Chapter 6: Development of Language and Symbol UseI. Language DevelopmentA. Production v. Comprehension1) Comprehensiona) Understanding what others express through voice, sign, or written words2) Productiona) Being able to communicate independently to othersB. The Components of Language1) Generativitya) Idea of being able to create an infinite number of combinations of a finite number of words and phrases (Bo Burnham – “Out of the Abyss”)2) Phonemesa) Most basic unit of sound in a languageb) Carries no meaning within itselfc) Phonological development(i) Master of a given language’s sound system3) Morphemesa) Smallest units of language with meaningb) Semantic development(i) Learning the system for expressing meaning in a language4) Syntaxa) Grammar and ordering rules for a languageb) Syntactic development(i) Learning to combine words of a language in comprehensive sentences5) Pragmatic developmenta) Act of acquiring knowledge of how a language is used6) Metalinguistic knowledgea) Knowledge regarding language in general, such as its propertiesC. What Is Required for Language?1) A Human Braina) Species-specific behavior(i) Although whales exhibit language development(ii) Even animals that tend to learn a human communication system display no syntax comprehensionb) Species-universal(i) Virtually all young humans learn languagec) Brain-language relations(i) Language primarily monitored by left hemisphere(ii) Broca’s area- Responsible for motor movement of language(iii) Wernicke’s area- Responsible for language comprehensiond) Critical period for language development(i) Around ages 5 – 7(ii) Learning language if not exposed to it during this period results in an unteachable child- Genie, the wild child(iii) Left hemisphere damage- Lenneberg (1967) Recovery from left hemisphere damage Children recover much better from aphasia than adults Criticism Involves Relearning a language, not learning a language(iv)Critical period for 1st language- Deaf adults First exposed to ASL at age 0 – 25 Primary language – ASL Tested in late adulthood (60-70)- Experimental design ASL grammar/morphology test- Results Native learners perform much better than later learners(v) Second language learning- Johnson & Newport Experimental design 1st language – Korean or Chinese 2nd language – English Independent variable – age of exposure to English (3 – 39 years) Dependent variable – grammaticality judgments Results Younger immigrants have fewer grammatical errors Variance amidst scores increases with age Criticism Learning a second language2) A Human Environmenta) Preferences(i) Prefer listening to voices over other sounds- Exception of Macaque callsb) Infant-directed speech(i) IDS(ii) Characteristic prosody (music of language)- Pitch & rhythm- Similar across cultures- Even present in ASL- IDS > ADS (adult-directed speech)(iii) Attention-grabbing- May facilitate language learning- Infants prefer to listen to IDS of a foreign language than ADS of same language(iv)Provides emotional information- Fernald: conflicting words & prosody Younger infants (under 1 year) pay more attention to pitch and rhythm than words themselvesD. The Process of Language Acquisition1) Common viewa) Nurture-based(i) Children imitate parentsb) Opposing views(i) Noam Chomsky- Children constantly create new sentences Most sentences that we produce we have never heard before- Errors in grammar “growed up”, “four mouses” Not learned from parents(ii) Nature’s impact on language development- Milestones generally consistent across languages Difficulties in English – function words Difficulties in Romance languages – gender agreement Bilingualism No long-term benefits or detriments Early language mixing, slight delays Possess cognitive benefits- Critical period for learning language Homesign Naturally-emerging sign communication systems for children not exposed to official sign language- Present in all human cultures- Difficult/impossible for non-humans- Influence of environment Prenatal learning Development of speech perception2) Speech Perceptiona) Categorical Perception(i) Good between-category discrimination skills(ii) Poor within-category discrimination skills(iii) Applicable to speech perception(iv)Voice Onset Time (VOT)- Generally perceived categorically- Only difference between “pa” and “ba” and other similar syllables(v) Infant CP of speech- Experiment designed to determine if babies perceive speech categorically or continuously- Results Innate perception of speech categorically – noticed between phoneme change, but not within phoneme acoustic changeb) Developmental changes in speech perception(i) Young infants (under 1 year) categorically perceive language sounds used around the world(ii) Adults do not perceive foreign phonemes(iii) English-learning Japanese speakers with R and L(iv)Hindi-learning English speakers with two D sounds(v) Babies adapt to native language phonemes at 12 months of agec) Sensitivity to regularities in speech(i) Distributional properties- Phenomenon of specific likelihood of certain sounds appearing together than others3) Preparation for Productiona) Infants start vocalizing at 6-8 weeks of age (aka cooing)b) Babbling(i) Begins to occur at 7 months(ii) Meaningless(iii) Reduplication- Same syllable repeated over and over again(iv)Babbling same across cultures(v) Congenitally deaf babies babble much later than hearing babies, but still babble orally(vi)Babies routinely exposed to ASL “babble” in sign language in same time frame as other babiesc) Early interactions(i) Infants practice “action dialogues”- Alternations between active and passive participation(ii) Intersubjectivity- Mutual understanding between two interacting partners(iii) Joint attention- Mutual focus on a singular object(iv)Gaze following- By 6 months, infants can follow another’s gaze- By 18 months, infants can determine the location of an object by following another’s gaze(v) Pointing- By 9 months, infants can follow the direction in which someone is pointing- 2-year-olds deliberately use pointing to direct another’s attention4) First Wordsa) Early word recognition(i) 5-month-olds can pick out their name from background conversations- Babies prefer listening to own name(ii) At 7-8 months, infants recognize unfamiliar wordsb) The problem of reference(i) Reference- Association of