First Language Attrition: What It Is, What It Isn't, and What It Can Be

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 directions for future research. 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.

Automated summary

This review delves into the concept, limits, phenomenological and contextual constraints, controversies, and potential directions for future research of first language attrition. The authors review various definitions of attrition and associated inconsistencies, discuss the underlying mechanisms and evidence supporting different background hypotheses of first language attrition, and propose a rigorous neuroscientific approach to search for neural markers and formulate predictions for experimental paradigms.