Language Acquisition Exam 1

how many languages in the world

7100 langauges

language complexity

all human cultures have a grammatically complex language, regardless of the level of their technology, and almost all linguists see all human languages as about equally complex

language development

any normal child growing up in any language environment will master the local language

• including children who are blind, deaf, or neurologically impaired

mastery of a first language is usually achieved early and without explicit instruction

normal adults have difficulty achieving competence, let alone fluency, in a second language, despite greater cognitive sophistication than children

language

a system made up of different modules that interact with one another

• phonology

• morphology

• syntax

• semantics

• pragmatics

phonology

study of phonemes and how they combine

phonemes- meaningless sounds

phonemic inventoryeach language has its own set of phonemes

morphology

study of morphemes and how they combine

morpheme- smallest meaningful units of language

most morphemes have an identifiable meaning

• ex: bird-house

some do not: cran-berry

syntax

order and arrangement of words in phrases and sentences

combinations of subject, verb, object

semantics

study of meaning and sense

• words, phrases, sentences

lexicon- mental dictionary

pragmatics

language use in context

• ex- “its fine”

intentions

politeness rules are culturally dependent

communication

occurs when one organism (transmitter) encodes information into a signal which passes to another organism (receiver) which decodes the signal and is capable of responding appropriately

what distinguishes language and communication

• arbitrariness

• displacement

• duality of patterning

• creativity

• grammaticality

arbitratiness

arbitrary nature of language symbols makes it possible to represent abstract concepts and imaginary ideas

nonarbitrary words- onomonotopias

grammaticality

ensures that communication of meaning is precies

displacement

language not limited to talking about the here and now

• past and future

• abstract concepts like feelings

creativity

language has openness, allowing users to create new words and new sentences

aka productivity

duality of patterning

small number of meaningless sounds that, when combined in various ways, yield unlimited number of meaningful words and sentences

human language has two levels of structure

1. meaningful elements (words and morphemes)

2. word-internal meaningless elements (phonemes)

how is communication through language similar to other forms of communication

both language and some nonverbal aspects of communication in humans are in part cultural transmitted; referential, intentional, purposeful

• linguistic cues

• paralinguistic cues- tone, pitch, volume, rate, intonation, pauses

• nonlinguistic cues- face, body, space, appearance, posture, gaze

language is specific and uniform to humans

onset of speech is regular, not affected by culture or language being learned

speech is not suppressible

language cannot be taught to other species

languages have some universal features constrained by human cognition

biological bases of language

specific and uniform to humans

FOXP2- gene on chromosome 7

critical periods

social interaction is required and our brain is prepared for it

• Broca’s area responsible for pronunciation and grammar

• Wernicke’s area responsible for meaning and comprehension

• Arcuate fasciculus connects these two