Lecture 9 Flashcards
Steven Pinker views on language
- Language is universal
- Languages conform to a universal design
- Children pass through a universal series of stages in acquiring a language
- If children are put together with no pre-existing language then they develop their own
- Language and intelligence are doubly dissociable in disorders
Chomsky perspective on language
Grammar is universal that is a system of principles and structures that are prerequisite to learning language
S structure and D structure (Chomsky)
S structure: the surface structure, the actual spoken sentence
D structure: the deep structure, abstract representation of a sentence
Chomsky’s poverty of the stimulus argument
- Language requires the ability to connect d-structures to s-structures
- Children only hear s-structure, d-structure must be innate
- Language input is complex
- Children receive little feedback about grammar
- Children acquire language quickly and easily
Overregularisation
Example of children using the d-structure everywhere
e.g. I goed to the cinema
I eated popcorn
Overgeneralization
Creating a new verb by adding the suffix -ing
It’s weathering for example
Evidence for Chomsky’s statement that children receive little feedback about grammar
Parents often repeat ungrammatical sentences
Parents also reinforce ungrammatical sentences
Criticism for universal language design
- Languages are too diverse and do not show universal design
- Parental role in providing language models
- Innate knowledge or a predisposition to learn a language
Language development needs
- Universal grammar
- Experience
- General learning mechanisms
Systems of language
- Pragmatic system: turn taking
- Phonological system: speech perception and production
- Syntactic system: understanding and producing grammar
- Semantic system: understanding meaning of words
Shared intentionality
Ability and motivation to engage with others collaboratively for joint goals
Speech production development
- Reflexive vocalisations (0-2)
- Cooing and laughing (2-4)
- Babbling and vocal play (4-6)
- Canonical babbling (6-10)
- Modulated babbling
Semantic system development factors
- Existing semantic system
- Existing knowledge of the world
- Level of cognitive skills
- Selective attention
Pidgin
Makeshift communicative system with little grammar
Language gene
Foxp2
Phonemic awareness
This is very difficult for children and requires a lot of instruction. Multiple pronunciations are possible for certain phonemes
Overextension
Extending the meaning of a word to other objects
Under extension
Using a word too narrowly
Whole object constraint
Assuming a word refers to a whole object rather than a part of it
Mutual exclusivity constraint
Only a dog they have seen is a dog and nothing else and no other dog can have the word dog
Proto-declarative pointing
Wanting an adult to pay attention to the object
Proto-imperative pointing
Wanting an adult to give you the object
