Psychology (Chomsky - Cognitive Development for Language)

Question 1

What did he believe?

Answer 1

Children are born with an innate predisposition for language acquisition.

Question 2

What is the LAD and what did he expand it later into?

Answer 2

Chomsky theorized that children are born with an innate hardwired language acquisition device (LAD) in their brains.

He later expanded this idea into that of “Universal Grammar” (A set of innate principles and adjustable parameters that are common to all human languages).

According to Chomsky, the presence of it allows children to deduce the structure of their native languages from “mere exposure”. Learning their language with remarkable speed when being exposed to primary data from the adult, and form structured sentences from. Due to the principle that we are able to pick up “utterances heard around us” that might suggest why some may pick up a word that they never learned themselves or got teached. They just know it from hearing it and associate it by using given principles. OR he stated that; Children learn language on their own so long as they are immersed in language

Question 3

What is Generative Grammar?

Answer 3

Generative grammar goes against the nature driven part and argues that later language becomes context driven and you use certain principles and apply them to situations that fit them.

Question 4

What is Linguistic Competence?

Answer 4

Linguistic competence is concerned with the child’s grammar, language input and grammatical sentence structures.

Question 5

What is Primary Linguistic data?

Answer 5

Primary linguistic data is something that comes directly from for example the parents, teaching you through the use of “adult speech” about a set of words.

Question 6

Chomsky LIMITATIONS

Answer 6

Negative of Chomsky’s theory is that he ignores semantics, pragmatics and discourses, which makes it less valid.

Question 7

Chomsky STRENGTHS

Answer 7

he has included both nature and nurture in his theory by arguing that we have innate processes that help us learn language, but we need input first externally from either parents via adult speech, utterances heard around us or others.

He also based a lot of his theory around real life situations making his theory and tested them each making his theory more reliable.

Question 8

Name the stages of Language Development and the years

Answer 8

1. Pre-talking stage / Cooing (0-6 months)
2. Babbling stage (6-8 months)
   3 Holophrastic stage / One-word Stage
3. The two-word stage (18-24 months)
4. Telegraphic stage (24-30 months)
5. Later multiworld stage (30+ months)