Transcript Chapter 10 - Language

Chapter 10 - Language
4 Components of Language
1. Phonology
• Understanding & producing speech sounds
• Phoneme - smallest sound unit
• Number of phonemes varies by language
• Morphology = rules for combining
• Rules for combining phonemes vary by language
2. Semantics = Meaning of words & sentences
• Morpheme - smallest meaningful unit
• Differ by language
• Arbitrary
• Lexical development = learning meaning of
new words
3. Syntax
• Form/structure of language
• Rules for how words are combined
• Meaning = words + sentence structure
semantics + syntax
• Rules vary by language
4. Pragmatics
• Principles for language use in different
contexts & situations
• Principles vary by language/culture
Prelinguistic Period
• Birth to 1 year (10-13 months)
• Nonmeaningful utterance
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Responsive to language from birth
Attend to speech
Recognize & prefer mom’s voice
Lateralization - speech produces more left
hemisphere activity
• Fine discriminations among phonemes
• Receptive language by 1
• Before productive
Sound production
1. Crying
• Distress
• Fake crying by 3 weeks
2. Cooing
• Repeated vowel sounds
• 3 months
3. Babbling
• Vowel/consonant combinations
• Vocable = consistent use of same babble for
an object
Deaf vs. Hearing babies
• Up to 6 months - development is the same
• ~ 8 months - hearing babies match intonation of
their mother language
• Deaf infants fall behind
• Advanced babbling is delayed
• But, deaf infants babble in sign
& they are left-brain lateralized
Holophrastic Period
(age 1-2)
One word utterances
• One word represents an entire phrase
• Same word can represent different phrases
Lexical growth
• 10 words in 3-4 months
• 50 words by 20 months
Word types
1. Nominals (names of things)
• 66%
• Classes of objects & unique objects
2. Action words = 13%
• Describe action or demand attention
3. Modifiers = 9%
• Properties/quantities of things
4. Personal/social words = 8%
• Express feelings/social comments
5. Function words = 4%
• Grammatical functions
Common errors
• Overextension
- use of a specific word to refer to larger
class than adults do
- BUT might overextend because lack better
words
• Underextension
- use of a general term to refer only to a
specific example
3 Rules for learning words
1.Fast mapping
• Linking word with concept after hearing the
word a few times
2.Form class hypothesis
• Use context to determine type of word
(noun, verb, etc.)
3. Lexical contrast theory (mutual exclusion)
• New word cannot mean the same as an old
word
• Contrast new word with ones already
known
Telegraphic Period (~2+)
Two-word utterances
• Essential content words
Production capabilities limit utterances
• Reception > production
Similar across languages
• Universal child speech
Grammatical morphemes
• Refinements that make language
grammatically correct & give meaning
• Mastery occurs at different ages, but in
same order
• Error = overregularization
Common morpheme for irregular cases
Developmental stages:
• Correct first, then incorrect, then correct
• Imitate, learn rule, learn exceptions
Transformational grammar
• Use syntax to change meaning
1. Transform declarative sentence to question
• Invert subject/verb (& add wh-)
2. Negative clauses
• Add a negative in appropriate place
3.Imperatives/giving a command
• Omit the subject & put the verb first
Language Acquisition
B. F. Skinner - learning theorist -> Nurture
• Children imitate adult speech & are
reinforced
• Children’s speech improves
• Reinforced for improvements = shaping
Evidence
• Components differ by language
• Babbling in own language’s intonation
• Children imitate adults
• Adults reinforce/give feedback
• Speech improves with feedback
• Motherese
Noam Chomsky – linguist -- Nature
• Innate mechanisms -> language
development
• Lenneberg: Language Acquisition Device
= an inborn model of language structure
Evidence
• Children construct novel utterances
• Do not imitate adult grammar
• Universal telegraphic speech
• Adults praise poor grammar
• Brain lateralized for language processing
• Only humans acquire syntax/grammar
• Critical period
Current:
• May well be an inborn structure of language
+ sensitive period shows effects of
maturation
• BUT- sensitive period also shows need for
experience/learning by puberty
• An interaction of nature & nurture