| Simon Fraser University |
| Research Group: HPSG and Language Acquisition |
| Research Areas |
Acquisition researchers at SFU are utilizing HPSG in a variety of applied projects. In particular, HPSG formalisms provide an effective means of representing the systematic patterns that occur in second language (or interlanguage) production.
Theories of Second Language Acquisition Mellow (2004a) and Mellow and Stanley (2002) argued that HPSG signs are especially useful for SLA research because they provide an effective means of characterizing the associations between meanings and forms, are compatible with connectionist assumptions, are performance-compatible, and have similar constructs for morphology, syntax, and discourse. Building from Sag (1997), Mellow (2006) argued that HPSG representations are effective for understanding the poverty of the stimulus puzzle: An innatist solution is not likely to be necessary if analyses utilize relatively concrete representations that do not have phonetically-null elements and abstract movement. Mellow and Bae (2001) and Hadic and Mellow (2003) indicated that HPSG feature structures provide an effective means of understanding the incremental cumulation of syntactic complexity in verb phrases and noun phrases.
Computer-Assisted Language Learning In creating an intelligent language tutoring system, Heift (1998) used HPSG formalisms to create a grammar and a parser that can analyze the language produced by learners of German. Rather than simply recognizing ill-formed constructions, the analysis is able to model the steps taken by a language instructor when correcting students. HPSG formalisms are especially effective for this purpose because they can be implemented in Natural Language Processing applications and can effectively describe a wide range of linguistic phenomena that are both simple and complex, structural and semantic, as well as target-like and non-target-like.
Approaches to Language Education Because HPSG signs include representations of both form and meaning, Mellow (2002, 2004b) argued that HPSG provides an effective linguistic orientation for the development of language teaching materials. Lessons for learners are likely to be especially valuable if they encourage the learners to attend to both the form and meaning of language. In contrast, many approaches to language education are informed by linguistic perspectives that focus primarily on only structure or function.