Exam 2 Flashcards
Why Linguistic Universals are a potential argument for the Innateness Hypothesis
- Universals are unique to a language (not shared with other mental modules)
- Hard to explain in any other way than to say that they are ‘built in’
What are the two steps of finding Universals of a language?
Description
Explanation
Define description as a step of finding universals of a language
Gathering data
Define explanation as a step of finding universals of a language
Formulating hypotheses, building theories
How many languages are in the world?
Around 7,000
Explain the logical status of a valid linguistic universal
True language universals must be language-specific universals
Why we cannot say that any linguistic universal supports the IH
- Something that is true of all communication systems is true of all languages… therefore it is not a language-specific universal
- If a property is innate, it is universal… however, every universal property is not innate
Criterial for a good universal
- One has to exclude other possible explanations
* The universal has to be language-specific (i.e. exclusive to language and not some broader class of cognitive systems)
List 4 possible alternative explanations for language specific universals
- Monogenesis
- Evolution
- Neural Architecture
- Other biological constraints
Alternative Explanations for language-specific universals: define monogenesis
All languages stem from one mother language
Alternative Explanations for language-specific universals: define evolution
all evolved things have hierarchical structure
Alternative Explanations for language-specific universals: define other biological constraints
Speech/hearing apparatus
Covert Universals
Regard the mental grammar which is ‘hidden’
Overt Universals
Regard properties of utterances which are observable
language-specific universal
The universal is specific to the cognitive domain that we call language. (specific does not mean a type of language ex. English & Russian)
What are the 3 types of language-specific universals
- Unconditional
- Implicational
- Disjunctive (Parameters)
Explain unconditional universals
X is (un)true of all languages
Explain implicational universals
If a language has property X it will have property Y. Or it cannot also have property Y
Explain disjunctive universals (AKA Parameters)
Each language has either X or Y
What do parameters capture?
That the differences between languages are limited.
Universals can be…
Absolute or statistical
Absolute Universal
All languages have X, meaning there is no language without X
Statistical universal
All languages have X, meaning there is a strong tendency for language to have X
What is typological studies? What universal is it related to?
Covers large numbers of languages. Focus on shallow, observable, measurable properties of utterances. Overt Universal
What is theoretical linguistics
Focuses on covert universals ex. properties of the mental grammar
What is the nature side of universals?
Theoretical studies - assert that the mental grammar is based on an innate ‘template’
What is the nurture side of universals
Typological studies - is no reliance on innate properties of language.
Mention 3 ways in which one can collect data about language development
- Longitudinal - 1 child
- Cross-sectional - many children
- Diary studies
Explain what is meant by habituation studies
What do they know before any experience
Principles and Parameters model of language acquisition
Universal grammar contains Principals and Parameters
Principles relate to what universals
unconditional/implication universals
Parameters relate to what universals
Disjunctive universals
What is Moderate rationalism?
- Some of language is innately fixed (absolute Universals)
- The rest is “innately variable” with limited values for each variable (Disjunctive universals
- This balance is remains to be determined
Explain the role of parameter setting in language acquisition
Parameters are innate, but their setting depends on language input
What is language acquisition?
The construction of a mental grammar based on input utterances
Is universal grammar and language acquisition device the same thing?
Yes
List 5 characteristics of the process of language acquisition
- Universality
- Flexibility
- Rapidity
- Uniformity
- Stages
What is ontogenetic development?
Children go through stages of language development
List and explain 5 differences between input and output in language acquisition
- Incompleteness: Children are not, or are barely, exposed to certain types of data. Yet, they can be observed to produce such sentences very early on.
- Limitedness: Children are exposed to a finite input. Yet, all children end up with the capacity to produce and understand new utterances, including utterances that they have never heard before. Additionally, not all children in a given speech community receive the same input, but they do all end up with grammars that they are very similar.
- Lack of direct negative evidence: children are not informed about what is not grammatical, even though occasionally parents do try to correct their child’s utterance. Yet, all children end up knowing which utterances are ungrammatical
- Lack of Instruction: Children are not given explicit instruction about what rules of the grammar are. On the contrary, children acquire the rules of the grammar spontaneously and without deliberate attempts to practice. There is no explicit teaching
- Errors: Children are exposed to numerous errors in the data such as ungrammatical sentences, hesitations, restarts, etc. that they hear, when people do not finish their sentence or mix up different constructions. Even though they themselves will also end up making similar mistakes for the same reasons, they do have the capacity to figure out what the rules are for making grammatical sentences.
Formulate the poverty of the stimulus argument for innateness
•Chomsky said when the stimulus is so poor that it fails to reveal certain properties of languages, then these properties must be part of UG
Explain the notion of structure dependency
•The movement rule is not based on the linear string of words; it must look at the hierarchical structure of the sentence.
Alternative form of language acquisition: what is Statistical Learning
A child can detect, upon being exposed to sequences that certain combinations recur
What are the major milestones/stages in language development that occur after babbling
- One word stage
- Two word stage 1.5 YO
- Telegraphic utterances/simple syntax - making simple sentences at 2.5 years old
- Grammatical Fluency - Increase in grasp of the complexities of language
Formulate the argument for stages for the innateness hypothesis
Can the fact that the acquisition process goes through developmental stages always be used to support the IH?
Explain the critical period effect
The influence of maturation state of the acquisition of language
Critical period effect main conclusion
- Before age 7 fully fluent
- Before age 15 near fluent
- After 15 individual differences
Provide Lenneberg’s argument for the notion of critical period effect
- Young people who suffer brain damage or loose a part of their brain in surgery will recover language
- Older people will not (or not so easily)
- Within the critical period the brain can ‘rebuild’ language
What is a deprivation experiment
Depriving birds from input during a critical period and only get input later, they fail to learn the song
The notion of the forbidden experiment
Deprive children from language input for different periods of time and see whether after that they can still learn language
Explain the genie case and its relevance for the critical period notion
- Genie could learn words and simple combinations
* Conclusion – When exposure to language comes after puberty, language cannot be successfully learned
Which aspect of language was hard for Genie?
Acquisition
Explain the relevance of second language learning for the critical period notion
Learning a language after puberty is going to be hard
What is meant by length of exposure
How long someone is exposed to a language
Explain the proto-language hypothesis and its relevance for the genie case
- A elementary innate communication device that preceded UG
- Genie achieved what she did by using her proto-language capacity which Bickerton believes is not subject to a critical period
Typical properties of proto-language
- Words for ‘concrete’ concepts
- Word Combinations
- Simple phonology
- No recursion
- Use of melody
- Use of gesture
Explain the splitting model
- Hunter – gatherer life style
- Bands/tribes splitting up
- Languages change
- Result – Different languages arise that stem from a common source
What is language family
•Languages related through descent from a common parental language
Explain the merging model
New languages can arise if different languages produce a mix
What is Pidgin and its properties
•Pidgin – A mix of different languages – simple grammar and no one’s mother tongue
What is Creole and its different properties
•Creole – What children do to a pidgin – they make it a mother tongue and give it grammar
Explain the circumstances that lead to pidgin and creole languages
Plantations in the colonial period
Explain the relevance of pidgin and creole to the the Innateness Hypothesis
The structure of the language is built in
Explain why sign languages, such as ASL, are complete and fully-developed languages.
They have:
•Grammatical structure
•Acquisition stages (and critical period effects)
•Brain regions that are used
What are familiar misconceptions about sign languages?
- There is only one universal sign language
- They are somehow based on spoken languages
- Sign languages is a form of gesturing
Explain how the existence of sign languages bears on the Innateness hypothesis
•They are full blown languages with all relevant grammatical properties and the same use as communicative systems
Explain the consequences of late or delayed acquisition of sign language
There is a critical period for sign language and fluency declines with later exposure
Define the notion of home sign
“Sign language” that is made up to communicate before any (sign language) input
What is a recent sign language that was introduced
Nicaraguan Sign Language
Why is such emergence of new sign language relevant for the IH?
It triggered language acquisition development (maybe)
