SPR L9 Language Flashcards
Learning Outcomes
- Define what language is
- Describe the structure and components of language
- Know the main stages of early language development and characteristics of IDS
- Discuss the nativist and empiricist explanations of language
- Describe the neurological basis of language and the disorder of aphasia
- Appreciate the ‘great ape’ debate on language
What is the function of language in humans?
- allows humans to communicate ideas with others.
- A method for the mind to communicate with itself.
- Links: Vygotsky & thought/Sensory disability in childhood
What are the two elements of language?
Symbols
Grammar
Elements of Language: Symbols
- What does each language have?
- What are the smallest units of sound?
- What happens when one of these are changed?
- How many letters and phonemes are the in the english language?
- What are morphemes?
- a set of sounds allowing for vocalisation
- ‘phonemes’
- Changing a phoneme changes the meaning e.g. ‘S’‘ea’ and ‘T’‘ea’
- 26 letters but 40 phonemes e.g. h‘a’t and c‘a’ke
- smallest units of meaning e.g. words, but also prefixes and suffixes: un-, -ing, -s - “Ice-cream” / “I scream”
Elements of Language: Grammar
- What is grammar? What does it allow for?
- What is syntax?
- What are semantics?
- What is the Chomsky theory?
- a set of rules for word combination - Allows for an infinite number of sentences to be created.
- The order in which words are arranged into a sentence e.g. ‘lecturer great a is Paul’
- The meaning of words in a sentence.
e. g. ‘Slow houses scare sudden oranges’ - Chomsky: language has surface structure (syntax) and deep structure (semantics)
e. g. ‘this is my old friend’
‘The shooting of the hunters was awful’
Outline the stages in language development
- Reflexive Vocalisations (<4 months)
- First sounds – Cooing and laughing (2-4 months)
- Babbling (4-6 months)
- Canonical Babbling (6-10 months)
- Understand a few nouns (receptive language) (10 months)
- Begin to talk (12-18 months) – ‘one word stage’ last for about six months. (expressive language)
- After this, two word sentences which become more and more complex over time (i.e. adding verbs and adjectives to nouns).
- Majority of syntax acquired by age 5.
- Receptive language develops ahead of expressive language
Outline what happens at the following ages in terms of language development…
- < 4 months
- 2-4 months
- 4-6 months
- 6-10 months
- 10 months
- 12-18
- Up to age 5
- Which type of language develops first?
- Reflexive Vocalisations
- First sounds – Cooing and laughing
- Babbling
- Canonical Babbling
- Understand a few nouns (receptive language)
- Begin to talk – ‘one word stage’ last for about six months. (expressive language)
- After this, two word sentences which become more and more complex over time (i.e. adding verbs and adjectives to nouns). Majority of syntax acquired by age 5.
- Receptive language develops ahead of expressive language
Language Development
- What is mothese/IDS (infant-directed speech)?
- Outline the Pragmatics of Language: Cognitive/Social Rules of Communication
- 4 year olds are known to use it (Shatz & Gelman, 1973) - Pitch, Stressed Contours, Rhythm, Intonation, Short grammatical sentences
- Turn-taking -> Protoconversations (Adults Scaffold) Pointing, Gaze Sharing (link to Theory of Mind) Initially easier to communicate with adults than peers…. [quickly changes!]
Theories of Language
- What is Empiricism?
- What is Nativism?
- knowledge arises from sensory experience - we are born Tabula Rasa (blank slate).
- certain abilities are ‘native’ or hard-wired into the brain at birth.
BF Skinner (1904-1990)
What does Skinner have to say on Behaviourism?
“the autonomous agent to which behaviour has
traditionally been attributed is replaced by the
environment – the environment in which the species
evolved and in which the behaviour of the individual is shaped and maintained.”
BF Skinner (1904-1990)
What does Skinner outline about Language?
What are the criticisms of this theory?
Children learn to speak through positive reinforcement of correct grammar and vocabulary.
- Frequency of behaviour: behaviourists measure all behaviour by the number of times it is demonstrated
- Different levels of exposure: behaviourists believe that the more times something is repeated, the better it is learned
Jean Piaget
What is the theory she outlined?
What are the criticisms of this?
A child must understand a concept before learning the language applicable to that concept. e.g. consider ‘larger’ and ‘smaller’
Criticisms: Children who are cognitively impaired still develop language - link between cognitive impairment may not be as strong as he might have thought.
Role of Environment
- What is the ‘critical period’?
- What will happen if the organism doesnt recieve the appropriate stimulus durign this ‘critical period’?
- What is Lenneberg’s Critical Period Hypothesis?
- A time in the early stages of an organism’s life during which it displays a heightened sensitivity to certain environmental stimuli, and develops in particular ways due to experiences at this time. (Remember Lorenz’s Imprinting: Emotional Development)
- It may be difficult, ultimately less successful, or even impossible, to develop some functions later in life - Mechanism of neural pruning
- for language development – 2nd Language learning as adults?
Case-Study: Genie
‘Feral’ Child
Father judged her as mentally deficient after birth - She was kept in total isolation for the first 13 years of her life, mostly strapped to a potty-chair during the day and tied up at night
Beaten when she attempted to speak she had a vocabulary of around 20 words when she was rescued by Welfare Services at 13 years old
Never developed typical language skills, although some success with non-verbal sign language
Noam Chomsky (1928-) [Nativist]
- What does his theory state?
- How is this demonstrated?
- What else supports this theory?
- What are the criticisms for this theory?
- The capacity for language is innate in humans. We are born with a ‘universal grammar’ and a ‘language Acquisition Device’ [LAD].
- by child’s ability to learn language even though they have very little understanding of the rules they are learning to apply => Overgeneralisation: “I seeed a duck” verb+’ed’ = Past tense
- Babbling seems universal, deaf children and hearing children with deaf parents all babble initially, declines after 7 months in deaf children
- implies there is one special area in the brain that has specifically evolved for language - if there is, it remains elusive.
Language and the Brain: where might it be?
Where might a ‘language centre’ be?
-
Broca’s area:
- Damage to Broca’s area results in problems with speech production (aphasia). Problems with speech fluency and an inability to construct sentences.
https://auditoryneuroscience.com/brocas_aphasia
-
Wernicke’s area:
- Damage to Wernicke’s area results in the words themselves becoming unintelligible but near normal speech ‘patterns’.
https://auditoryneuroscience.com/wernicke_aphasia
