language acquisition

the problem of language acquisition

language is complex

distinguishing sounds

• First job in language acquisition is to distinguish language sounds from other sounds

  • Babies hear lots of sounds: traffic, vacuums

parsing language sounds (3 steps)

1. Need to parse sounds into phonemes

2. Group phonemes and morphemes into words 

3. Assigning meanings

1. Need to parse sounds into phonemes

• Break it down into atomic units of language sound

2. Group phonemes and morphemes into words 

• No clear division between sounds of one word and the next 

3. assigning meanings

• Once we have words, we need to assign meanings

• Same sound can refer to different things 

• Different sound can refer to same things

learning grammar rules

Must learn how to combine words correctly 

no grammatical feedback

• Adults usually do not correct children’s grammar, but do correct meaning 

  • Correcting grammar/ pronunciation does not help 

  • Kids correct themselves on their own

no grammatical feedback suggests what?

linguistic universals

• All normal humans acquire language 

• General language principles 

• Newborns can innately acquire any language 

development: phonemes

• During first year can discriminate all phonemes from all languages

• Gradually lose discriminations that are not important in their language 

motherese

• High pitch

• Shorter sentences

• Speak clearly and distinctly

• Exaggerated features help children understand boundaries between words/phrases 

major stages in learning language (3)

1. Holophrastic (one word)

2. Telegraphic (two-word)

3. Learning syntax/rules 

Holophrastic stage 

• One word

• 12-14 months

• No syntax yet

• Need context (gestures) to understand

• Under/overgeneralization for first ~75 words 

  • Every animal is a “dog”

  • Or only their own poodle is a “dog”

telegraphic stage

• Two words

• 24+ months 

• Begin to use correct use of word order

• Can convey lots of information succinctly

• “Mommy go”

Learning syntax/rules 

• Start learning syntactic and grammar rules

• Past tense, nonsense words

• “Dad goed”

learning past tense

• U-shaped curve

• Initially, use appropriate past tense (saying “did” instead of “doed”)

• Then, as they start to learn grammar rules, they overgeneralize the rule (saying “runned” instead of “ran”

• Finally, they start to relearn the correct past tense as they build better understanding (curve goes back up)

nonsense words suggest what?

Suggests children acquire abstract rules, they aren’t just imitating because then there wouldn’t be these errors

learning word meaning

• Will use clues from input about part/whole relationships

• “This is a rabbit, these are HIS ears” → ears belong to rabbit 

• Inherent bias that new words refer to shape (not color, material, etc.)

critical period effects: Optimal time window for language acquisition

People who learn language after age 10-12 rarely acquire native fluency 

critical period effects: Learning second language after 10

You can get really good, but not native

critical period effects: sign language

If you don’t learn during childhood, never get to top proficiency 

Gleitman reading

• Interaction of syntax and semantics 

• Bias toward doer, act, done-to (faster with active than passive)