From the students' point of view, this paper attempts to explore the challenges that are faced by undergraduates when they are writing proposals and research projects at the early stages. The study target group comprised undergraduates in the final year in the College of Science and Arts, Al-Namas, University of Bisha, Saudi Arabia. Around 60 subjects participated in this study and they were from Department of English and Department of Computer Science who conducted their research projects in English as Second Language (ESL). The Research tools of the study include questionnaire and informal interviews with students and teachers of the target groups. Clearly, the results from study showed that around 70 % of the participants who are writing research or conducting research projects in English is one of the predominant challenges for them. Around 50% prefer to conduct their research in L1. The study explored various and common challenges/difficulties during writing the research proposals and projects such as: difficulty in deciding the topic for research, lack of good knowledge of the methodology, inability of finding modern, specialized and related references, lack of interest in research, lack of understanding of the subject matter, lack of time, and research guiding. The study also attempts to give some suggestions/recommendations for developing the process of writing research proposals and research projects.

The purpose of this qualitative grounded theory study was to assess component models of a model of education that incorporates multiple language acquisition. The Research Literature indicates that third language (L3) learning enhances both L2 and L1 as long as L1 and L2 are supported. This stratified systematic grounded theory study explored the perspectives of neurolinguists, psycholinguists, sociolinguists, and interdisciplinary multilingual education researchers to derive variables for constructing a complex multilingual model of education. The outcome of the Internet survey revealed that 100% of the researcher participants agreed that multilingual education and teacher training must improve. Variables from the cross-disciplinary data contributed to the construction of an integrated model of multilingual education consisting four models as well as tools for implementing multilingual education. The first of four models emerged from the data to offer the foundational principles of multilingual education. The other three models are macro, meso, and micro models. The macro model represents schools, instruction, assessment, and the curriculum cycle. The meso model depicts the developmental domains of the individual learner: Cognitive, Affective, Psychomotor, Education, Contextual, and intrinsically linked Motivation & Identity. The meso model also offers a synergetic equation. The micro model delineates multilingual processing in the brain based on current neurological research and variables from the current study. This study receive both national and international attention: national attention with a synopsis published as the chapter 4 in a monograph published by the Refractive Thinker Press; and international attention with a synopsis published in the August 2012 issue of the International Journal of Multilingualism.

Pour citer cet article : Germain, C. (2017). Acquisition ou apprentissage de la grammaire? In M. L. Cárdenas & N. M. Basurto Santos (Eds.), Investigación-Research-Recherche: En lenguas extranjeras y lingüística aplicada (pp. 149-167). Bogotá, Colombia: Universidad Nacional de Colombia & Universidad Veracruzana.

Parmi les acquis de la linguistique saussurienne, le principe de l'arbitraire du signe est certainement le postulat le plus communément admis des linguistes contemporains. Pourtant, à moins de les considérer comme de simples systèmes de traitement de l'information, on ne peut réduire les langues à de purs codages de signifiés auxquels seraient arbitrairement affectés d'aléatoires signifiants. Saussure admet lui-même que, sans une motivation relative, on ne saurait rendre compte du caractère systématique de la langue, c'est-à-dire des régularités observables dans les relations entre signifiés et signifiants. Réévaluer la portée de cette motivation relative, s'interroger sur la motivation interne du signe, examiner la contrepartie neurolinguistique et cognitive de la critique de l'arbitraire, tels sont les axes majeurs de cette étude, qui dessine l'horizon d'une linguistique analogique dont le premier principe n'est plus celui de l'arbitraire mais de la motivation du signe.

The aspects exposed here are an oversimplification of highly debated issues in the two fields. The controversies take place not only between the two frameworks, but also within them. This extremely brief presentation is meant to show only the general characters and the main premises of the two parts involved in the long standing discussion.

RESUMEN
El presente artículo se propone dar cuenta del elusivo fenómeno de la conciencia desde la original perspectiva de la neurofenomenología de Francisco Varela, quien a partir de nociones tales como neuroplasticidad, enacción y emergencia, explica, cómo ocurren los procesos cerebrales que fundan la conciencia y la “unidad” de la vivencia. Describiendo como la conciencia aparece en el vivir encarnado: en la regulación con el cuerpo entero; en sus relaciones sensorio-motoras con el mundo y en una red ínter-subjetiva de acciones y de lenguaje.
Dr. Adolfo Vásquez Rocca
Keywords:  Neurociencias, ciencias cognitivas, ética, yo, cuerpo, neuroplasticidad, enacción, acciones corporeizadas,  biología cultural,  saber-cómo.
Neuroscience, cognitive science, ethics, self, body, neuroplasticity, enaction, actions embodied experiences, cultural biology,  know-how.
-Francisco Varela: neurophenomenology, enactive approach to cognition, minds without me and the elusive phenomenon of consciousness.
DR. ADOLFO VÁSQUEZ ROCCA

The purpose of the qualitative research was to assess models of education developed for the study to investigate how and when to incorporate second and third languages into the curriculum to improve language acquisition. Research indicates that L3 enhances and reinforces L2 and L1. The stratified systematic grounded theory study explored the perspectives of neurolinguists, psycholinguists, sociolinguists, and interdisciplinary education researchers to derive variables for constructing a new model of education. The outcome of the Internet survey revealed that 100% of the participants agreed that education must change and that teacher training must improve. Variables from the cross-disciplinary data contributed to the construction of an integrated model of multilingual education consisting of four primary models and other models to serve as tools for designing curriculum, instruction, and assessment as well as determining demographics and student meta-analysis of language abilities and storage in the brain. The first model emerged from the data to offer multilingual principles of education. The other primary models are macro, meso, and micro models. The macro model represents schools, instruction, assessment, and the curriculum cycle. The meso model depicts the developmental domains of the individual learner and includes a cyclical equation. The micro model delineates multilingual processing in the brain based on neurolinguistic research, variables from the current study, and Kees de Bot's bilingual adaptation of Levelt's language processing model. Recommendations include the incorporation of notional-functional pragmatic-aesthetic concepts as depicted in the models developed for the study and enhanced by input from published researchers with unique language and research repertoires who were located on four continents.

The paper is entirely devoted to the consideration of the quality of machine translation performed by Google's popular online translator. The main problem which is the focus of the paper is whether the popular online translator, created on the basis of neural networks in the human brain, is able to translate the text correctly into the target language breaking the barriers of natural language. In the neural machine translation, the process is not conducted on a word-by-word basis, as it was in the past but the system uses constantly updated artificial neural networks capable of learning similarly to the human brain, translating entire sentences while examining the context of the document being translated. The analysis of texts translated using the program has allowed us to examine the accuracy of machine translation in terms of quality, locate errors, draw conclusions from the resulting translation and present the prospects of machine translation in the era of comprehensive access to this online tool.

À la différence de la neurolinguistique clinique, la neurolinguistique théorique s’intéresse au problème de la comptabilité et de la mise en relation des connaissances linguistiques, neurophysiologiques et philosophiques nécessaires à l’intelligibilité des pathologies du langage. Cet ouvrage constitue ainsi un outil de travail utile aux linguistes, neuropsychologues et philosophes qui, intéressés par la question de l’inscription biologique du langage humain, pourront y trouver un complément à leur discipline d’origine.

Parmi les premiers terrains expérimentaux à l'approche neurolinguistique en dehors du Canada, la Chine offrait de nouvelles possibilités à l'implantation de l'approche pour un public adulte universitaire. Malgré des contraintes institutionnelles fortes et une culture d'apprentissage différente, l'implantation et l'adaptation de l'ANL sont un succès puisqu'elle confère des habiletés à communiquer solides à l'oral comme à l'écrit et une forte confiance en soi. Cependant, les difficultés rencontrées ont concerné la préparation à l'examen national, le TFS4, et l'adaptation des unités canadiennes pour un public universitaire qui doit rapidement acquérir des compétences linguistiques et lexicales ainsi qu'une méthodologie d'apprentissage exigeante. Abstract One of the first place where the Neurolinguistic Approch was developped outside of Canada was in mainland China with university students. Even though institutional constraints where strong, the adaptation and the implementation of the Neurolinguistic approach was a success as learners developed excellent oral and written communication skills as well as an improved self-esteem. However, preparing students to the TFS4 national exam was a challenge as well as the modification of the Canadian pedagogical units to match a demanding academic environment pressing students to acquire language skills (including lexical proficiency) in a short amount of time.