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Language Development: Background

Language Development: Background. Jan. 8, 2009. What is language?. Text: systematic and conventional use of sounds (or signs or written symbols) for the purpose of communication or self-expression.

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Language Development: Background

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  1. Language Development: Background Jan. 8, 2009

  2. What is language? • Text: systematic and conventional use of sounds (or signs or written symbols) for the purpose of communication or self-expression. • OED: the system of spoken or written communication used by a particular country, people, community, etc., typically consisting of words used within a regular grammatical and syntactic structure

  3. Definition cont. • Others: • concrete act of speaking • abstract system underlying the collective totality of the speech/writing behaviour of a community • the biological faculty which enables individual to learn and use their communication systems • a defining feature of human behaviour • Definitions can indicate biases

  4. Parts of Language • Phonetics and phonology: the constituent sounds of a language Fen /fεn/

  5. Parts of Language • Semantics: meanings of words • Lexicon: vocabulary and knowledge of derivational morphology (word building) Fen Low land covered wholly or partially with water; boggy land; a marsh. Fenny

  6. Parts of Language • Grammar: the structural organization of words and morphemes (inflectional morphology) • Morphology: combining units of meaning (words and morphemes) • Syntax: combining words into sentences Fen John accidently walks into the fen The word fen comes from Old English. Fens John accidently walk into the fen. English fen the Old comes word from.

  7. Parts of Language • Pragmatics: understanding meaning of others beyond words (communicative function) • Sociolinguistics: transmittal of information to others in socially appropriate ways • Much overlap Fen Eww. My ball went into the fen. Go get it for me. Fens are ugly and smelly. Fens are hardy and stark ecosystems and the strong odour indicates the cycle of life. Oh, my ball mistakenly went into the fen and I am wearing my new shoes. What can I possibly do?

  8. Language Development • 5-year-olds are old fogies.

  9. Why study language? • Extremely complex, so need to explain its fast acquisition. • Cognition. • Nature versus nurture. • Human. • Social needs. • Indicator of status. • Variation. • Linguistic.

  10. History of language research:Origin stories • Religions/mythologies of many cultures have language origin stories. • Hindu: Brahma punished world tree by cutting off branches, new trees = new cultures/lang. • Native American: post-flood or over a dispute. • Greeks: Hermes gave differing speech to people to invoke discord • Africa: post-famine The people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do; and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.

  11. History of language research:Ancient • First experiment: Psammetichus • Plato: Cratylus, arbitrary (conventional) or intrinsic (natural)? • Important to get to Forms. • Reflected in Confucius’ thinking as well. • India: much phonetic and morphology research arose out of need to read Vedic texts.

  12. History of language research:Pre-modern • Wild children in 17th century • Debate between Rousseau and Locke; Locke won. • Origins of sign language research. • Critical periods.

  13. History of language research:Modern • Functionalist Era (1800-1957) • Baby biographies. • Darwin: that perfection of structure and co-adaptation that justly excites our admiration • Leopold: bilingual infant • Normative studies • Behaviourism • Skinner: correct grammar is positively re-enforced and will be used in the future, and incorrect grammar is negatively re-enforced and will be 
not be used again.

  14. History of language research:Modern • Psycholinguistic/Cognitive Science Era (1957-present) • Chomsky • Argument against Skinner: • All possible sentences (infinite) would be impossible to learn through imitation and reinforcement. • Children acquire language quickly and effortlessly, and at identical stages across cultures. • Words like goed, thinked, and eated aren’t spoken by parents. • Innate ability: LAD and UG. • Internal to the mind/brain.

  15. History of language research:Modern • Psycholinguistic/Cognitive Science Era (1957-present) • Other approaches. • Biological: genetic bases, structures and processes • Critical periods, brain imaging, evolution • Linguistic: Chomskyan. • Social learning: neo-behaviourist, looking at how socialization (other people) aids in language learning • Cognitive: domain-specific versus domain-general

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