Language

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Language

• Special form of communication in which we learn
  complex rules to manipulate symbols that can be
  used to generate an endless number of meaningful
  sentences.
• Communication
• Set of Symbols
• Complex Rules
• Endless Number of Meaningful Sentences

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Communication

• Ability to use sounds, smells, or gestures to
  exchange information.

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Functional Properties

• Displaced Reference
• Productivity
• Prevarication
• Pragmatics

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Structural Properties

• Phonology
• phonemes
• Semantics
• morphemes
• syntax

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Prelinguistic Stage

• Birth to 1 year
• Crying
• Cooing
• Babbling
• Language Comprehension
• Ability to make discriminations not required by
  native language gradually lost

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Linguistic Stage

• 1 year and up
• Holophrases
• Infant-directed Speech
• Overextension
• Underextension

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Vocabulary Development
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Linguistic Stage

• Two-word combinations
• Telegraphic Speech
• errors of overgeneralization

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Errors of Overgeneralization
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Language Development

• 6 Months
• Vocalization with intonation
• Responds to human voices without visual cues by
  turning his head and eyes
• 12 Months
• Uses one or more words with meaning
• Understands simple instructions
• 18 Months
• Has vocabulary of approximately 5-20 words

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Language Development

• 24 Months
• Can name a number of objects common to his
  surroundings
• Approximately 2/3 of what child says should be
  intelligible
• Vocabulary of approximately 150-300 words
• My and mine are beginning to emerge
• 36 Months
• Knows chief parts of body and should be able to
  indicate these if not name
• Handles three word sentences easily
• Has in the neighborhood of 900-1000 words
• About 90 of what child says should be
  intelligible

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Language Development

• 4 Years
• Knows names of familiar animals
• Names common objects in picture books or
  magazines
• Knows one or more colors
• Often indulges in make-believe
• 5 Years
• Can count to ten
• Speech should be completely intelligible, in
  spite of articulation problems
• Speech on the whole should be grammatically
  correct
• 6 Years
• Speech should be completely intelligible and
  socially useful

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Language Development

• 7 Years
• Should be able to tell time to quarter hour
• Should be able to do simple reading and to write
  or print many words
• 8 Years
• All speech sounds, including consonant blends
  should be established
• Should be reading with considerable ease and now
  writing simple compositions
• Can carry on conversation at rather adult level

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Language in Middle Childhood

• Vocabulary continues to increase receptive
  vocabulary is about 40,000 words by age 10
• Phonemes mastered and aspects of intonation
  better understood
• Increases in mastery of grammar and syntax, along
  with improvement in pragmatic skills
• Development of metalinguistic awareness
• Increasing sophistication in language play

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Theories of Language Acqusition

• Learning Theories
• Nativist Theories

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LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT Language as a
Learned Skill

• Learning theory based on behaviorist theories of
  learning - operant conditioning, modeling
• Language viewed as behavior learned like other
  skills
• Parents also provide models of advanced language
  that child then imitates

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LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT Language As A
Learned Skill

• Criticisms of theory
• - parents do not explicitly teach rule systems
• - pace of language development difficult to
  explain through learning principles
• - ignores evidence that humans biologically
  predisposed to
• detect language stimuli

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The Nativist Theory - Born to Talk

• Noam Chomsky language is innate human capability
• Language acquisition device (LAD) brain
  mechanism specialized for detecting and learning
  rules of language
• Contains innate knowledge of universal grammar

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The Nativist Theory - Born to Talk

• Specific physical structures in humans
  specialized for producing/processing language
• No single organ is LAD
• Constellation of several brain areas that are
  specialized to process linguistic input and their
  connections (Wernickes area, Brocas area)

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How Language Works

• Left hemisphere more verbal side. We literally
  speak with half a brain. The dominant location of
  language for more than 95 of people, including a
  sizable majority of left-handers
• Right hemisphere responsible for the inflection
  and overall musical quality that lend important
  emphasis to verbal communication

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The Nativist Theory - Born to Talk

• Existence of sensitive periods for language
  development supports nativist position
• - children deprived of language have poorer
  language skills
• - older children and adults have greater
  difficulty learning second language
• - older children and adults show less
  recovery from brain damage affecting language
  areas

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The Nativist Theory - Born to Talk

• Criticisms of nativist theory
• - parents provide corrective feedback as
  learning theory predicts
• - some exposure to language (i.e., TV) does
  not produce normal language skills