Transcript Language - My CCSD

Language
The model for cognition.
Properties of Language.
1. Communicative: language permits us to
communicate with one or more people.
2. Arbitrarily symbolic: Language creates
an arbitrary relationship between a
symbol and its referent: an idea, a thing,
a process, a relationship, or a
description.
3. Regularly Structured: Language has a
structure; only particularly patterned
arrangements of symbols have meaning,
and different arrangements yield different
meanings.
4. Structured at multiple levels: The
structure of language can be
analyzed at more than one level.
5. Generative, productive: Within the
limits of a linguistic structure,
language users can produce novel
utterances. The possibilities for
creating new utterances are virtually
limitless.
6. Dynamic: Languages constantly
evolve.
The two fundamental aspects
of language
1. The receptive comprehension and
decoding of language input. How
we perceive and process language
that is coming in to us.
2. The expressive encoding and
production of language output.
How we use language to express
our thoughts to others.
The Hierarchy of Language
• Phoneme – the smallest unit of
speech sound that can be considered
an utterance. Example the “ah” in
amazing
• Morpheme – the smallest unit that
denotes meaning within a particular
language. These include root words
and Affixes (suffix and prefix)
• Lexicon- the entire set of morphemes
one has in language or repertoire.
i.e. your vocabulary.
• Syntax – the way in which a person
puts their words together to form a
sentence.
• Semantics – the meaning behind a
language or what meaning is applied.
• Discourse – language beyond a
sentence. i. e. a story, conversation,
or even a paragraph.
Language Comprehension
• Speech perception
approaches.
1. Ordinary speech perception. The idea
that language is perceived and
recognized based on its similarity or how
it fits in a template or “prototype”
Support = Phonemic restoration- the
tendency to restore missing portions of
words based on context. The *eel was on
the _____. bus, shoe, table, orange.
Speech perception approaches.
2. Speech Perception as Special. The
idea that language is perceived
based upon it’s differences. This
theory basis it’s assumptions on the
idea that recognizing the difference
in phonemes is what causes a
categorical perception.
Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis
•
Idea that Language will have some
effect on thought either:
1. Language is a determinant factor to
thought. = Strong LRH
2. Language has a influential effect.
Weak/Weakest LRH
3. Cognitive approach.
Strong LRH
• Originated with Whorf and his work
with Navaho Indians.
• Due to aspect of language where
shape changes the verb used to
explain, Whorf suggested that this is
evidence for Strong LRH
• Example = The verb will change if you
are carrying a short stick or long
stick.
Weakest LRH
• Originated with Carmichael
• Focused on the influence of labels
affect on thought
Weak LRH
• Similar to weakest, so much in fact that
they are commonly interchangeable.
• Main studies have looked at color
boundaries and how they differ from
language to language.
• Example = Davies and Corbett studied the
differences in green-blue boundaries
between Setswana, English, and Russian
Languages.
Setswana = botula, for all green/blue objects.
English = Green, Blue
Russian = zelenyj is green; sinij is dark blue;
goluboj is light blue
Cognitive Approach
• Originated with Hunt and Agnoli
• Some Languages make it easier to
describe ideas.
• Questions how much cognitive cost
is their to describe an idea.
• Example = Kiriwina of New Guinea
Word Mokita = 'truth everybody knows
but nobody speaks’
• Example = Chinese Vs English
Numbering
Language Acquisition
• Language development varies from
child to child, but there seems to be
at least stages that seem universal to
Language Acquisition.
• Main thing to understand is that there
is a gradual progression from stage
to stage and it is age influenced, but
not dependent.
• The Stages are as follows
Pre-linguistic Stage
• This stage is pre using words. Common
age birth to 1yr
• Step 1 - Most communication is done
though crying. Different crying usually
means different things.
• Step 2 cooing – infants start to use vowel
sound like ooooo. Typically denotes
pleasure or happiness.
• Step 3 babble – they start using
consonants and vowels together “ba”,
“pa”, “ma”
Side note: these are all pretty universal
among all languages.
One - Word Stage
• Usually begins around 12months.
• Step 1 First word - will usually not be
adult words, but shows linking of
word to idea example “nene”=bottle
• Step 2 Slow building – after 1st word
acquisition will be slow, maybe only
10 words over 4mths
• Step 3 vocabulary explosion. (16 to
18mths) Much more rapid language
development 18months ~ 50 words
24months ~ 300 words.
Grammar - (Two Word + - stage)
• Early Grammar or Stage 1 Grammar–
18 to 30 months. Short and simple =
idea and two to three words.
• Late Grammar or Stage 2 Grammar –
30months. Children start to use
multiple word sentences including
suffixes like “ing” and “ed” to show
tense.
– They also have a tendency to
overregularise by adding suffixes to
words that are not correct.
– Example Goed instead of went or singed
instead of sang.
Meaning and Pragmatics
• We also need to look at not only what
is developed but how it is developed
as far as how do children develop
meaning of words, and how to use
them.
Meaning
•
Three basic principals seem to
determine how children learning
meaning.
1. The reference principle - words refer
to things in their environment.
2. The extendability principle - the
assumption that words refer to a
class of objects not a unique object.
3. The whole-object principle - words
refer to the whole object not just
parts of it
Pragmatics
• How do they communicate with others?
The fundamental question of Pragmatics.
• Not a lot is know about the process but we
do know that by 18months they
understand the concept of taking turns. I
speak then you speak
• By the age of 4 they can use “motherese”
or different speech when talking to adults
or younger children.
• By 5 they have all the basic rules of
Language down. Why? Mirror Neurons
maybe?