Psych 56L/ Ling 51: Acquisition of LanguageAnnouncementsA Little HistoryLanguage without input?Slide 5Investigating normal language developmentChomskyan RevolutionProgression of StudyCurrent ApproachesSlide 10Slide 11Slide 12Slide 13Nature vs. NurtureThe debate in a nutshellNativism: Why believe it?Slide 17Interactionist ViewThe nature of natureSlide 20Why do we think knowledge could be innate?Slide 22Why do we think some learning procedures are innate?Slide 24Slide 25Slide 26Slide 27Quick Summary of Major Current Theories of Language DevelopmentSlide 29Slide 30Slide 31Slide 32Research MethodsSlide 34Slide 35Slide 36Slide 37Slide 38Questions?Psych 56L/ Ling 51:Acquisition of LanguageLecture 2Introduction ContinuedAnnouncementsReview questions for introduction availableA Little HistoryThe linguistic capabilities of children have been a source of fascination since ancient times.First recorded language acquisition experiment conducted by Egyptian king Psammetichus, described by Greek historian Herodotus in fourth century B.C. He ordered that two infants be raised in isolation by shepherds who would never speak to the infants. Test: What language would children speak?Assumption: It would be “original” language of the peoples of the world.(Results: They ended up speaking Phyrigian, not Egyptian. Any ideas why?)QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressorare needed to see this picture.QuickTime™ and a decompressorare needed to see this picture.Language without input?Ongoing research question: What language does the brain create when it is not given an existing language to learn?How to test this a little more ethically than total enforced isolation: study the gestural communication systems created by deaf children of hearing parents who use the oralist tradition of not communicating via sign language with their children. Children invent “signs” and combine them in two and three-sign sequences. This suggests the ability to combine is a natural one for human beings.QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressorare needed to see this picture.QuickTime™ and a decompressorare needed to see this picture.Language without input?Ongoing research question: What language does the brain create when it is not given an existing language to learn?Another way to test this: “wild” children who have not been exposed to language during the early part of their childhoods - usually not so successful at language acquisition- wild-boy of Aveyron, ~12 yrs old, discovered in the woods. Never learned more than a few words. - Genie, 13 years old when discovered, locked in a room since the age of 18 months. Somewhat more successful at learning language, but missing many aspects of language structure.QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressorare needed to see this picture.Investigating normal language developmentDiary studies: keeping diaries of children’s development. Charles Darwin did this with his son (Darwin, 1877). Seemed to follow the progression we now expect.QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressorare needed to see this picture.QuickTime™ and a decompressorare needed to see this picture.Other diary studies: Clara & Wilhelm Stern’s 1907 Die Kindersprache and Werner Leopold’s (1939-1949) four volume account of his daughter’s acquisition of English & German.Modern diary studies: Bowerman 1985, 1990; Dromi 1987; A. Gopnik & Meltzoff 1987; L. Bloom, 1993; Naigles, Vear, & Hoff 2002Chomskyan RevolutionChomsky 1957: Syntactic StructuresInnovation: What speakers do is not as interesting as the mental grammar that underlies what speakers doQuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressorare needed to see this picture.So, if adults have a mental grammar that explains what they do when they talk, children must have a mental grammar that explains what children do when they talk.New formation of language development: What are children’s grammars like and how do they eventually achieve adult grammars?QuickTime™ and a decompressorare needed to see this picture.QuickTime™ and a decompressorare needed to see this picture.Progression of Study1960s: grammatical development (focusing on structure of sentences)Later 1960s: focus on semantics (meaning)Late 1970s: added language use (pragmatic & sociolinguistic development)1980s & 1990s: back to syntax, but also still working on word meaning (lexicon) and pragmatics (language use); also, interest in phonological developmentQuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressorare needed to see this picture.Current ApproachesLanguage socialization: language development is learning to communicate in the way the adults in the social or cultural group do.Focus: Language as a vehicle for social interactionTypical work: description of children’s language use on social contexts and an account of the social processes by which children come to use language in the manner of their cultureQuickTime™ and a decompressorare needed to see this picture.Current ApproachesLanguage as a complex cognitive system that maps sounds to meaningFocus: Language Acquisition Device - what is it? Information from the environmentQuickTime™ and a decompressorare needed to see this picture.Language Acquisition DeviceLanguage AcquisitionCurrent ApproachesLanguage as a complex cognitive system that maps sounds to meaningFocus: Language Acquisition Device - what is it? Biological approach Premise: language development is best understood as a biological process. Focus: description of the genetic bases of the human language capacity and its disorders + description of the structures and processes in the brain that serve language developmentQuickTime™ and a decompressorare needed to see this picture.Current ApproachesLanguage as a complex cognitive system that maps sounds to meaningFocus: Language Acquisition Device - what is it? Linguistic approach Premise: LAD contains some domain-specific knowledge about the structure of language (this is often called Universal Grammar). Focus: description of children’s prior linguistic knowledge and how that knowledge interacts to produce knowledge of a particular languageKnowledge specifically about human languageCurrent ApproachesLanguage as a complex cognitive system that maps sounds to meaningFocus: Language Acquisition Device - what is it? Domain-general cognitive approach Premise: Language acquisition is no different from any other kind of knowledge acquisition; children can solve this