Transcript Nativist Theories

1. Describe how Kanzi’s communication skills fulfill
each of the four critical properties of language.
• Kanzi used symbols to represent
objects and actions
• He and the psychologists
understood a shared
semantic system (“meanings”)
• He generated thousands of
combinations (many of them
spontaneous)
• He seemed to follow grammar
rules, and understood how word order
changed the meaning of a sentence
2. Summarize Steven Pinker’s argument for
the evolutionary basis of human language.
• Language is a species-specific
trait produced by natural
selection
• Communication has adaptive
value
• A small advantage to survival
can increase that trait in
populations in a
relatively short amount
of time (by evolutionary
standards)
Behaviorist
Theories
• Skinner (1957)
• Claims language is acquired
through imitation,
reinforcement, and other
conditioning principles
• When language and syntax
are understood, children are
understood and gets what
they need (rewarded)
Nativist Theories
• Noam Chomsky (1959, 1965)
• Children have an inborn propensity
to develop language
• They learn the rules of language,
not specific verbal responses
• Humans are equipped with a
language acquisition device –
innate process that facilitates the
learning of language
• Language development is similar
across very different cultures
Interactionist Theories
• Biology and experience both
make important contributions
to language development
• Language is part of cognitive
development
• Social communication plays a
large role
• Emergentist theories examine
the growth of neural networks
that emerge in response to
experience
4. What evidence did B. L. Whorf present to
support the linguistic relativity hypothesis?
• One’s language determines
the nature of one’s thought
• Based on observation, he
claimed that Eskimo language
had many words for snow,
and thus they perceive
snow differently than
English-speaking people
5. What are some criticisms of his reasoning?
• Did not do systematic
cross-cultural
comparisons of
perceptual processes
• Overestimated the
number of Eskimo words
for snow
• Ignored the variety of
English words for snow
6. How did Eleanor Rosch’s work refute
Whorf’s hypothesis?
• Examined color perception
• Compared the Dani of New
Guinea (who only have terms
for two basic colors) to
English speakers
• Found no difference in their
abilities to perceive and learn
the names of colors
7. What is the weaker version of the
linguistic relativity hypothesis?
• A given language
makes certain ways of
thinking easier or
more difficult