PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

M L Schnitzer

Publications and source records attributed to M L Schnitzer.

5 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1995

The regression hypothesis: communicative continuum vs. parametrically defined grammars.

Proposals concerning the regression hypothesis in aphasia presented in Grodzinsky (1990) and Schnitzer (1989, 1990) are compared. It is argued that Grodzinsky's model, which is syndrome-based, is observationally inadequate, and thus fails to lend aphasiological support to a neurophysiologically realized central language system along the lines of Chomsky's Theory of Principles and Parameters. Schnitzer's approach rejects the notion of mental grammars and interprets aphasic regression microgenetically, along the lines of Givón's continuum. It is argued that this approach has the potential to become truly explanatory.

Aphasia, Broca↗
PubMed1994

The development of segmental phonological production in a bilingual child.

A longitudinal diary-and-videotape study of the production of phonological segments by a Spanish-English bilingual child, age I; I-3; 9, revealed four stages in consonantal acquisition: presystematic variation, formation of a single system, separation into two systems corresponding to the two languages, and achievement of adult target values with later interference of one language in the other. Vocalic acquisition proceeded with widespread variation, followed by stabilization at target adult values, without any apparent intermediate unitary-system stage. Relevance of the data adduced here to the issue of whether bilingual children first function with a single system before acquiring two discrete languages is discussed. The issue of what it may mean to have one or two systems of phonology is addressed.

Child Development↗
PubMed1993

Steady as a rock: does the steady state represent cognitive fossilization?

A study was performed in which data were obtained from adults and children with respect to their control of the inflexional morphology of the Spanish verbal system. Results indicate that adults have inferior knowledge of the paradigm compared to the children. Based on the types of errors committed, it is argued that linguistic knowledge may be more an ability to analogize correctly than to follow (unconscious) rules. Implications for GB (Government and Binding) theory and first and second language acquisition are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Pragmatic-mode mediation of sentence comprehension among aphasic bilinguals and hispanophones.

A test of sentence comprehension administered in four input-output modality combinations to a group of aphasic bilinguals and monolingual hispanophones provides evidence that aphasics tend to use pragmatic-mode (in the sense of Givón, 1979, On understanding-grammar, New York, Academic Press) strategies in approaching this task. When five factors were identified and dichotomized with respect to the pragmatic-mode-syntactic-mode dimension, the patients performed significantly better on items classified as pragmatic than on those classified as syntactic, in both languages. The results support a vertical/hierarchical view of aphasic language dissolution.

Adolescent↗