This paper presents a proposal for a grammar error typology oriented towards the development of an automatic grammar and style checker. Cognitively– motivated errors have been considered the first and foremost objective. In particular, in the area of grammar checking, the granularity of the error typology greatly influences the adequacy of the error messages shown to the final user during the d...

We are invited to consider ‘the proper object for theories of language structure’. Following Chomsky’s suggestion, we should aim to define the notion ‘possible human language’. As a part of that we need to develop the notion ‘possible word’. We were also asked to examine ‘the rich variation of forms and functions observed in the languages of the world’. This is the realm of typology, and I shal...

In this talk I am concerned with the following questions: 1. What is phonological typology? 2. How are phonological typology and phonetic typology the same/different? 3. How are phonological typology and general phonology the same/different? 4. How are phonological typology and general typology the same/different? Despite earlier work by Trubetzkoy, Jakobson, Martinet, Greenberg and others, and...

The use of L1 in language classroom has been traditionally repressed by applied linguists. However, in recent years, it is believed that switching to L1 can be considered a pedagogical instrument by teachers rather than a heterodox. Consequently, this two-phase study was an attempt to investigate the functions that are fulfilled by EFL teachers through their use of L1. In the first phase (i.e.,...

Linguists and psychologists have long been studying cross-linguistic transfer, the influence of native language properties on linguistic performance in a foreign language. In this work we provide empirical evidence for this process in the form of a strong correlation between language similarities derived from structural features in English as Second Language (ESL) texts and equivalent similarit...

While comparison of languages presupposes a common framework neutral to the structures of the languages compared and contrasted, the contemporary grammatical terms and concepts have been developed primarily on the basis of Accusative-type European languages. This has created a great deal of confusion in the universals research. Typological studies in recent years have in part been concerned wit...

In Optimality Theory (Prince & Smolensky 1993) both language acquisition and language typology can be accommodated. The basic assumption is that constraints are universal, but that the rankings of these constraints are language particular. For language typology the idea is that different rankings reflect different (possible) languages. For acquisition the idea is that the learner needs to acqui...

Results from a prosody-based automatic language discrimination (LID) system suggest that the difficulties reported by other sites in incorporating prosodic information into LID systems may have been caused by their not using appropriate task-specific features. Running averages and correlations of prosodic features capturing syllable pitch and amplitude contours, duration and phrase location wer...