Outlines on Language

1. Outlines on Language Carolyn R. Fallahi, Ph. D.

2. Chomsky • Chomsky focused on the nature of human language. • When do children begin to understand their first words? • Simple sentences? • Adding elements of grammar?

3. How do children acquire language? • Theories of language acquisition • B. F. Skinner • Problems with the behavioral theories • Rules of language

4. Common Language Mistakes • We goed to the movies. • The doggy bited me.

5. The fact is…. • There is mounting evidence that children produce sentences they’ve never heard before and continue producing them in the absence of reinforcers.

6. Chomsky • Language isn’t learned from the environment. • Might language be hardwired? In our DNA? • The role of Universal language. • A Seed language that gets inherited through the genes. • This seed language leads to past, present, and future languages of the world.

7. Communication • Underlying level = deep structure • Rooted at the level of the seed language • Has some unknown form • Expressed level = surface structure • Form we actually produce when we put ideas into words

8. Communication • How do we convert the deep structure into the surface structure whenever we speak? • How do we convert the surface structure into the deep structure whenever we listen? • Chomsky thought: there must be some set of rules we follow & those rules must unconsciously allow the conversion.

9. Chomsky • Chomsky theorized: children learn the rules of their language for converting deep structures to surface structures. • How do children do this? • The Language Acquisition Device (LAD) • Biological organ • Detects linguistic features or principles of language

10. Arguments against Chomsky • Children do learn language by rewards and punishments • Parents’ style of interacting • Language not uniquely human • Where is this language acquisition devise?