Emergentism and
Brian MacWhinney
Sam and Liberty
Emergentism
Emergentism is the belief in emergence, or the
complexity that arises from the combination of
simple components.
As it pertains to language, emergentists believe
that context plays a prominent role in the
comprehension and acquisition of language. This
context contains complexities that cannot be
found in its written definition.
Emergentist Systems
In an emergentist system, such as language, the
existence of the simple components that make up
the complex system cannot be predicted
beforehand. The components are created in
reaction to pre-existing components.
Even if someone had previous knowledge of the system,
they could still not accurately predict the components
before they emerge.
Emergentist systems are governed by laws
specific only to that system.
Brian MacWhinney
MacWhinney is a professor
pof psychology and modern
languagesl he has done
numerous studies on how
languages are developed
and how people learn them.
•
He’s fluent in seven
languages.
He has also developed many
new computer programs for
performing psychological
experiments.
MacWhinney’s Competition Model
The competition model is an emergentist theory for
how both first and second languages are learned,
developed by Brian MacWhinney and Elizabeth Bates.
The competition model states that:
Language is neither completely innate nor is it
completely learned, but is a combination of both
Words are merely meaningless symbols that have no
relevance to people without proper context.
Example: A refrigerator would not be the same if we
weren’t accustomed to seeing it being used in a
kitchen, to store food.
Linguistic Functionalism
Brian MacWhinney has also recently studied
Linguistic Functionalism.
Linguistic Functionalism is the idea that
grammar and language have developed
because of the human brain’s ability to shift
the perspective from which one views an
event. New ways of using grammar emerge in
response to the need to describe and
understand events and objects from the point
of view of others.
Works Cited
P.B. Anderson (Ed.) (2000). Downward Causation. Aahus University Press.
<http://hincapie.psych.purdue.edu/HHPTuckerG00-DC.pd>
O'Connor, Timothy and Wong, Hong Yu, "Emergent Properties", The
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2009 Edition), Edward N.
Zalta (ed.), URL =
<http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2009/entries/propertiesemergent/>.
MacWhinney, Brian (2005). "A Unified Model of Language Acquisition". In
Kroll, Judith; DeGroot, Annette. Handbook of bilingualism: Psycholinguistic
approaches.. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
http://cls.psu.edu/podcasts.shtml (image)