Lecture Outline
• Components of Language Development
• Theoretical Perspectives on Language
Development
– Nativist
• Evidence and Criticisms
– Interactionist
• Evidence and Criticisms
Components of Language Development
• Phonological Development
– Acquisition of knowledge about the sound system
of a language
• Phonemes: The smallest sound units that distinguish
meaning
– Ex: rake and lake differ by one phoneme (/r/ versus /l/)
• Syntactic Development
– The learning of the syntax (grammar) of a
language
• Syntax: Rules in a language that specify how words
from different categories (nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.)
can be combined
• Semantic Development
– Learning the system for expressing meaning in a
language, including word learning
• Pragmatic Development
– Acquiring knowledge about how language is used
(cultural rules)
Nativist Perspectives on Language Development
• Universal Grammar: A set of highly abstract,
unconscious rules that are common to all
languages (Noam Chomsky)
– Unique to humans
Evidence Consistent with Nativist Perspectives:
• Children master language with little explicit training
– Non-human primates require extensive training to master the
most basic language skills
– Although some non-human primates may combine symbols,
they do not show evidence of using syntax
• Indicates that only humans can acquire language and
also suggests that innate factors are involved in
language development
Evidence (con’t):
• Certain areas of the brain appear to be
specialized for language
– Left hemisphere of cerebral cortex
• Hemispheric specialization is present in infancy—suggests
that innate factors are involved in language development
Evidence (con’t):
• Appears to be a “critical” period for language
acquisition:
– Critical period: Time during which language
develops readily and after which language
acquisition is much more difficult and less
successful
• Suggests that innate factors are involved in language
development
• Evidence for “critical period”:
– Brain damage is more likely to result in permanent
language impairment if it occurs in adulthood than
if it occurs in childhood
• Less hemispheric specialization occurs when a
second language is learned at 4 years or older
than if it is learned earlier
• Knowledge of grammar is related to the age at which
individuals begin learning a second language, not the
length of their exposure to the language
– Individuals exposed earlier show greater knowledge
as adults
Evidence Consistent with Nativist Perspectives
(con’t):
• Congenitally deaf children whose parents are not
proficient in sign language:
– Develop larger vocabularies (gestures) than their
parents
– Spontaneously impose syntax (grammatical
structure) when signing
• Suggests that innate factors are involved in
language development
Criticisms of Nativist Perspectives:
– Universal grammar common to all languages has
not been identified
– Focus on syntactic development and neglect other
aspects of language development
– Ignore role of social environment in language
development
Interactionist Perspectives on Language Development
– Language development is strongly influenced by
children’s motivation to communicate with others
– Because of this motivation, they pay attention to
“clues” in language and the social context in which
language is used
• Allows them to master language
Evidence Consistent with Interactionist Perspectives:
• Children show sensitivity to a variety of “clues” in
language and the social context in which language is
used
• Fast Mapping:
– Process of rapidly learning a new word when a
familiar and unfamiliar word are contrasted
• Ex: “chromium” and “red”
• Linguistic Context
– Grammatical form of a novel
word influences children’s
interpretation of it
• Ex: “sibbing” vs. “a sib”
vs. “some sib”
• Syntactic Bootstrapping
– Inferring the meaning of a
word based on the
grammatical structure of the
sentence in which it is used
• Ex: “The duck is
kradding the rabbit”
OR
“The duck and rabbit are
kradding”
• Pragmatic Cues
– Aspects of the social context that are used to
infer the meaning of words
• Children use direction of gaze or other gestures to
learn word meanings
– Will assign a new word to the object that an adult is
looking at when saying the word (even if the child cannot
see the target object)
• Intentionality/Emotional Reactions of the speaker
– Ex: “Let’s find the gazzer!”
Criticisms of Interactionist Theories
• Language is too complex to be learned only
by paying attention to “clues” available in
language and the social context in which it is
used
– The evidence of children’s sensitivity to “clues”
involves mainly semantic development, not
syntactic development