5 - Language and Knowledge Flashcards
What is Language?
A communication system in which words and their written symbols are combined in rule-governed ways to enable speakers to produce a finite number of messages
Language is:
Productive and Receptive
Behaviourist Approach to language acquisition and it’s limitations
- a domain-general theory
> language is learned in the same way as a behaviour is learned - language learning occurs in response to parental and societal reinforcement
Limitations:
- not enough to explain language learning on its own
- parent reinforces the concept of children’s uttering rather than the correct grammar in infants
- would predict that bilingual children take twice as long to learn languages, not true
Connectionist Approach to Language development, and it’s limitations
- language occurs through the construction of networks of associations (input->output)
> rule-based learning
> connectionist approach depends on the brains capacity for parallel processing (ability to handle many kinds of information simultaneously)
Limitations:
- difficult to create a computer program that accurately models what a child hears (not the same verbal input as adults hear)
Statistical Learning approach to language development
- learning mechanisms are domain-general
- builds on domain-general connectionist accounts, with an additional emphasis on calculation of conditional probabilities
- language learning occurs through tracking probabilities of sequences of linguistic events
- language learning becomes more sophistication over time
> since previous evidence is used to evaluate the strength of a rule at any given time
Nativist approach to learning
i.e. Chomsky
- general learning systems are not suited to language learning
- language learning occurs with the help of specialised language acquisition mechanisms
> specialised for learning abstract grammatical patterns that all languages share (technical ability to learn any language)
- poverty of the stimulus argument
- There is a critical period of language acquisition
> before or after this period, language cannot be learned in a natural fashion
What is the Poverty of the Stimulus argument?
An argument supporting the Nativist approach to learning
> the input that children receive is not always as well structured as the language they end up speaking
+ since speech is littered with errors (um, ah, failed grammar)
thus we must have some specialised ability to pick up on negative information (but no explanation on how)
Interactionist approach to language acquisition and it’s limitations
- we are biologically prepared for speech
- delicate balance between parent and child understanding
> parents speak in ways that recognise how much the child understands at the time
> Bruner’s Language Acquisition Support System
+ there is an innate learning system but also these systems that support language learning
Limitations:
- no universal pattern of social linguistic support by parents
- negative evidence is critical in learning (not mentioned in the interactionist model)
> must be present
> must be easy to process
> must improve grammar learning
How a Support-figure aids language acquisition (interactionist approach)
> playing non-verbal games > speak about visible objects > teach children structural features such as turn-taking > expansion \+ imitating and expanding on a child's statement (feedback) > recasting \+ reframing a child's incomplete response in a more grammatically correct form > using simplified speech (motherese) \+ short simple sentences \+ clear enunciation \+ higher pitched voice \+ end sentence with rising intonation
Language acquisition Models
Learning Models:
- behaviourist
- connectionist
- statistical learning
other:
- nativist
- interactionist
Stages of Language acquisition
Preverbal (4-10m)
Proto-conversation (17m)
One-word Utterances (1y)
> Semantic Development
Vocabulary Explosion (18m)
Two-word Utterances (18m) {telegraphic speech}
Communication becomes discourse (2y)
Critical Listening (3y)
Mastery over Morphemes (8y)
Preverbal stage
4-10m
- babbling (of phonemes)
> (gradually phonemes are linked to morphemes but not in this stage)
What is babbling?
Practice of speech using phonemes
Deaf babies babble with their hands if exposed to sign language
Phonemes and Morphemes
Phoneme
- the smallest unit of sound that creates a difference in meaning of a word
Morpheme
- the smallest unit of sound that has a meaning (a word)
Proto-Conversation Stage
17m
- using phonemes in the style of conversation
One-Word Utterance Stage
1y
- Holophrases
> a single word standing in for a larger sentence (up = pick me up)
What is Semantic Development?
Stage of language acquisition around 18m, where there is an understanding that some words are connected in meaning
What is the Vocabulary Explosion?
18m
> rapid learning of new words
- volume of vocabulary growth is somewhat dependent on social class
What is the Emergentist Coalition Model (ECM)?
An interactionist approach to language acquisition
States there are 6 principles that claim language acquisition
What is the Principle of Reference?
The innate ability of an infant to understand that a word uttered is referring to something
(as per the Emergentist Coalition Model)
What is the Principle of Novel Object Categorisation?
The innate assumption of an infant that a novel object requires a novel word
(as per the Emergentist Coalition Model)
What are word-learning constraints?
expectations about what a word is likely to refer to
What is shape bias?
a perceptual constraint
- infants learn shapes over colours and textures
What is whole-object bias?
a conceptual bias
- young children assume that words refer to the whole object, not it’s parts or properties
What is the Pragmatic constraint?
a conceptual bias
- the idea of mutual exclusivity
> each thing has only one label
> understand if a new word does not refer to something they know
