Language DevelopmentLecture Notes: 10/30/14Why are children better at language learning than adults?● Language is special and separate from all other abilities● Language is not special, and capability to learn it changes with age precisely because big kids are better than little kids (for other cognitive skills). Known as “less is more” hypothesis.“Less is More” Explanation● Language learning declines with AoA because cognitive abilities increase● A young child has more difficulty processing large chunks of information vs. an adult, who has large processing capability and memory span● Children’s limited processing capacity leads them to learn only component parts of the linguistic input. Adults’ large processing capacity leads them to learn the whole complex stimulus● Children therefore, may be in a better position to learn components of language, i.e., its grammar● Errors early vs late learners make support this- early learners produce part-structures, late learners produce unanalyzed and inconsistent structuresSo, is there a critical period for language acquisition?● Original notions of critical period localized the window to the period between birth and puberty (around 12)● However, recovery from childhood brain damage is successful only by age 5● Second-language acquisition studies do not show a clearly-bounded window (extended periods of decline)● Maybe a sensitive period is more likelyNature vs Nurture = The Central Debate in Language Acquisition● The innateness of language● Nativism: learning to talk is like learning to walk (you may not be able to do it from the start, but there is a biological blueprint for its development that unfolds with maturation)● The Nature-Nurture debate pervades each area of language development ● Phonological acquisition● Vocabulary acquisition● Grammar acquisitionDevelopment of Phonology: nature vs nurture● Nature: anatomy and physiology of the vocal tract leads to the sounds babies produce; as motor capacity develops, so does phonology● At the same time: Ambient language influences the phonological repertoire● Nurture: children learn sounds by imitation and parental reinforcement. e.g., parental responsiveness leads to more vocalizations● At the same time: parents delight in non-speech soundsLexical Development: Nature vs. Nurture● Nature: Lexical constraints● Nurture: Child-directed speech, amount of language contribute to vocabulary growth● Something in-between: regularities in the language lead the child to parse speech into words (statistical learning)Grammatical development: Nature vs Nurture● The big debatePosition #1: Grammar is Learned● Behaviorist approach to language learning, a la Watson and Skinner● Imitation, classical conditioning and operant conditioning principles are used to account for language learning○ E.g., stimulus (word) is associated with an internal response (meaning)○ E.g., successful linguistic attempts get rewarded (reinforces); unsuccessful attempts get ignored or punished● Phonological, lexical, and grammatical development are shaped by the adults’ behavior (i.e., their response to imitation attempts)Position #2: Grammar is innate● Non-human primates cannot learn grammar● All children are capable of learning any language, therefore they must possess the “blueprint” for all possible languages● Children make overregularization errors, and develop grammar inordinately fast● There is too much ambiguity between what children hear (i.e. the input) and its meaning.This is known as the learnability problem.○ The enormous number of possible sentences cannot be learned through association with a specific internal response○ Children can produce sentences they have never heard before; therefore, grammar is not learned by imitation● There is very little feedback on grammatical correctness or incorrectness of productions. I.e., there is no negative evidence. So how does a child learn what’s correct and what’s incorrect?○ Not enough correctiveness and negative evidence in interaction between parent and childThe Modularity of Language● The nativist view is that language is “special”, and different from other human abilities, like attention, memory, motor function, etc.● I.e., principles that govern acquisition of language are specific to the domain of language= that is, there is a language-specific module in the human mind● This notion is also known as domain-specificityInnate Grammar: Back to Chomsky● Special part of the brain is devoted to language● It is genetically specified, and similar across all humans● It evolved to be distinct from other cognition, such as memory● I.e., Universal Grammar = principles and basic components of language that respond to specific linguistic experienceLanguage Acquisition Device (LAD)● A collection of grammatical principles, such as grammatical classes (nouns, verbs) and their combinations- things that are universal across languages● Takes the input (the language around the child) and uses it to produce the particular grammar● The input triggers the parameters of language (i.e., what to pay attention to), but does not shape language developmentPidgins● Pidgins = languages that develop due to contact between speakers of two different and mutually-incomprehensible languages. The contect is driven by trade, migration, immigration, and slavery● Pidgin is the L2 to both speech communities● Vocabulary usually comes from one of the languages ○ E.g., African slaves, who were imported to Haiti by the French. Because Africa is full of diverse language groups and dialects, these slaves didn’t understand eachother, and pidgin was developed● Pidgins develop rapidly, and frequently lack grammar (i.e., they are used to communicate content). They are also highly-tied to a specific context (e.g., for trade negotiations)Creoles● Creole= Pidgin learned as children’s first language; the mother tongue of a community○ E.g., the pidgin developed by African slaves in Haiti grew to a Creole = Haitian Creole. It includes structure from African tribal languages and French○ Creole is not restricted in use, and can be used for all the communicative functions● Most importantly, Creole has grammar● Children learning a Pidgin language as an L1 impose grammar on the language when they learn it, yielding the Creole● There are remarkable similarities in Creole grammar across very