BACKGROUND Studies of productive language in Alzheimer's disease (AD) have focused on formal testing of syntax and semantics but have directed less attention to naturalistic discourse and formulaic language. Clinical observations suggest that individuals with AD retain the ability to produce formulaic language long after other cognitive abilities have deteriorated. AIMS This study quantifies ...

Formulaic language units, ready-made chunks and sequences ofwords, have been the subject ofa large and growing body ofresearch. Although formulaic language has been largely overlooked in favor ofmodels of language that center around the rule-governed, systematic nature of language and its use, there is increasing evidence that these multiword lexical units are integral to firstand second-langua...

The present study examined the effects of input, input repetition and individual differences (i.e., prior vocabulary knowledge working memory) on L2 learners’ incidental lexical mining in an immediate a repeat oral task. Ninety participants were allocated to three groups: (n = 32), 29), no 29). group was exposed before performing task, whereas after only performed task without exposure. Three g...

Communicative language use largely entails regular patterns consisting of pre-constructed phrases or sequences. These sequences have been examined by many researchers to find the situation-based formulas which may help L2 learners follow a possibly more target-like speaking system. This study, therefore, explored two categories of formulaic expressions including speech formulas and situation-bo...

Many grammatical frameworks view words and rules as the basic building blocks of language, with multiword sequences being treated as peripheral exceptions in the form of idioms, etc. (e.g., Pinker, 1999). The new millennium, however, has seen a shift toward construing multiword sequences not as linguistic rarities but as important building blocks for language acquisition and processing. Based o...