IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hig/wpaper/113psy2019.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

First Language Attrition: What It Is, What It Isn’t, And What It Can Be

Author

Listed:
  • Federico Gallo

    (National Research University Higher School of Economics, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University)

  • Beatriz Bermudez-Margaretto

    (National Research University Higher School of Economics)

  • Yury Shtyrov

    (National Research University Higher School of Economics, Aarhus University Hospital)

  • Jubin Abutalebi

    (National Research University Higher School of Economics, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University)

  • Hamutal Kreiner

    (National Research University Higher School of Economics, Ruppin Academic Center)

  • Tamara Chitaya

    (National Research University Higher School of Economics)

  • Anna Petrova

    (National Research University Higher School of Economics)

  • Andriy Myachykov

    (National Research University Higher School of Economics, Northumbria University)

Abstract

This review aims at clarifying the concept of first language attrition by tracing its limits, identifying its phenomenological and contextual constraints, discussing controversies associated with its definition, and suggesting potential future directions. We start by reviewing different definitions of attrition as well as associated inconsistencies. We then discuss the underlying mechanisms of first language attrition and review available evidence supporting different background hypotheses. Finally, we attempt to provide the groundwork to build a unified theoretical framework allowing for generalizable results. To this end, we suggest the deployment of a rigorous neuroscientific approach, in search of neural markers of first language attrition in different linguistic domains, putting forward hypothetical experimental ways to identify attrition's neural traces and formulating predictions for each of the proposed experimental paradigms.

Suggested Citation

  • Federico Gallo & Beatriz Bermudez-Margaretto & Yury Shtyrov & Jubin Abutalebi & Hamutal Kreiner & Tamara Chitaya & Anna Petrova & Andriy Myachykov, 2019. "First Language Attrition: What It Is, What It Isn’t, And What It Can Be," HSE Working papers WP BRP 113/PSY/2019, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hig:wpaper:113psy2019
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://wp.hse.ru/data/2019/12/23/1525036535/113PSY2019.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Risto Näätänen & Anne Lehtokoski & Mietta Lennes & Marie Cheour & Minna Huotilainen & Antti Iivonen & Martti Vainio & Paavo Alku & Risto J. Ilmoniemi & Aavo Luuk & Jüri Allik & Janne Sinkkonen & Kimmo, 1997. "Language-specific phoneme representations revealed by electric and magnetic brain responses," Nature, Nature, vol. 385(6615), pages 432-434, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.

      More about this item

      Keywords

      first language attrition; bilingualism; cross-linguistic interactions; EEG/MEG; fMRI;
      All these keywords.

      JEL classification:

      • Z - Other Special Topics

      Statistics

      Access and download statistics

      Corrections

      All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hig:wpaper:113psy2019. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

      If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

      If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

      If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

      For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Shamil Abdulaev or Shamil Abdulaev (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/hsecoru.html .

      Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

      IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.