Ch 1 - Intro Flashcards
Chomskyan View
Documented languages to figure out the “rules” of their grammars.
Universal (mental) grammar–in a language module, separate from other cognitive functions
(Noam Chomsky, Stephen Pinker)
Domain-General Cognitive View
Language knowledge is a vast amount of learned patterns.
Children learn associations, not rules.
Children use general intelligence and pattern-learning abilities to learn language ->not a separate module
Motivated to learn language because they want to communicate
(Michael Tomasello, Jean Piaget, Jenny Saffran)
Language
Systematic and conventional use of sounds (signs, or written symbols) to communicate or express oneself.
Communication
Directing others’ attention and sharing information with others
10mos+
Phonology
The sound system of a language
Lexicon
The mental dictionary
Grammar: Morphology (inflectional)
System of rules for combining the smallest units of language into words
- s
- ed
- ing
Grammar: Syntax
Building phrases out of words, and sentences out of phrases.
“Wild children”
No (or very limited language)
Normative studies (1920s-50s)
Timelines of typical development.
Behaviorism
Behavior changes in response to consequences of prior behavior.
Its theory of language from B. F. Skinner
Language acquisition: Chomskyan
Innate, universal, and language-specific grammar allows children to acquire language
Language aquisition: Domain-General Cognitive
Domain-general abilities allow children to acquire language
Language acquisition device (LAD)
Takes language input from environment and learns language with help of UG
Universal Grammar (UG)
innate language knowledge that allows the LAD to function and is not specific to any language
Nativism (nature)
Knowledge of language is innate
Innate knowledge is specific to language (UG)
Interactionism (nuture)
Some innate capacities enable language development
Modularity hypothesis
Language, and the innate capacity to learn language, are accomplished by a module that is separate from other mental functions
Domain-general cognitive skills
Understanding that mental states can be shared.
Capacity for symbolic representation
Connectionism
Regularities are represented in the brain as different patterns of activation
Knowledge = learned regularities
Statistical learning
Counting the frequency with which one stimulus is followed be another
> phonological sequences, grammar, word order
Rules
Execute on an abstract category (different items may be substituted)
e.g. Past tense = VERB + -ed
Associations
Patterns are learned from experiencing actual items
