PPT Noes, Test 4 - L1 Aquisition Flashcards
principles and parameters model:
principle
about lexical categories
all languages have subjects, verbs, objects
principles and parameters model:
parameters
3 parameters of lexical categories?
- are SVO marked by inflectional case-marking OR by word order?
- if word order is important, which order is used?
- can the subject be dropped in some cases?
principles and parameters model:
principle
about questions…
all languages have a way to ask who, what, when, where, why questions
principles and parameters model:
parameters
2 possibilities of ways to structure questions
- the wh-word at the beginning of the question
2. the wh-word at the end of the question
principles and parameters model:
principle
about negation
all languages have a way to negate a statement
principles and parameters model:
parameters
2 ways to do negation
- negative concord - all SOV are marked in negative statement
- english - only one negation marker
language acquisition stages:
4 days - 2 months
children can distinguish between their native language and other languages
language acquisition stages:
2 months
children learn rhythms of language spoken around mother, begin to “coo” vowel sounds
language acquisition stages:
3.5 months
children pay more attention to their mother’s voices than they do other noises
language acquisition stages:
4 months
children prefer speech to other noises
language acquisition stages:
5 months
children associate mouth movements with specific sounds
language acquisition stages:
7-8 months
children stop paying attention to the sounds that are not relevant to their language (/p/ and /ph/ distinction lost)
language acquisition stages:
1 year
- children make sounds of their language, first words
- holophrastic stage: one-word constructions (nouns)
- can produce 10 words, understand 50-200
- issues of gesture/language
language acquisition stages:
1.5 years
- children begin to name all objects around them
- fast mapping
- two word phase
- once child learns a construction, does not produce unacceptable usages
- inflectional endings not or rarely used
language acquisition stages:
2 years
- children learn 2 words a day
- by 2.5 yr. child has sorted out complicated deictic expressions like ‘you’ and ‘I’, these are troublesome since they shift
language acquisition stages:
3 years
child brain twice as active as adult brain
language acquisition stages:
4 years
child has mastered most of basic concepts of English grammar
language acquisition stages:
6 years
child know around 14,000 words
theories of L1 acquisition:
name the 3 theories of L1 acquisition
- Reinforcement hypothesis (behaviorism)
- Imitation hypothesis
- Interactionist hypothesis (cognitive and UG)
theories of L1 acquisition:
reinforcement (behaviorism)
principle & 3 problems
principle - children learn language through positive reinforcement
problems - children say things that are not rewarded or corrected
- poverty of the stimulus, not enough coming from the environment, we know rules that we are not explicitly taught
- correction does not work
theories of L1 acquisition:
imitation
principle & 2 supports
principle - children learn language by imitating those around them
support - children learn the language variety of their environment
- imitation is how children acquire the sound inventory, lexicon, and communicative competence
theories of L1 acquisition:
imitation
problems 1-3 of 6
problems - imitation does not explain enough, like how does a child acquire the full complexity of language
- children DON’T say some things they HAVE learned
- children DO say things they have NEVER heard
theories of L1 acquisition:
imitation
problems 4-6 of 6
problems - children around the world follow similar stages in acquisition of language
- children generalize, they can produce an infinite number of new sentences (creativity), meaning they learn rules that are not explicitly taught (poverty of stimulus)
- children overgeneralize (say tree for broccoli)
theories of L1 acquisition:
interactionist
principle & 3 supports
principle - children use their innate abilities to extract the rules of their native language from the environment
support - there are some mistakes that children never make across the board (using word order that does not appear in any language)
- children say things they have never heard while sorting out a rule
- poverty of stimulus, some kind of internal COGNITIVE structure must explain it
critical age hypothesis:
what are critical ages
learn language with fluency: < puberty
2nd language acquisition native like: 3-7
2nd language acquisition gradual decline: 8-puberty
native fluency acquisition disappears: > puberty
critical age hypothesis:
4 supports
- brain plasticity
- wild children
- evidence from second language acquisition research
- evidence from the development of creoles
define pidgin
highly simplified communicative systems that arise when adult speakers who share no common language need to communicate with each other - associated with trade communities and plantation situations
4 features of pidgin
- mostly nouns
- few function words
- limited morphology
- not a native language for any speaker
define creole
a full-fledged language that develops from a creole
3 characteristics of creole
- if faced with pidgin, children will create a creole
- a creole is based on a primary language that supplies most of the vocabulary (the lexifier)
- grammatical rules are developed from combination of the contact languages and some new rules
