Language and Thought in Development

This book addresses the fundamental problem of how language and thought are interrelated, comparing linguistic and psychological functioning among different languages or language domains. The contributors present theoretical arguments that broaden existing views on what constitutes language. Many of these arguments are complemented with previously unpublished empirical data and experiments investigating these issues more directly. The contributions present a computational model or comment on the possibilities created by new approaches to modeling. One of the most direct tests of the influence of language on thought in development compares the cognitive development of children in the process of acquiring a first language. New empirical and theoretical work is pesented that compares development across languages, including Russian, Icelandic, Danish, English, and Japanese. The process of acquiring a second language in adults offers a new window on the language-and-thought field, with the great advantage that it is a 'late development' that can be studied easily. It also opens questions of how two languages interact within one individual and to what extent a new language may ­ initially ­ be parasitic on the existing one.