Äußerungsstruktur im Kontext: Sprache und Kognition während des Erwerbs unter sprachvergleichender Perspektive

语言习得是人类行为的一个内在方面，既是个体发育的必要垫脚石，也是我们这个多语言世界的一项重要任务。尽管有越来越多的研究，关于获取过程机制的基本问题仍然存在激烈的争论。不同的框架在许多方面存在很大差异。仅举三例：语言能力是特定领域和天生的，还是通过一般学习过程逐渐发展的产物？类型学约束对习得过程的影响是什么？语境中的语言使用对学习者语言能力的发展有多重要？我们的目标是在三个语言领域中解决其中的一些问题，这些领域一直是大多数争论的中心，在每种情况下检查语言组织的句子和话语层面：1)信息结构，2)时间，3)空间。特别关注的是普遍认知与语言特异性，以及习得的结构与功能决定因素的作用。这一目标需要双重比较视角——学习者类型；语言子系统。我们比较了两种类型的学习者的发展过程：儿童-他们的认知系统在第一语言习得过程中发展-和成人-他们在习得第二语言时认知发展。跨语言比较研究了一些语言系统的习得，这些语言系统显示出与特定要求相关的对比。参与者属于四个欧洲团队，两个在法国（UMR 7023和8163），两个在德国（MPI心理语言学，海德堡），这是该领域最具生产力的。他们都收集了大量不同的关于第一或第二语言习得的跨语言数据库，并打算进一步系统化和扩展这些数据库。除了促进我们对语言习得的理解外，该项目还将为语言教学和语言障碍方面的明显社会应用提供重要的发现。

Language acquisition is an intrinsic aspect of human behaviour, both a necessary stepping stone in ontogenetic development and a vital task in our multilingual world. Despite an increasing amount of research, fundamental questions concerning the mechanisms of the acquisition process are still sharply debated. Different frameworks strongly diverge in many respects. To name but three: is the language faculty domain-specific and innate or the product of a gradual development through general learning processes? What is the impact of typological constraints on the acquisition process? How important is the role of language use in context for learners’ developing linguistic competence?Our aim is to address some of these questions in three language domains that have been at the centre of most debates, examining in each case both the sentence and discourse levels of linguistic organization: 1) information structure, 2) time, and 3) space. Particular attention is paid to the role of universal cognitive vs. language-specific, and structural vs. functional determinants of acquisition. This aim requires a two-fold comparative perspective – of learner type; of linguistic sub-systems. We compare the developmental progressions followed by two types of learners: children - whose cognitive system is developing during first language acquisition - and adults - who are cognitively developed when acquiring a second language. Cross-linguistic comparisons examine the acquisition of a number of linguistic systems that display relevant contrasts in relation to particular claims. Participants belong to four European teams, two in France (UMR 7023 & 8163) and two in Germany (MPI for Psycholinguistics, Heidelberg), which are among the most productive in this field. They have all collected large and varied cross-linguistic data bases concerning first or second language acquisition and intend further to systematise and extend them. In addition to advancing our understanding of language acquisition, the project will provide significant findings for obvious social applications concerning language teaching and language disorders.