language

R&D Buccal and PBS Documentary

  • Reminder to submit R&D buccal.

  • PBS documentary featuring Jeannie available on OWL; interesting footage, approximately one hour long.

  • Focus of today's class: Update on language development, specifically Jeannie case study.

Schedule Adjustments

  • Slight change in class schedule due to guest lecturer from UCSD, California.

  • Upcoming topic shift from language to intelligence.

  • Guest speaker's session will occur entirely via Zoom.

Exam Updates and Participation Feedback

  • Update on December exams and need for participation feedback.

  • Reminder regarding an experimental task for participants; currently not ready for assessment.

Language Development

  • Discussion continued from last week on language production versus comprehension.

  • Children comprehend language better than they can produce it; this lag in production persists throughout early childhood.

Vocabulary Development

  • Vocabulary development often delays production; children demonstrate a better understanding of vocabulary than their ability to articulate it.

  • Comparison made to second language acquisition where learners understand the language better than they can converse in it.

Overextensions and Underextensions

  • Language acquisition errors:

    • Overextensions: Using a word too broadly (e.g. calling all fuzzy objects teddy bears).

    • Underextensions: Using a word too narrowly (e.g. calling only one specific teddy bear 'teddy bear').

  • Example: A child refers to only a blue Corolla as a car, ignoring other types.

Nativist Theories of Language Learning

  • Exploration of where children’s unique word meanings originate.

  • Nativist perspective emphasizes innate modules for language, as proposed by Fodor.

  • Fodor's modular theory suggests specialized cognitive units, termed "mental organs," evolved for human information processing.

Brain Evidence Supporting Nativism

  • Evidence of stroke studies causing selective impairments in language processing supports nativist ideas.

Language Learning Theories

Phonological Input and Environmental Influence

  • Importance of environmental input for phoneme learning; similar theory applies to semantics.

  • Operant conditioning: Reinforcement for specific language use (e.g., saying “mama” leads to maternal response).

Imitation and Language Acquisition

  • Children learn through imitation of phrases and words from peers and parents.

  • Cultural viral phrases (example: “six seven” trending among youth) illustrate collective imitation.

Grammar Development

Two-Word Utterances

  • Telegraphic speech: Simplified utterances that convey meaning without full grammatical structure.

  • Common utterances convey actions and objects, often missing contextual pronouns (e.g., “give cookie” implies “give me a cookie”).

Syntactic and Semantic Complexity

  • Breakdown of grammatical development timeline; early learning involves basic sentence structures as actions and objects without complexity.

Morphemes

  • Morphemes: Smallest units of meaning in language.

  • Morphemes convey different meanings based on their combination with phonemes (e.g., adding -s for plural from "cat" to "cats").

Developmental Progression

  • Children grasp plurality more easily as it’s a straightforward concept (one vs. more than one) compared to abstract tenses (past vs. future).

Language Structure Across Cultures

  • Variations in syntactic rules across languages (e.g., gender in Romance languages adds complexity).

  • Semantic complexity shows shared human concepts, but expression varies culturally.

Chomsky vs. Learning Theory

Chomsky's Nativism

  • Chomsky proposes the language acquisition device (LAD) explaining innate grammatical understanding.

  • Chomsky’s argument: Grammar complexity necessitates innate processing capability.

Learning Theory and Skinner

  • Skinner’s behaviorist approach focuses on environment’s role in language acquisition through imitation and reinforcement.

Pragmatics and Adult Communication Skills

Social Language Functions

  • Pragmatics investigates language use in social contexts, focusing on normative behavior in conversation.

  • Example: Engaging conversation turns and maintaining responsiveness.

Referencing and Nonverbal Communication

  • Pragmatics includes indirect communicative functions to convey meaning (to point out items of interest or request actions).

Conclusion on Language Development

Theories of Language Acquisition

  • Discussion of case studies (e.g., Genie and other wild children) as critical evidence for language development theories.

  • Critical periods for language acquisition exist, noting the correlation between age and language fluency.

Unique Aspects of Human Language

  • Comparison of human language capabilities versus primate communication reveals distinct cognitive processing for nuanced understanding.

Final Thoughts

  • Continued exploration of language and communication definitions shows interplay between grammar acquired pre-linguistic structures and cultural influences purveying language learning.