Psycholinguistics

Question 1

List 3 theories of language acquisition

Answer 1

1. Quality of evidence available
2. Innate knowledge
3. Inductivism

Question 2

What is Quality of Evidence Available theory?

Answer 2

-learn language through constant exposure (little conscious instruction)
-graduated language development (motherese doesn’t matter as long as you’re speaking)

Evidence against: great inconsistencies
-paucity of input (language is messy, errors, not full sentences)
-error correction is rare and ineffective
-children learn similar language skills regardless of input

Question 3

What is Innate Knowledge and what is Evidence towards?

Answer 3

Grammatical information is encoded in DNA
-language is hereditary; like some animal traits
-universal grammar
-every language follows a similar underlying structure
Evidence towards:
-neurological and genetic
-all humans have genetic code for language
-all languages have verbs and nouns
-all have basic elements shared in common ability (which suggests there is a biological aspect)
-genetics- certain genes impact language abilities

Question 4

Evidence against innate knowledge

Answer 4

Forbidden experiment
Deprive child of language input to see if they still learned language
We know side effects due to child abuse and feral children- these children never fully developed ability to communicate
Not great evidence due to psychological impact

Question 5

What is inductivism?

Answer 5

In opposition to universal grammar
We are born blank slates- no language in DNA
Bruce Derwing- we had no knowledge
Humans are born with innate ability to learn
-children learn quickly b/c nothing interferes
-adult have more difficulty because of previous conceptions
Our language impacts the way we view the world (Sapir-whorf hypothesis)
Learning new language also learning new way to view the world
Put all concepts/way we consider world around us

Question 6

Communication vs signals

Answer 6

Communication: conveying information from a sender to a receiver
Signals: physical events, behaviors, structures that receivers respond to

Question 7

Two theories of whether or not animals communicate

Answer 7

1. Animals respond to signals because they carry useful information
   -sender signals something that the receiver needs to know
   -this is communication: conveying information
2. Animals use signals to manipulate or persuade
   -senders want something beneficial to itself
   -this is not communication: information is not involved