Opposing Theories of Language Development in Humans

1
Opposing Theories of Language Development in
Humans

• Behaviorists learned by imitation
• Nativists Noam Chomsky
• related to specific structures in brain.
• Can learn any language, anywhere
• Only humans have it
• Principles of language are innate
• Interactionist learn through social interaction
• Social situations necessary to activate language
  acquisition device
• Have to interact, not just hear it.
• Parentese helps children learn grammar
  rules/vocabulary
• Its a universal process related to maturation

2
Stages of Language Acquisition
Stage 1 Crying, cooing (1-5 months) Stage 2
6-18 months old begins babbling period of
universal adaptability. Stage 3 1 word stage
engage in fast mapping must be able to store and
retrieve memories learn to manipulate
enviroment. (12 18 months) Stage 4 2 word
stage Actions, modifying words, qualifying
words. (2 years) Stage 5 telegraphic speech
short sentences using nouns and verbs learn
conversational rules (2- 5 years) Stage 6
expresses concepts with words imaginary speech
uses complex grammar aware of other
languages.(4-5 years)
3
Does the language we speak determine the thoughts
we have? Or, does thought determine the language
spoken?
4
The Case for Linguistic Relativity

• Whorf (1956)- Snow
• Eskimos have numerous words for snow (wet/dry,
  blowing etc).
• English has only one word.
• Criticisms
• Overestimated the number of words used by Eskimos
• Ignored other English words for snow (blizzard,
  slush).

5
The Case Against Linguistic Relativity

• Rosch (1973)
• Danai people of New Guineu appear to only 2 terms
  for color (one for bright/one for dark)
• English language has 11 basic color names
• Both groups easily learn non-sense names for
  colors (shouldnt happen if linguistic relativity
  works)
• Conclusion we think about color the same way
  even though we do not express it similarly.

6
Overall Conclusion

• Most evidence does not support strong, linguistic
  relativity
• Some evidence that a weaker version may exist.