Exchanging information into mutually understood symbols. -Modality- the manner in which language and communication is expressed. -Articulation (speech and sign)- the accuracy with which something is expressed. Components of Language Form Meaning use ; Syntax: Sentence Structure ; Morphology: Structure of Words ; Phonology: Sound System ; Semantics or Lexicon: ; Meanings of words and phrases ; Pragmatics: International skills, communicative competence ; Sociolinguistics: Language use In society -Phonology: The mental representation of sounds as part of a symbolic cognitive system -Morphology:
Morphemes- the minimal units to linguistic tort and meaning Bound morphemes- cannot occur on their own as full words (adds additional meanings to words) Free morphemes- can stand on there own. (full words) -Syntax: how words are organized into sentences – The order of words makes a big difference in meaning -English is a word order language. -Semantics: Learning the meanings of words and phrases -Our lexical knowledge involves more than Just the meaning.
Child Milestones for Language Learning First year Major Milestone: 0-12 Months – Pre-linguistic period even though a great deal of learning occurs Phonology: vocal Play, babbling – Lexicon: Recognizes a few words, such as name – Communicative competence: intentional communication Second Year Major Milestone: 12-24 Months – Phonology: developing sound system for spoken words – Lexicon: Vocabulary grows to about 300 words -Grammar: Combining words into sentences – Communicative Competence: Talks about a range of things, mostly in the here-and- Third year major Milestone: 24-36 Months -Phonology: Articulation improves – Lexicon: Large ranges of words including abstract words, like pretend, anger, sad, think. – Grammar: Longer and more complex sentences Communicative competence: Talks about a range, including past events and pretend. Fourth year major Milestones: 36-60 Months – Phonology: Phonological awareness, rhymes – Lexicon: More words, and more abstract words (think, pretend) – Grammar: Complex sentences with embedded clauses – Communicative competence: Learning to tell stories and talks about decentralized topics a great deal. – Capable of complex turning Beyond Four years of age – Continue to learn more through school years and life -Vocabulary – How to use language – Using language to learn new things Becoming literate
By School Age -They can talk -To learn and inform -To tease, pretend, and lie -To bond and assimilate culture -To tell stories and entertain What is it about our brains that allow us to acquire language from interaction? The Natives view: Children are born with a universal grammar that serves as a foundation to learn their specific language. -Child acquire language rapidly, effortlessly, without direct instruction -All languages share common features -Innate cognitive mechanisms specific to language are turned on’ by the input Interactions of Constructivist View: No innate universal grammar Language results from interacting using language – Innate characteristics of the mind allow language to develop -General cognitive abilities, not language specific -Large role of experience in children language learning -Input helps shape language What is Innate?
The Domain specific account of language learning – The cognitive structures used to learn language tare domain specific language -Self contained module -Children have inborn knowledge about the general form of language -Language Acquisition Device -Universal Grammar – Structural; similarities among all languages The Domain general accounts of language learning Domain- General cognitive skills underlie language acquisitions -Specific to -For example: Humans ability to learn symbols, categorize, and see patterns What kind of learning mechanisms do babies have? – Statistical learners – babies can learn relative frequencies of sound patterns – Rule learners- learn abstract rules or patterns, don’t Just memorize sound sequences, and have a cognitive representation of an abstract rule The Hug Test -Children can easily apply the popularization rule to a new unknown word. Ex: Here is one hug.
Here are two What kind of knowledge does the child acquire? Language knowledge consists of rules and symbols: Abstract, independent of specific items. -Subject Verb Object Language knowledge consists of connections in neural network: -Form connections among nodes from experience or input – The network is the knowledge -Input activates certain patterns, repeatedly -Strengthens correct patterns, weakens ones that are not correct How do we study child language for research and clinical knowledge? -Transcription of a sample of the child’s speech to analyze -Video or audiotape record a child -hard part: getting a representative sample -Sentences, typically 100 utterances. Standardized tests and measures of language development assess language maturity -MAIL- Mean Length of Utterances Summary -Language is a profound cognitive activity -Children must learn phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics – How children learn language has broad theoretical appeal and interest -Is language innate or learned from experience -Are language learning mechanisms domain specific or general cognitive skills. Chapter 2′ Biological Keywords basis to Language element Pidgins- a language developed when people are thrown together that shares no common language. People invent a language that uses the lexical items from on or ore of the contact languages but which has its own, very primitive grammar. Vocabulary is borrowed from one of the contact languages, but the grammar is not Creole- is a language that once was a pidgin but which subsequently became a native language for some speakers. -Serialization is a process that creates new languages. – if the model is a primitive language, such as pidgin- humans will make it more complex- into a Creole. Neurologist’s- is the study of the relation of the brain to language functioning. -Where language resides in the brain and what it is about the human brain that makes language possible. Cerebral cortex- is the outer layer of the brain. – The cortex controls higher mental functions, such as reasoning and planning, and the substantial structures control more primitive functions, such as eating and breathing. The cortex itself is divided into two cerebral hemispheres; in the most individuals, the area of the cortex that sits over the ear ( the temporal lobe) is larger in the left cerebral hemisphere than in the right. -The left and right vertebral hemispheres are connected by a band of nerve fibers known as the corpus callous. – Each cerebral hemisphere is connected to the opposite side of the body. These contra lateral connections, the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body and vice versa. Aphasia- condition in which language functions are severely impaired Brooch’s Aphasia- difficulty producing speech and the speech they do produce seems to lack grammatical structure.
Their speech tends to consist of short strings of content words- nouns and verbs- without grammatical morphemes. -Typically associated with damage to the front part of the left hemisphere, near the part of the cortex that controls movement. – Left-hemisphere damage, which results in language impairment – ‘Seat of grammar’ Wrinkle’s Aphasia- Use words that are wrong tort the meaning they are trying to express or they use made-up, meaningless words. Describes as “syntactically full but semantically empty’. – Damage to the right cerebral hemisphere, which causes visual-spatial information. – ‘Seat of meaning -Typically associated with damage to a region more posterior than Brooch’s area, next to the primary auditory cortex.
Functional Asymmetry- The characteristic of the human brain in which each hemisphere serves different functions. -The account of brain development as moving from an initial state of redundant capacity throughout the brain to one of nonresident. -Daily use of the left hemisphere for language appears to stabilize language in the left hemisphere and allows elimination of the redundant right hemisphere capacity. If the left hemisphere is damaged early in life, the right hemisphere still has the capacity to take over language functions, but with age that capacity declines. Plasticity- is the ability of parts of the brain to take over functions they ordinarily would not serve. Brain tissue does not regenerate once it is damaged -Children’s brains have more plasticity than adult brains do (but adult’s brains do have some, but children’s brains have more. Children with left hemisphere damage can recover some language using the right hemisphere (never complete recovery) Critical period Hypothesis- the notion that a biologically determined period exists during which language acquisition must occur, if it is to occur at all. – When baby bird’s hatch, the first thing they see is their mother and will follow her around; this is said that babies are imprinted on their mother. – Some environmental input is necessary for normal development, but biology determines when the organism is responsive to that input. That period of responsively is the critical period.
Ex: some cells in the brain respond to input from both eyes in the normal adult, but if these cells fail to receive input from two eyes during the first year or two of life, they lose this capacity. Left/Right Hemisphere- The left hemisphere is specialized for language, and the right hemisphere is specialized for processing visual-spatial information. – Right hemisphere makes some contribution to normal language functioning. -Right hemisphere lesion patient sometimes produce abnormal intonation contour when they speak and they may have difficulty recognizing the emotional tone of an utterance, Right hemisphere damage patients have difficulty understanding Jokes, understanding sarcasm, interpreting educative language and tolling indirect requests. Right hemisphere is involved in semantics and pragmatics but that syntax is the province of left hemisphere. -Left hemisphere is specialized for damage, regardless of modality – Left hemisphere damage resulted in aphasia for signers Just as it does for users of spleen language, even though sign language used a visual-spatial modality, signers with right hemisphere damage were not aphasic. Language = Human Universal – Whenever there are humans there is language. All humans are capable of learning language – Language is not merely something that humans can do it exposed to the right conditions but that language is something that humans cannot help doing.
Chapter 3: Communicative Development Intentionality- the characteristic of having a purpose or goal (in speaking) -The infant tries to get the adult to do something -Contact with another mind -Intentionality distinguishes reflexive communication from true communication – Evidence of intentionality: – Extends arm to show you something – Points at some interesting object or event – Extend arms to be picked up – Requests something by reaching Pretend actions and objects. Development of Intentionality: Speech acts- Doing things with words -Precautionary Phase: -Birth. -? 9 months of age -Children produce reflexive communication (adults assume the infant is trying to communicate) -Child does not intend to communicate. Ex: The child who wants an object that is out of reach may try to get it and may make a fuss in the process. The mother may observe the child, infer the child’s desires, and get the object fort the child. – The child’s behavior has the affect of obtaining the object, but the child makes no effort to communicate with the mother.
Elocutionary Phase: –?10-12 months of age – Children come to understand that other people can be helpful in satisfying ones goals and that it is possible to elicit this help by communicating with them. -Beginning of intentional communication -Actively tries to get adults attention -Communicative goal but no language form -Visualization, gestures, physical behavior Ex: a child who wants something will not Just reach and fuss but will actively try to elicit another aid in obtaining that object -Elocutionary Phase: – >12 months – When children’s communicative behavior includes using language to refer Intends to communicate & use words -Words are used referentially or as part of communicative routine. – This phase does not suddenly begin with the child’s first words.
Ex: First uses the sound “mm” with a pointing gesture to indicate a request. A little more advanced, a child uses “bam” while knocking down blocks, but is used a part of the activity. It does not stand for of used to refer to the activity. Gradually children begin to use language referentially 0 at that point; all three components if speech acts are in place. Joint attention – The state in which the child and an adult together attend to some third entity. A major milestone in speech act development is the change from the precautionary to the elocutionary phase. – Before Joint attention (10 months) infants are able to relate to an object or to another person but not to both at the same time.
