Language Development
Four Components of Language
Phonology
sounds
Semantics
meanings of words
Grammar
arrangements of words into sentences
Pragmatics
social uses of speech
Phonology
Phonemes: the smallest units of sound
that can change the meaning of a
word
– /d/ “dog”
– /l/ “log”
• Children’s mastery of the different sounds of
their language is not a mechanical skill.
• The mastery of different sounds, or phonemes,
develops along with the child’s growing
understanding of the meanings of words.
Phonology
–/v/
–/b/
vote
boat
–/ee/ sheep
–/i/ ship
Phonology
Semantics
the study of the meanings of words
Phonology
Semantics
Grammar
Morphology: use of grammatical
markers
Syntax : arrangement of words into
sentences
Morphemes
Smallest units of meaning
Morphemes
–child
–speak
–unspeakable
–childless
Syntax
• Susan loves Joe
• Joe loves Susan
• Susan Joe loves
Syntax
English: I love you
Spanish: I you love
English: the green tree
Spanish: the tree green
Phonology
Semantics
Grammar
Pragmatics
The communicative and social uses of speech
Is the door shut?
Is the milk in the fridge?
Is your room clean?
Language Development
Prelinguistic period
– Newborns distinguish the sound of human voice
– 6 - 8 weeks: cooing
– 4 - 6 months: babbling
• The progression of cooing and babbling
follows a universal pattern.
• Babies, until around 6 months old, can
produce sounds/phonemes that their
parents cannot produce or distinguish
• Nature/Biology plays an important role in the
emergence of cooing & babbling.
• The form of the child’s vocalization is also
affected by the linguistic environment.
Semantic Development
• 12 months
• age 2 years
• age 6 years
first words
200 words
15,000 words
Holophrase
Single word that seems to represent
an entire sentence
First Words
•
•
•
•
Important people
Objects that move
Objects that can be acted upon
Familiar actions
• Nouns before verbs
Word Extension
The appropriate limits of
the meaning of words
Extension
Underextension
– applying a word too narrowly
Overextension
– applying a word too broadly
Errors of segmentation
Where does one word end and another begin?
Fast-mapping
using the context to guess
the meaning of a word
Other Strategies for Determining the
Meaning of a Word
Object-scope constraint
– words refer to whole objects rather than to parts of
objects
Taxonomic constraint
– words refer to categories of similar objects
Mutual exclusivity constraint
– each object has one label & different words refer to
separate, non-overlapping categories of objects
Morphological Development
•
•
•
•
•
Single morphemes
-s to form plural nouns
-ed to form past tense
-s to form 3rd person singular
Contraction of verb “to be”
Overregularization
feet
foots
mice
mouses
went
goed
broke
breaked
Syntactical Development
• Telegraphic speech:
– leave out the smaller and less important words, like articles
and prepositions
–
–
–
–
Boy street
Billy chair
Mommy come
More cookie
Is this really grammar?
Language Explosion
• The language explosion is not just the result of simple
semantic development; the child is not just adding
more words to his/her vocabulary.
• Child is mastering basic syntactic and morphological
rules.
THE CAT BITES THE DOG
• the cat bit the dog
• the cat didn’t bite the dog
• did the cat bite the dog?
• wasn’t the dog bitten by the cat?
The gorpy wug wasn’t miggled by
the mimsy zibber
• The wug is gorpy
• The zibber did not miggle the wug
• The zibber is mimsy
Wug zibber mimsy by gorpy the
miggled the wasn’t
Questions
yes/no questions
– Is this a doggie?
Wh- questions
– Why...?
– When...?
– Where...?
Yes/No Questions
• Mommy go?
• I play?
• Did mommy go?
• Can I play?
• Mommy did go, didn’t she?
Wh- Questions
• What daddy eating?
• What mommy doing?
• What daddy is eating?
• What I did yesterday?
• What is daddy eating?
• What?
• Where?
• Who?
• Why?
• When?
• How?
Negative Sentences
• no milk
• no I go
• I not drink milk
• that not milk
• I don’t drink milk
Process of Language Acquisition
• ENVIRONMENTALIST (e.g., Skinner)
Language is acquired through a combination of the
following mechanisms:
• classical conditioning
• operant conditioning
• imitation
Problems with Imitation
Parents do not usually provide feedback for grammatically
incorrect sentences.
They do provide feedback for the truth value of sentences.
Child: I no like spinach
Mom: Yes, I know
Child: Doggie runned away
Mom: Yes, the doggie ran away
Child: I’m sleeping
Mom: No, you’re not, you’re awake
Problems with Imitation
Even when parents provide feedback, it doesn’t
work!
child
mom
child
mom
child
nobody don’t like me
no, say “nobody doesn’t like me”
nobody don’t like me
listen carefully, “nobody doesn’t like me”
oh, nobody don’t likes me!
Problems with Imitation
Children can only imitate phrases that
they can already produce
Problems with Imitation
Children can produce a vast array of
sentences they have never heard
before.
Problems with Imitation
Children’s mistakes are systematic
I goed
Doggie runned away
These systematic mistakes reflect
rule-following behavior
NATIVIST (Chomsky)
• Humans are biologically predisposed
to acquire language.
• The capacity to comprehend and
produce language is innate.
Language Acquisition Device
(LAD)
• Biologically based system, programmed
to recognize the universal rules that
underlie any language the child might
hear.
• It contains a universal grammar
NATIVISM
• The capacity to recognize the rules that underlie
language is innate.
• However, the linguistic environment dictates which
particular language a child will speak.
• The specific language is NOT genetically transmitted.
Support for Nativist Theory
• Language is acquired rapidly
• Language is acquired with little explicit teaching
• Children around the world reach language milestones at
around same age
• Sensitive period for language acquisition
Eric Lenneberg
Sensitive period for language acquisition:
between the ages of 2 and puberty
brains are not fully specialized for language until around
puberty
implications on bilingualism