32.1617, Review: Cognitive Science; General Linguistics; Neurolinguistics; Psycholinguistics: Divjak (2019)

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-32-1617. Mon May 10 2021. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 32.1617, Review: Cognitive Science; General Linguistics; Neurolinguistics; Psycholinguistics: Divjak (2019)

Moderator: Malgorzata E. Cavar (linguist at linguistlist.org)
Student Moderator: Jeremy Coburn, Lauren Perkins
Managing Editor: Becca Morris
Team: Helen Aristar-Dry, Everett Green, Sarah Robinson, Nils Hjortnaes, Joshua Sims, Billy Dickson
Jobs: jobs at linguistlist.org | Conferences: callconf at linguistlist.org | Pubs: pubs at linguistlist.org

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org

Please support the LL editors and operation with a donation at:
           https://funddrive.linguistlist.org/donate/

Editor for this issue: Jeremy Coburn <jecoburn at linguistlist.org>
================================================================


Date: Mon, 10 May 2021 15:58:54
From: Mayowa Akinlotan [mayorakinsforpaper at yahoo.com]
Subject: Frequency in Language

 
Discuss this message:
http://linguistlist.org/pubs/reviews/get-review.cfm?subid=36632857


Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/31/31-1746.html

AUTHOR: Dagmar  Divjak
TITLE: Frequency in Language
SUBTITLE: Memory, Attention and Learning
PUBLISHER: Cambridge University Press
YEAR: 2019

REVIEWER: Mayowa Akinlotan, Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt

SUMMARY

The book “ Frequency in Language: Memory, Attention and Learning” is a
compendium of underlying concepts and theories that constitute the bridge
between language, cognition and mind. The book is first of its kind in
providing clear relations between how the minds of language users work and the
language use patterns, which in turn reflect the close affinity between memory
and attention, and how such relationship influences speed of language learning
and how that process can be better understood. In other words, the author, a
respected leader in the field of cognitive linguistics, clearly shows that
language learning, which includes some aspects of first/second language
acquisition, correlates with usage patterns which are a reflex of memory and
attention. 

The book also makes significant theoretical contributions to the theory and
practice of cognitive linguistics. At the center of cognitive linguistics is
cognition, and how this concept connects language to cognitive psychology, and
neurobiology, such that we can explore how the human brain produces and
interprets language, which includes patterns of universality and specificity.
Connecting all of these concepts, according to the author, is the issue of
frequency in language, which thus brings to the fore  crucial questions, such
as “the way in which frequency has been interpreted in usage-based
linguistics.” In other words, the book contributes to the explication of how
frequency in language as demonstrated by patterns provides important insights
on language development, structure and representation. 

More specifically, the book shows relations between frequency of occurrences
in language and language change, recall, and memory, and how all of these
relations influence linguistic behaviour from high-frequency patterns of
language use (I.e. what is preferred, and more natural to speakers’ language
cognition) to low-frequency patterns of language use (I.e. what is less
preferred and less natural to speakers’ language cognition). The book shows
the “processes that lead from distribution of forms in usage to the effect of
frequency on language cognition…(p.3)”, together with how frequency has those
effects it has, which is strongly related to the structure of our memory. The
book is divided into four parts. Part (I) consists of three chapters 1, 2, &
3; Part II consist of Chapters 4 & 5; Part III Chapters 6, & 7, while Part IV
is the final part consisting Chapters 8, 9 & 10.

Chapter Oone, titled Counting Occurrences: How Frequency Made its Way into the
Study of Language shows the history and development of change in how linguists
account for the knowledge of language in human cognitive capacities, which can
be broadly divided along the two lines: nativist and the acquisition paradigm
on the one hand and then on the other hand nurturist and the language learning
paradigm. The earliest accounts argue that “most of users’ knowledge of
natural languages would be innate or dependent on language-specific cognitive
mechanisms…and that only a small part of language knowledge is learned.” This
camp, which is famously led by Chomsky, reduces language learning to small
importance, since it  essentially relies on frequencies of memory, attention,
frequencies of usage, patterns of language structure, and the like.. 

Whereas the nurturist camp argues that language knowledge, endowed, acquired
or otherwise, exhibits patterns and thus can be learned and modeled on a
probabilistic dimension ranging from context-dependent, non-context dependent
selection to deselection. Abundant empirical evidence has shown that this is
the case, that users of language indeed represent their language knowledge in
such a way that they reflect frequencies - preference for certain structures
over others, up to the possibility of characterising and distinguishing
language use from one speaker to the other. Hence, new languages can be
learned from a map of speakers’ patterns derived from what is essentially
frequencies.

Chapter Two, Measuring Exposure: Frequency as a Linguistic Game Changer shows
how almost every discipline concerned with language now considers frequency
and its intrinsic value to provide answers to linguistic questions that they
set out to answer. The author provides a number of linguistic models, concepts
and theories that are built around frequency and all that it shows about how
we acquire linguistic knowledge and how we demonstrate such through linguistic
experiences. For instance, the author clearly shows that usage-based theories
of language are inherently frequency-driven, which  allows this category of
linguists to account for not only linguistic knowledge but also linguistic
behaviour and cognitive representations of the strengths and limits of human
language capacities, regardless of native and non-native speakership. 

The author also provides sufficient discussions of usage-based theories such
as Bybee’s Exemplar Theory, and Construction Grammar, showing the significant
gains and contributions that frequency in language has afforded linguistic
theory, learning and description. In other words, since the intervention of
nurturists who have repeatedly shown great success in measuring and improving
language knowledge through language learning, the enterprise of frequency in
languages has continued to grow and become operationalised in different
methodological perspectives ranging from concordances, frequency lists,
quantitative linguistics, to statistical measures, and the like. Infact, many
fields of studies now consider frequency effect as the core of their
enterprise; these include but are not limited to corpus linguistics,
quantitative linguistics, cognitive linguistics, variationist linguistics,
varieties of English across the world, and many more disciplines.

Chapter Three, More than Frequencies: Towards a Probabilistic View on Language
moves the discussion further by showing that frequencies not only reflect how
language knowledge is structured and operationalised but also that they can
reflect important psychological aspects involved in how human cognition
patterns linguistic output. In other words, linguistic output, organised into
frequencies, can be explained in terms of probability theory, which answers
the question of ‘what’, ‘why’, and ‘when’. Such probability will thus explain
, for example, what lexical, phrasal, or clausal choice is likely or unlikely
to be selected/deselected in certain context, which will also include why a
selection/deselection is made, and how such probabilistic expectations are
arrived at. For instance, usage-based grammarians can predict certain patterns
based on the knowledge they derive from frequencies of similar structural
patterns.

Chapter Four, Committing Experiences to Memory, shows relations between
frequency, memory and language knowledge and linguistic behaviour. It is shown
that certain language patterns, as reflected in linguistic performance, are
stored to a varying degree at different levels of memory, such that ease of
recall and retrieval not only explain frequencies but also linguistic
competence, performance, and probabilistic expectations of language users.
Hence, the commonly used usages are easily accessible, allowing for patterns
to emerge in linguistic performance. On the other hand, difficulty and
complexity can still punctuate linguistic memories such that users might not
be able to store a great amount of such complex structure or might have
difficulty in accessing such structures. 

Chapter Five, Entrenching Linguistic Structures, shows thecognitive processes
involved in committing certain structures to long term memory, such that they
form a small body of language knowledge that is likely to form preferred
choices in linguistic performance and experience. The author asks whether
entrenchment takes place in the mind of individual speakers and that of the
society that shapes the language cognition. Additional evidence of entrenching
linguistic structures is provided by corpus studies, which have shown that
structural patterns can be a reflection of entrenchment. The author brings to
fore the question relating to whether corpus evidence is a reflection of
entrenchment in the mind or a reflection of conventionalisation in the speech
community. Relying on some corpus research experience, which has shown
different levels of patterning that distinguishes new varieties of English
such as Nigerian, Indian, and Singaporean from established varieties
(Akinlotan 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020), I would argue that frequencies found in a
corpus should not be taken more than what they are - that is, corpus evidence,
rather than conventionalisation in the society. 

Chapters Six and Seven, which form part of Part III, are entitled The Brain’s
Attention-Orienting Mechanisms and Salience: Capturing Attention in and
through Language respectively. Both chapter show that attention is important
to linguistic knowledge, as users of language, be it native or non-native,
learn from linguistic performance and event by a way of observation and
participation. These chapters further show that attention is a crucial
mechanism with which language knowledge is built up in our memory and also in
our linguistic performance. In other words, attention allows us, native and
non-native speakers of language, to learn language by consciously observing
performance, ignoring noises, and encoding and committing those relevant and
important linguistic acts to our memory. Although the author did not state
that language learning by attention varies across a wide range of
determinants, it can be asserted that attention can vary from child-learner to
adult-learner, from one language to the other, and from the state of the
memory to which all of the information processed from attention activities is
stored. More specifically, Chapter Seven, Salience: Capturing Attention in and
through Language, provides additional discussion about the roles of attention
in and through language, showing how different cognitive processes inter-twine
with the process. 

The last part of the book, Part IV, consists of Chapter Eight, Nine, and Ten.
Chapter Eight, Predicting: Using Past Experiences to Guide Future Action,
shows that frequencies as reflected in structural patterns embody infinite
knowledge about linguistic competence and performance of the language users
that produced the pattern. In other words, our linguistic memory and brain are
able to help us navigate linguistic challenges similar to previous experiences
already stored in the memory or handled by the brain in the past. Such is the
case with structural complexity in pidgin and creole languages and new and
emerging varieties of English, and also in code-switching. Users of these
languages are able to manage and recall easily complex constructions that are
familiar to their linguistic past, such that the brain and the memory provide
easy guides to cognitive processes required to navigate through syntactic,
semantic, pragmatic, and discourse nuances. Chapter Nine, Learning: Navigating
Frequency, Recency, Context and Contingency, finalises the discussions and
arguments about the relations between frequency, memory, attention and
language learning, which are the foci of this book.

The connections among these concepts are clearly restated: “learned
information must be remembered, activated or retrieved to influence
performance.” (p.240). In other words, all of these processes then culminate
in frequency and linguistic patterns, which further allow linguists to propose
theoretical frameworks not only for learning language but also for teaching
languages as well. For teachers of language, it thus means that students must
have topmost attention so that greater amount of salient information is not
only separated from nuances but also that they can be easily stored in the
memory, such that performance can draw on rich linguistic memory/knowledge.
Relatedly, it implies that difficult constructions such as structurally
complex ones can be better committed to memory with frequent practices which
enrich the learning experience of such structural pattern. 

Chapter Ten, By Way of Conclusion, concludes the book by providing four
crucial questions that not only make arguments and discussions presented in
the book remain longer in the readers’ mind, but also make linguists of
relevant convictions begin to see how frequency in language can provide
significant insights into the theory and practise of cognitive linguistics,
usage-based theories of language, pedagogy, psycholinguistics,
neurolinguistics and many more. These questions: (1) Why do frequencies of
occurrence play an important role in usage-based linguistic? (2) How can
frequency be used to explain the construction of a grammar from the ground up?
(3) Building Blocks: What to Count? and lastly (4) Cognitive models: How to
Count? As a corpus linguist, I am well aware that all of these questions are
denominators in the discussions about method, theory, and practice in corpus
linguistics, though some common grounds can be seen converging lately.
Nevertheless, what to count and how to count will almost perpetually evade a
plain answer adequate for an infinite set of uses in corpus linguistics and
cognitive linguistics, the latter  better defined as a basket harvesting
produce from neuroscience to explain linguistic performance. 

EVALUATION

This book is a compendium of concepts, theories and practices at the
intersection of cognitive linguistics, corpus linguistics, quantitative
linguistics, computational linguistics, psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics,
and the like. The book clearly shows  that frequency in language can
contribute to theory and practice of language knowledge and performance. More
specifically, the book shows that both native speakers and non-native speakers
produce meaningful frequencies in language, which not only allow us to build
linguistic knowledge through theorising but also show that language learning,
teaching, performance, and competence can improve by learning from the
knowledge underlying structural patterns. In other words, structural patterns
viz-a-viz frequencies do not mean what they are - I.e. counts of tokens - but
that they reflect important underlying linguistic knowledge that  allows not
only for predictions but also for easy storage in the memory, which in turn
means easy recall and retrieval. Moreover, the book brings to the fore the
argument that memory, attention and language learning are crucial for building
linguistic knowledge and improving competence and performance. Relatedly, many
empirical studies have shown that motivations, which increase levels of
attention, are related to language learning. 

Of course no book is perfect, and the book does well enough to override its
few shortcomings. Chapters Four and Eight could do more with discussions that
clearly relate these concepts to linguistic knowledge and performance. As they
are, readers are asked to do more finding the relations themselves, such that
readers new to the field could struggle finding the links between
neuroscience, nervous systems, and language knowledge, learning and
performance. Also, more empirical studies would have contributed more validity
to many arguments, and claims in the book. Although the book is well
integrated within the literature, very little empirical data are presented
from the author. As per formatting, the book is organised into different
parts, yet these parts are not conceptualised or labeled. For  instance, Part
I could be conceptualised as Preliminaries issues in frequency in language,
while Part II could be conceptualised as Core of Frequency in Language.
Nevertheless, these shortcomings do not impact the significant contributions
and insights available in the book, which students and teachers of cognitive
linguistics, corpus linguistics, quantitative linguistics, computational
linguistics, psycholinguistics, and neurolinguistics should read.

REFERENCES

Akinlotan, Mayowa and Housen, Alex. 2017. “Noun phrase complexity in Nigerian
English: Syntactic  function and length outweigh genre in predicting noun
phrase complexity.” English Today 33 (3),  31-38

Akinlotan, Mayowa. 2018. “Emergence of New Predictors Projecting the Definite
Article Variability:  Evidence from Nigerian English.” Baltic Journal of
English Language, Literature and Culture 8 (1),  4-25

Akinlotan, Mayowa. 2019. “A Corpus/Variationist Approach to Ambiguity in News
Headlines.” Clarep  Journal of English Language and Linguistics 1 (1), 1-30

Akinlotan, Mayowa. “Relativiser and relative clause complexity: insights from
American and Nigerian varieties of English.” Anglica: An International Journal
of English Studies. (Forthcoming)


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Mayowa Akinlotan is currently an Humboldt Research Fellow at the Catholic
University of Eichstatt-Ingolstadt Germany. His research interests include but
not limited to corpus linguistics, World Englishes, cognitive linguistics,
construction grammar, sociolinguistics, structural complexity, and pidgin and
creoles.





------------------------------------------------------------------------------

***************************    LINGUIST List Support    ***************************
 The 2020 Fund Drive is under way! Please visit https://funddrive.linguistlist.org
  to find out how to donate and check how your university, country or discipline
     ranks in the fund drive challenges. Or go directly to the donation site:
                   https://crowdfunding.iu.edu/the-linguist-list

                        Let's make this a short fund drive!
                Please feel free to share the link to our campaign:
                    https://funddrive.linguistlist.org/donate/
 


----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-32-1617	
----------------------------------------------------------