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Language and its Development

Language and its Development. Language. What defines language? What properties does language have? How does language allow for communicative power? Why does language exist? What does it gain us? When does language develop?. Properties of Language. Symbolic Cat = Thor = Arbitrary

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Language and its Development

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  1. Language and its Development

  2. Language • What defines language? What properties does language have? • How does language allow for communicative power? • Why does language exist? What does it gain us? • When does language develop?

  3. Properties of Language • Symbolic Cat = Thor = • Arbitrary • Productive • Discrete • Language is based on discrete units; each unit is unique

  4. Properties of Language /bog/ /pog/

  5. Properties of Language

  6. Properties of Language • Symbolic Cat = Thor = • Arbitrary • Discrete • Language is based on discrete units; each unit is unique • Productive

  7. Properties of Language- Productivity • We can say sentences we’ve never heard before • “I hate you, Mommy!” • We have a limited set of words and structures that can be recombined. • Generativity: • “He said that she told them that he thought that we heard that they reported that…”

  8. Ambiguity in Speech

  9. Resolving Ambiguity Social agreement, context, intention Grice (1975): Maxims of Conversation  • Quality: Tell the truth! (Avoid falsehoods *and* statements for which you have no evidence) • Quantity: Include what is necessary to express information, and nothing extraneous. • Utterances will be related to the topic at hand • Manner: Avoid ambiguity, use common ground (Clark)

  10. Ambiguity in Speech • Humor: • Last night I shot an elephant in my pyjamas. What he was doing in my pyjamas, I’ll never know”- Groucho Marx • Garden Path Sentences • The horse raced past the barn fell. • The prime number few.

  11. Properties of Language • Is language unique to humans? Or does animal communication meet these criteria? • Symbolic? • call systems used by animals only in presence of predators; NO • Arbitrary? • For some animals, YES; others, NO • Discrete • NO • Productive • Productivity dependent upon discreteness; NO

  12. Language and Thought • What does language allow us in terms of our ability to think? • Whorfian hypothesis • Eskimos and “snow” • Interlanguage differences • Colors • Spatial position/direction • Grammatical gender

  13. The Innateness of Language • Behaviorism: Language is learned like everything else • We say something, we receive feedback, which encourages us to say it again • BUT: We can say things we’ve never heard; we can produce new structures. • Chomsky: Language is innate to humans • Language Acquisition Device (LAD) • Universal Grammar • Poverty of the Stimulus

  14. The Nature of Feedback (Poverty of the Stimulus) • Children get little or no direct instruction. • Children get little feedback and don’t listen to what they get -- so why do they ever correct their errors? • Children hear many ungrammatical structures not identified as such -- how do they come to learn these are wrong? • In some cultures adults don’t speak to children. • Children will make up a language if they are not given one -- deaf children of hearing parents.

  15. Feedback Child: Nobody don’t like me. Mother: No, say “Nobody likes me.” Child: Nobody don’t like me. Mother: No, say “Nobody likes me.” Child: Nobody don’t like me. [dialogue repeated eight times] Mother: Now listen carefully, say “Nobody likes me.” Child: Oh! Nobody don’t likeS me.

  16. The Nature of Feedback (Poverty of the Stimulus) • Children get little or no direct instruction. • Children get little feedback and don’t listen to what they get -- so why do they ever correct their errors? • Children hear many ungrammatical structures not identified as such -- how do they come to learn these are wrong? • In some cultures adults don’t speak to children. • Children will make up a language if they are not given one -- deaf children of hearing parents.

  17. The Language Gene • SLI: Specific Language Impairment: Language is impaired without signs of impairment in other areas (motor, cognitive, etc.) • The FOXP2 gene • Members of the KE family with a corruption of this gene had SLI; the others didn’t. • The Language Gene?

  18. The Language Gene

  19. The Language Gene • Is it really specific to humans? • NO • Is language the only area affected by the gene? • NO • FOXP2 affects rapid-motor sequencing (which is imperative for language), but not language itself.

  20. Statistical Word Learning • Saffran, Aslin, and Newport (1996) • 8-month-olds presented with a series of syllables (2 mins) • Bidakupadotigolabubidaku • Transitional probabilities • Within-word: 1.0 (bida) • Between-word: 0.33 (kupa) • Then, they play repetitions of the “words” and “nonwords” • If babies have learned the words, they should prefer the nonwords. • And they do!

  21. Language Development • In utero: • Can distinguish between vowels (/a/ vs. /o/) • Infants: • Can distinguish phonologically similar sounds at 2 months (they lose this ability by 8-12 months) • Can pick up on cues to word segmentation • Can distinguish their native language from other languages

  22. Language Development • How do we tell what babies know? • Preferential looking • Sucking • Heart rate

  23. Language Development • Babies prefer looking at/hearing new things • When something is interesting: • Heart rate slows • Sucking rate slows

  24. Child Language Development • How do children get from being completely non-verbal to being expert speakers? • Can distinguish between vowel sounds (/a/ vs. /o/)- in utero • Can distinguish between all contrasts- from birth • Categorical perception of speech sounds (8-12 months) • Babbling: 6 months • One word stage: ~1 year • Two word stage: ~2 years (vocab is about 50 words) • Multiword utterances; gradually increase in complexity

  25. Verb Learning • Two types of past tense verbs: • Regular: talked, liked, hated • Irregular: ate, went, was • U-shaped curve of language learning • Early: correct usage • Middle: overgeneralization • Late: correct usage

  26. The Critical Period • If language learning doesn’t occur before a certain time, language will be impaired • Johnson & Newport (1989) • Age of Acquisition affects ability to learn second language • Genie • Pinker (NR) • Nicaraguan sign language • Deaf children

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