Process of Language Aquisition

Question 1

what is a necessary condition?

Answer 1

is one that must be present for language development to occur in a normal way

Question 2

what is a sufficient condition?

Answer 2

one that, if present, ensures that
language will develop normally

Question 3

do complex behaviors have sufficient or necessary conditions?

Answer 3

complex behaviors often do NOT have a single sufficient condition

Question 4

behaviorist perspective of language acquisition?

Answer 4

All language is learned according to conditioning principles

Question 5

nativist perspective of language acquisition?

Answer 5

Children expect language to have rules, and they have some idea of the nature of those rules

Question 6

challenges of behaviorist perspective?

Answer 6

◦ Lack of negative evidence. Negative evidence is evidence that a particular utterance is ungrammatical.
◦ Children say completely novel sentences and show syntactic
overregularization (i.e., they incorrectly generalize a grammatical rule)
◦ Doesn’t account for the richness and speed at which children
acquire language.

Question 7

parameter settings of nativist perspective?

Answer 7

▪ Innate knowledge is represented as parameters that are set during language acquisition
▪ Recall PPT theory
▪ E.g., head parameter (Is language head-first or head-last?), null subject parameter (Is language pro drop or note?)

Question 8

what other hypothesis is associated with the nativist perspective?

Answer 8

Bickerton’s language bioprogram hypothesis
◦ Hypothesized that there is an innate grammar used by children whose language input is limited.

Question 9

what is pidgin and creole(nativist perspective)?

Answer 9

1. pidgin: a simplified version of language that is created when speakers of different languages are in close contact and need to communicate.
2. creole: language developed by children who were exposed to a pidgin as their native language.

Question 10

what is the cognitive development perspective?

Answer 10

Language development corresponds to cognitive development
- correlations between specific language achievements and cognitive achievements

Question 11

what does the cognitive development perspective assume?

Answer 11

children must have certain cognitive processes to benefit from language exposure
- no special claims about language

Question 12

what is the critical period hypothesis?

Answer 12

is the view that there is a period in life in which we are especially prepared to acquire a language (biologically) and we must be exposed to language in order to acquire language

Question 13

what is the sensitive period hypothesis?

Answer 13

is a weaker version of the critical period hypothesis
◦ There is a period in life in which we are most prepared to acquire language. Language learning occurs most naturally and proficiently in this period.
- complex aspect of syntactic parsing?