LANGUAGE

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LANGUAGE
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THE ELEMENTS OF LANGUAGE

• Language
• Symbols and set of rules for combining them that
  provides a vehicles for communication
• Grammar
• A set of rules for combining the words used in a
  given language.

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• From Sounds to Sentences
• Phoneme
• The smallest unit of sound that affects the
  meaning of speech.
• Morpheme
• The smallest unit of language that has meaning
• Word
• Unit of language composed of one or more
  morphemes
• Syntax
• The set of rules that govern the formation of
  phrases and sentences in a language
• Semantics
• Rules governing the meaning of words and sentences

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• Surface Structure and Deep Structure
• Surface structure
• The order in which words are arranged in
  sentences.
• Deep structure
• An abstract representation of the underlying
  meanings of a given sentence

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UNDERSTANDING SPEECH

• Perceiving Words and Sentences
• Aided by context, expectations and non-verbal cues

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THE DEVELOPMENT OF LANGUAGE

• The First Year
• Babblings
• The first sounds infants make that resemble
  speech.
• Nine months
• Ten to twelve, understand words
• Overextend

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• The Second Year
• One-word stage
• A stage of language development during which
  children tend to use one word at a time.
• Telegraphic

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• Third Year and Beyond
• Ask questions
• By five, got it down

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HOW IS LANGUAGE ACQUIRED?

• Conditioning, Imitation and Rules
• Positive reinforcement
• Modeling or imitation
• Overgeneralization?
• Biological Basis for Language Acquisition
• Noam Chomsky
• Universal grammar
• Specific language impairment (SLI)
• Critical period
• Bilingualism

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CULTURE, LANGUAGE AND THOUGHT

• Benjamin Whorf (1956)
• Linguistic determinism
• Eleanor Rosch (1975)
• Dani tribe of New Guinea
• Framing effects