Chapter 12 Language Acquisition

1. Chapter 12 Language Acquisition The Emergence Of A Grammar

2. 1 The Study of Language Acquisition A. The naturalistic approach lDiary study B.The experimental approach lCross-sectional

3. 2 Phonological Development 2.1 Babbling 2.2 The Developmental Order • lAs a group, vowels are generally acquired before consonants. lStops tend to be acquired before other consonants. • lLabials are often acquired first followed by • alveolars, velars, and alveopalatals. Interdentals are • acquired last. • lNew phonemic contrasts manifest themselves first • in word-initial position. Thus the /p/-/b/ contrast • will be manifested in pairs such as pat-bat before • mop-mob.

6. lAssimilation Ex: tell [dl], pig [bg], push [bs] 2.4 Production Versus Perception Children’s perceptual abilities are more advanced than their articulatory skills.

9. Determining factors: 1.Frequent occurrence in utterance-final position 2.Syllabicity 3.A straightforward relation between form and meaning 4.Few or no exceptions in the way it is used 5.Allomorphic invariance 6.Clearly discernable semantic function

14. lThe Telegraphic Stage Chair broken. Daddy like book. What her name? Man ride bus today. Car make noise.

15. lLater Development Inversion (1)See hole? I ride train? Ball go? Sit chair? (2)Can he can look? What shall we shall have? Did you did came home?

16. Wh questions Stage 1 (3)Where that? What me think? Why you smiling? Why not me drink it?

17. Stage 2 (4)Yes-no questions (with Inversion): Did Mommy pinch her finger? Can’t you fix it? Do I have it? Is Mommy talking to Robin’s grandmother? (5)Wh questions (no Inversion): What I did yesterday? Why Kitty can’t stand up? Where I should put it? Why you are smiling?

18. Stage 3 (1)Where did my mitten go? Where should I sleep? Why are you smiling? (2)Why you can’t sit down? Why Kitty can’t stand up?

21. lUnderextension a.Kitty might be used to refer to the family pet, but not to any other cats. b.Dog might be used for collies, spaniels, and beagles, but not for chihuahuas.

24. 5.3 The Interpretation of Sentence Structure lThematic roles (8) Passive sentence: The car was bumped by the truck. Theme agent Active sentence: The truck bumped the car. Agent theme lPronominals and reflexives (1)Sam said that [s Gary slapped himself on the wrist]. (2)Sam said that [s Gary slapped him on the wrist].

25. 1         Determinants of Language Acquisition 1.1The Role of Imitation and Correction (1)a. What can you see? (model) b.What you can see? (child’s imitation) Child: Nobody don’t like me. Mother: No, say “Nobody likes me.” Child: Nobody don’t like me. [Exchange is repeated eight times.] Mother: No, now listen carefully; say “Nobody likes me.” Child: Oh! Nobody don’t LIKES me.

27. 1.3The Role of Cognitive Development lCognitive development lObject permanence 1.4The Role of Inborn Knowledge • lNativism Principle A: NPa c-commands NPb if the first category above NPa contains NPb.

29. Language Acquisition Language Acquisition

30. A normal human being can go through life without learning lt read or write. The study of the nature of human language itself has revealed the following conclusions: 1.Children do not learn a language by storing all the words and all the sentences in some giant mental dictionary . 2.Children learn to construct sentences. 3.Children learn to understand sentences they have never heard before. 4.Children must construct the “rules” that permit them to use language creatively. 5.No one teaches them these rules.

31. Stages in Language Acquisition Linguistic knowledge develops by stages. Observations of children in different languages areas of the world reveal that the stages are similar, possibly universal. The First Sounds The stage of language acquisition can be divided into prelinguistic and linguistic stages. The neonate is born with a mind that appears to receive only certain kinds of information.

32. Babbling In the first few months, usually around the sixth month, the infant begins to babble. During the babbling stage of hearing infants, the pitch, or intonation contours produced by them being to resemble the intonation contours of sentences spoken by adults.

33. Fist Words Sometimes after one year, children begin to use the same string of sounds repeatedly to mean the same thing. These one-word sentences are called holophrastic sentences which to serve three major functions. 1.They are liked with a child’s own action or desire for action. 2.They are used to convey emotion. 3.They serve a naming function.

34.  The Two-Word Stage Children begin to produce tow-word utterances around at the age of two. During this stage there are no syntactic or morphological markets. From Telegraph to Infinity the mean length of utterances: children produce utterances that average 2.3 to 3.5 morphemes This stage has a special characteristic. The “function” words are missing ; only the “content” words occur. And these utterances are sometimes called telegraphic speech.

35.  From Telegraph to Infinity I. MLU (Mean Length of Utterances): As to stage of language acquisition, it's MLU, rather than chronological age, that can make a comparison across children. II. Telegraphic Speech: The small "function" words ( like to, the, can, is, etc.) are missing. III. Sentence-like Utterances: The25-28 months old children's utterances appear to have hierarchical, constituent structures, which are similar to the syntactic structures found in the sentences produced by the adult grammar.

36. Theories of Child Language Acquisition I. Do Children Learn by Imitation? Not really. II. Do Children Learn by Reinforcement? Reinforcement seldom occurs, and when it does, it is usually incorrect pronunciation or incorrect reporting of facts that is corrected.

37. Children Form Rules and construct a Grammar I. Neither of these views (imitation and reinforcement) accounts for the nonrandom mistakes children make: the speed, the ability to learn language, and the regularity of the acquisition process. II. The Neural Prerequisites: The child appears to be equipped from birth with the neural prerequisites for the acquisition and use of human language just as birds are biologically "prewired" to learn the songs of their species. III. The different syntactic rules at any stage in acquisition govern the construction of the child's sentences at that period of development. A. Negative sentences B. Question sentences

38. Errors or Rules? I. Inflectional Errors II. Phonological Morphological Rule Acquisition Universal Grammar: The investigation of the kinds of errors children make in forming their grammars shows that the mistakes are all in keeping with what we have called Universal Grammar. That is, the principles constrain all grammars.

39. The Acquisition of Syntax There are two ideas about the way which children construct the complex syntactic rules of their grammar-- one is based on semantics, and the other is based on syntactic categories and relations(Noun, Noun Phrase, Verb, Verb Phrase, subject, object, and so on), e.g., Russian, Polish, and Turkish and modifier—noun agreement.

40. Italian English E mia gonna. It is my skirt. Questo mio bimbo This is my baby. Guarda questi gialli Look at these roosters. According to the example above, we can see that children own the ability of “discovering” the structures of their language. However, now, more studies on child language prove that it is “two in one.”

41. Learning the Meaning of Words Preface: Everything had a name, and each name gave birth to a new thought. --Helen Keller Children often experience the processes of learning the meaning of words through two steps as follows. A.Undergeneralize-- to put a principle into a narrower form B.Overgeneralize—to draw general conclusions from inadequate data e.g. (overgeneralize) bring  bringed go  goed foot  foots child  childs

42. The Biological Foundations of Language Acquisition Preface: Just as birds have wings, man has language.-- George Henry Lewes Under normal condition, children were born to be equipped with special abilities to know what generalization to look for and what to ignore, and how to discover the regularities of language. We may say that though people do not have any written language, they all have language. In other words, children learn language the way they learn to walk.

43. The Innateness Hypothesis The theory underlines the child must be neurologically capable of utilizing the sound (or sign language gestures) for language acquisition. Moreover, not only is the human species genetically “prewired” to acquire language, but that the kind of languages is also determined. The principles that determine the class of human languages that can be acquired unconsciously, without instruction, in the early years of life has been referred as to Universal Grammar (or UG).

44. The Critical Age Hypothesis It has been suggested that there is a “critical age” for language acquisition, or at least for language acquisition without special teaching and without the need for special learning. During this period, language learning proceeds easily, swiftly, and without external intervention. After this period, the acquisition of the grammar is difficult and for some individuals, never fully achieved.

45. The Acquisition of Bird Songs The notion of a critical age for acquisition of cognitive knowledge pretains to other species as shown by studies of the development species as shown by studies of the development of bird songs and calls. If these birds are not exposed to the songs of their species during certain fixed periods after their birth (the period differs from species to species). Song acquisition does not occur. Apparently the basic nature of the song of some bird species is biologically determined, but the details are learned.

46. Sign Languages—Evidence for the Biology of Language Preface: Men, who, being born deaf and mute, are destitute of the organs which serve the others for talking, are in the habit of themselves inventing certain signs by which they make themselves understood. Hand and body gestures are the forms used to represent morphemes or words.. Hence, we know that language acquisition and use do not depend on the ability to produce or hear sound, but on a much more abstract cognitive ability, biologically.

47. Sign Languages: Evidence for the Biology of language 1.Deaf children of deaf parents who are exposed to sign language learn sign languages in stages parallel to language acquisition by hearing children learning oral languages. 2.It is nearly impossible for those unable to hear language to learn to speak naturally.

48.  3.Although deaf persons can be taught to speak a language intelligibly, they never understand speech as well as a hearing person. 4.Non sopken languages have developed as a substitute for spoken languages among non hearing individuals. 5.Language acquisition and use are dependent on a much more abstract cognitive ability, biologically determined, which therefore accounts for the similarities between spoken and sign languages.

49. American Sign Language(ASL) 1.The major language used by the deaf in the United States. 2.ASL is an independent, bully developed language that historically is an out growth of the sign language used in France. 3.ASL has its own morphological, syntactic, and semantic systems. Its formal units, corresponding to the phonological elements of spoken language, wee originally called cheremes, now more often referred to as primes.

50. 4.The signs of the language that correspond to morphemes or words of spoken language can be specified by primes of three sets: hand configuration , the motion of the hands toward or away from the today, and the place of articulation or the locus of the sign’s movement. 5.Just as spoken language has sequences of sounds that are not permitted in the language, so sign languages have forbidden combinations of features. 6.Siglish, the other sign language used in the United States, consists in the replacement of each spoken English word by a sign. They systax and semantics of Signed English are thus approximately the same as those of ordinary English.