Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-21T22:36:24.987Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Language attrition: the fate of the start

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2002

Lynne Hansen
Affiliation:
Brigham Young University

Abstract

This chapter reviews the literature on psycholinguistic aspects of language attrition over the past half decade. Descriptive data-based studies have continued to dominate during this time, providing needed groundwork for the emerging discipline. A few studies have continued theoretical threads from previous work, however, by examining attrition data from the perspectives of the regression hypothesis and markedness theory. We have also seen the beginnings of promising new lines of research which draw theoretical underpinnings from neighboring disciplines, most notably from the savings paradigm in cognitive psychology and from theories of codeswitching in bilingualism studies. Evidence on the effects in attrition of non-linguistic variables such as age, proficiency level, and literacy has continued to accumulate. Hesitation phenomena in attriter speech have begun to receive serious attention. Relearning, one of the main areas to potentially benefit from language attrition studies, is also gaining new research impetus at the turn of the century.

Type
FOUNDATIONS FOR LANGUAGE AND PSYCHOLOGY
Copyright
© 2001 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)