visit and talk of Professor Chris Schaner-Wolles, Vienna on spee

Chris Schaner-Wolles Professor of Linguistics at Vienna University will come as a guest of our Cognitive Psychology Program to have classes and consultations on language pathology Her classes will take place at 316, Izabella utca 46 (room of Csaba Pleh) between 2 P.M. 3h30 P.M. every day. The tentative topics are the following. They will be divided between three talks on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday (14th to 16th of December): Cognitive modularity of language Is the system of rules called grammar an autonomous cognitive component or rather just one particular instance of the general human cognitive capacity ? This question will be discussed on the basis of data from normal and pathological language acquisition. Modularity of grammar In recent theorizing, the grammar of a natural language is characterized as a modular system, consisting of autonomous interacting subsystems. Evidence from aphasia and first language acquisition will be analyzed from this perspective. Language acquisition in Down's syndrome (DS) In the light of topics (1) and (2), three general questions will be focused on here: a) Is the language development of DS-patients just delayed (and therefore comparable to the language development of unimpaired younger children) or rather defective (i.e. qualitatively different from normal language development) ? b) Are all linguistic dimensions equally affected in DS or not ? c) Is the apparent deviance in the language of DS-patients the reflex of a disharmony in synchronization of different modules ? Results from the Viennese project on language acquisition in DS will be presented and discussed. Professor Schaner will be staying in Izabella street during these days (1/423-130). She is also reachable via email: chris(a)ling.univie.ac.at. You can address queries to her or to Csaba Pleh (pleh(a)izabell.elte.hu). All psychologists, linguists and speech pathologists are welcome. PLEASE POST AND CIRCULATE Pleh Csaba