Five components of language
- Phonemes
- Morphology
- Semantics
- Syntax
- Pragmatics
Phonemes
basic unit of sound that are used in a language and rule for combining the sound
/p/ and /b/
Morphology
rules for how sounds form words
-past tense add ‘ed’
-plural adds ‘s’
semantics
the meanings expressed in words and sentences
-free morphemes: dog
-bound morphemes: s
Syntax
the rules that specify how words are to be combined to form meaningful phrases and sentences
pragmatics
knowledge of how language mis used to communicate effectively
-when speaking to a younger child we have to talk differently to be understood
Learning( empiricist) perspective
limitation(Bandura)
Operant conditioning
(skinner)
- adults shape childs speech through reinforcement
Nativist perspective
human biologically programmed to acquire language
- language is far to complex to be taught by parents or figured out through trial and error
Support for nativist perspective:
linguistic universals
children around the world learn language in the same way at about the same time
- Brain specialization
Boncas area
Wernickes area
-Sensitive period hypothesis: the notation that human beings are more proficient at language learning before they reach puberty
Child aphasics
often recover their lost language functions without special therapy
Nativist perspective:
deprivation
children who were largely deprived of a normal linguistic environment should find it difficult to acquire language later in life
- its more difficult to learn a second language after puberty ( Johnson and Newport 1989)
Interaction perspective
- lingustic universals can be explained by slow cognitive development of brain which predisposes children to develop similar ideas at the same age
interactionist perspective:
support in the environment
- joint activities with parents help children learn to take turns, that things have names, and that there are proper ways to pose questions and give answers
interactionist perspective:
Child-directed speech(motherese)
the short, simple, high pitched sentences that adults use when talking with young children
- speech directed to children become increasingly complex
Prelinguistic period
-cooing
( 2 m) vowel like noises ooohs,ahhs
- Canonical babbling(4-6m) vowel consonant combinations with no meaning eg mamama
-Vocables
(10-12m) infant will use specific sounds in specific situations
The holophrastic period:
one word at time
Holophrase: single word utterances with meaning of entire sentences
- Name explosion
(18- 24m): raoid acquisition of new words for objects. use ‘cute’ strategies to produce words
Processing constraints:
-Objects scope constraint
-Taxonomic
- Lexical
- Mutual exclusivity
Syntactical Bootstrapping:
young children make inferences about the meaning of words by analyzing the way words are used in sentences and inferring whether they refer to objects, actions, or attributes
