The term pro-drop is used because in the d-structure of the grammar, the
empty subject position is filled by the element pro, e.g.
pro parla
The pro-drop parameter and other parameters of Universal Grammar have
attracted the interest of researchers working in the fields of child language
acquisition and language teaching. For example, the question has been
raised: How do children ‘set’ a UG parameter to fit their particular language?
Researchers in second language acquisition have investigated what happens
if a parameter in the speaker’s native language is different from that of their
target language, making it necessary to ‘reset’ the parameter. This would
happen, for example, in the acquisition of Spanish (a pro-drop language) by
speakers of non-pro-drop languages such as English and French.
see also parameterproduct approachn
see process approach
production stagen
also transfer stage, free practice
see PPP
production systemn
a programme made up on a set of conditional statements of the form “if X,
then Y”. For example, part of a production system for a language (English)
might have statements such as “If ‘go’ +past, then ‘went.’” Production systems
were predominant in early attempts to model cognition and are the basis of
models such as adaptive control of thought (act*).
productive/receptive language knowledgen
also active/passive language knowledge
the ability of a person to actively produce their own speech and writing
is called their productive language knowledge. This is compared to their
ability to understand the speech and writing of other people, their receptive
language knowledge.
productive/receptive vocabularyn
also active/ passive vocabulary
the number of words that a person can actively use, compared with the
number of words that they recognize and understand but do not use
productively. Native speakers of a language can understand many more
words than they actively use. Some people have a receptive vocabulary
product approach