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Language Acquisition

Language Acquisition. LI 2023 Nathalie F. Martin. References. References: Language files (7th ed). Cipollone, Keiser & Vasishth Contemporary Linguistic Analysis (5th ed) O’Grady & Archibald http://www.ling.upenn.edu/courses/ling001/acquisition.html. Introduction.

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Language Acquisition

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  1. Language Acquisition LI 2023 Nathalie F. Martin

  2. References • References: • Language files (7th ed). Cipollone, Keiser & Vasishth • Contemporary Linguistic Analysis (5th ed) O’Grady & Archibald • http://www.ling.upenn.edu/courses/ling001/acquisition.html

  3. Introduction • Language acquisition is the process by which the language capability _________ in a human. • First language acquisition concerns the development of language in _________ , while second language acquisition focuses on language development in _________ as well

  4. IntroductionOpinion • According to you, what does a child need to learn in order to “know” his or her language?

  5. Three general theories of language acquisition: Innateness Theory Imitation Theory Reinforcement Theory Interactionist Theory (or Constructivism)

  6. IntroductionOpinion • According to you, how does a child learn a language?

  7. Theories of language acquisitionInnateness Theory • Children have the _________ _____ to differentiate phonemes, extract words from the stream of language, and process grammar. Rowe & Levine (2012). A Concise Introduction to Linguistics, p .237.

  8. Theories of language acquisitionImitation Theory • Children learn grammar by _________ the words and sentences of their language • Problems with this theory: • Children produce many things that are not found in _________ _________ • Children make consistent ______that cannot be attributed to mispronunciation and which still are not ever heard in the adult grammar. • Children can produce and understand _________ _____

  9. Theories of language acquisitionReinforcement Theory • Children learn to speak like adults because they are taught to do so: • Through _________ and _________ when speaking “correctly”. • Through _________ when making “mistakes” • Problems with this theory: • Adults don't seem to correct children's grammar as much as we might think, neither do they praise them for using proper adult grammatical constructions. • There is little evidence that reinforcement has any great effect on the language development of the child

  10. Theories of language acquisitionInteractionist Theory • Children "invent" the rules of grammar for themselves • Though it is based on the _________ _________ • Innate ability to _________ _________ • Only approach that explains how children • Produce _________ _________ • Ex: Past tense - goed* or hitted* • Generate _________ ______that they have never heard • Seem almost impervious to correction from adults

  11. Theories of language acquisitionInteractionist Theory • Irregular verbs acquisition - Past tense: • Children acquire some irregular past tense forms quite early through memorization • Then the child starts to notice a general “rule” for past tense formation • This results in ______________(ex: goed*) • Finally the child realizes that “went” is an _________

  12. Aspects of Language Acquisition Phonetic development Phonological development Morphological development Syntactic development Semantic development

  13. She Sure Knows a Lot About Language !!! http://vimeo.com/16404771

  14. IntroductionQuestions • What does one need to learn in order to learn a language? • When do you think an individual begins learning language?

  15. Acquisition:PHONETICS

  16. Aspects of Language AcquisitionPhonetic Acquisition • Beginning to learn language involves: • Learning how to _________ the necessary speech sounds • Learning to _________ make sense of the speech sounds • Ex: Figuring out what are the phones & _________ of one's language

  17. Aspects of Language AcquisitionPhonetic Production Baby Adult

  18. Aspects of Language AcquisitionPhonetic Acquisition • In the womb: • Perception of ________ ________ • ________(rhythm and intonation) • From birth: • Perception • ________ • Six months of age: • ________ stage

  19. Vocalization (Cooing) For an example of a baby vocalization/cooing: • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKu_rUsIPHM&feature=related

  20. Contemporary Linguistics: p.313 Aspects of Language AcquisitionPhonetic Acquisition • Babbling is a stage when babies: • Produce ________ sequences of ________ ________ • Practices the difficult sequences of ________ gestures (jaw and tongue and velum movement, along with voicing control) • Example: • Repeating CV syllables (mama, papa) * At this stage there is no clear association between babbling and meaning

  21. Babbling • For an example of babbling: • Vowels: • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DDZbQ_OJWw • Syllables: • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RqUTJAfy48&feature=related • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZw2NsqkFBo&feature=related

  22. Aspects of Language AcquisitionPhonetic Acquisition

  23. Difficult soundsAnalysis • Why do you think certain sounds are easier to produce for children? • What makes a sound hard to pronounce? • What about allophones?

  24. Aspects of Language AcquisitionPhonetic Acquisition • Handout

  25. Aspects of Language AcquisitionPhonetic Acquisition

  26. Contemporary Linguistics: p.314 ... Aspects of Language AcquisitionPhonetic Acquisition • Developmental order in babbling: • Generally ________ before ________ • ________ before other consonants • _______before alveolar, velar and alveopalatals • Lastly ________ • Perception of phonemic contrast begins in word-initial position

  27. Acquisition:PHONOLOGY

  28. Experiments on Babies • Research on how infants acquire language in a video featuring Toby Mintz, associate professor of psychology and linguistics at the USC College of Letters, Arts & Sciences, and USC College undergraduate Ashlee Welday. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZAuZ--Yeqo

  29. Aspects of Language AcquisitionPhonological Acquisition • 18 months: • Link between sound and _________ • Memorizes single words as chunks and not pay much attention to _________ differences • Ex: doesn’t necessarily understand that /b/ and /d/ are different phonemes in English

  30. Aspects of Language AcquisitionPhonological Acquisition • Later phonological acquisition: • Perception of phonemic _________ • Perception of CV & _____________ structure • Understanding of _________ • Babies naturally delete unstressed syllables in words. • For example: “nana” [nAny] for “banana” [benAny]

  31. Acquisition:Early Phonetic Processes Syllable deletion: Syllable simplification: Substitution: Assimilation: Maintenance of the same consonant/vowel

  32. Aspects of Language Acquisition Early Phonetic Processes • Syllable deletion: • Telephone /ˈtɛləˌfoʊn/ - /foʊ/ • Helicopter /ˈhɛlɪˌkɒptər/ - /ɛlkɒt/ • Syllable simplification: • Stop /stɒp/ - /tɒp/ • Small /smɔl/ - /mɔ/

  33. Aspects of Language Acquisition Early Phonetic Processes • Substitution: • Sing / sɪŋ / - / tɪŋ / • Shoes / ʃuz / - / tud / • Ship / ʃɪp / - / sɪp / • Look / lʊk / - / wʊk / • Jam / dʒæm / - / dæb /

  34. Aspects of Language Acquisition Early Phonetic Processes • Assimilation: • Tell / tɛl / - / dɛl / • Pig / pɪg / - / bɪg / • Maintenance of the same consonant/vowel • Doggy / ˈdɒgi / - / ˈdɒdi / or / ˈgɒgi / • Baby / ˈbeɪbi / - / ˈbibi /

  35. Aspects of Language Acquisition Early Phonetic Processes • Charlie / ˈtʃɑrli / - / ˈtʃɑ:li / http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OBlgSz8sSM

  36. Aspects of Language Acquisition Early Phonetic Processes • All / ɔl / - / ɔ / • The / ðə / - / ə / • Time / taɪm /  http:// http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8aprCNnecU

  37. Aspects of Language Acquisition Early Phonetic Processes • Thought / θɔt/ - /tɔt/ • Saw/sɔ/ - /tɔ/ • Pussy /ˈpʊsi/ - /ˈpʊdi/ • Cat /kæt/ - / tæt/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=E8aprCNnecU

  38. Acquisition:VOCABULARY & SEMANTICS

  39. Contemporary Linguistics: p.317 ... Aspects of Language AcquisitionSemantic Acquisition • Semantic acquisition is how children acquire _________ & _________ • Children need to learn: • Nouns (Concrete vs. abstract) • Verbs • Adjectives • Pronouns • Articles • Etc.

  40. Aspects of Language AcquisitionSemantic Acquisition • To learn word meaning children basically have to make guesses about what words mean • Example …

  41. Aspects of Language AcquisitionSemantic Acquisition • For example: A child is exposed, for example, to a poodle in the street and sees mommy or daddy point to it and say "doggie". Even if the kid associates "doggie" with that object, there are a number of routes that the child can logically take. The child might see a squirrel and say, "doggie", clearly having taken the word "doggie" to mean something more general that it does in the adult grammar. Or, the child might see a dog, say a “labrador”, and not say anything, failing to associate the word "doggie" with anything beyond poodle-ness. This trial and error process seems to be how children acquire word meanings.

  42. Contemporary Linguistics: p.320 Aspects of Language AcquisitionSemantic Acquisition • Overgeneralizations (or overextensions): • Overgeneralizations are cases in which a child gives a word a ____________ ____________ that it has in the adult grammar • E.g. Using the word "fly" to include specks of dirt, dust, small insects, and bread crumbs

  43. Contemporary Linguistics: p.320 Aspects of Language AcquisitionSemantic Acquisition • Underextensions: • Underextensions have the opposite effect. In this case, it might help to think of them as cases in which the child is being ____ ________ • E.g. A child who calls “a ball” “a ball” only when it is under the sofa • E.g. Underextended the word "fruit" as to exclude olives

  44. KIDS SAY THE DARNDEST THINGS !!! • My cousin's daughter looked at my feet the other day and saw the state of my torn shoes. • She looked over to her mother and said: "Mommy, look. She had broken feet!“ • Classic example of overextension of “feet” :)

  45. Language AcquisitionVovabulary Acquisition

  46. Acquisition:MORPHOLOGY

  47. IntroductionExample of Child’s Speech • CHILD: My teacher holded the baby rabbits and we patted them. • ADULT: Did you say your teacher held the baby rabbits. • CHILD: Yes. • ADULT: What did you say she did? • CHILD: She holded the baby rabbits and we patted them. • ADULT: Did you say she held them tightly? • CHILD: No, she holded them loosely.

  48. Aspects of Language AcquisitionMorphological Acquisition • Plurals: • Plural suffix is acquired __ • Then there is overgeneralization as the child is building a grammar • (Ex: sheeps, foots)

  49. Aspects of Language AcquisitionMorphological Acquisition

  50. Aspects of Language AcquisitionMorphological Acquisition • Suffixes • Example: Church kids

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