Language

Language

1. Comprehension

   • understanding

2. Production

   • speaking, writing, signing

3. Divisions

   • Phonology
     • 1st
       • Structure and sequencing of speech sounds
         • Can recognize lg within the womb
           • can discriminate their mother tongue / another even w/more than 1 MT
         • perceptual narrowing
           • discrimination between sounds until 9 months
         • aspects
           • stress patterns
           • transitional probabilities
           • phonotactic info
   • Meaning
     • 2nd
       • as of 6 months, preferential head turning
         • 18 months= word explosion (active child)
           • 10 new words a day+ pick meaningful ones to request
             • overextension
               • using a word beyond its standard request
             • underextension
               • limiting the use of the word to a subset of its standard referents
             • overlaps
               • sometimes overextending, others underextending
     • problem of reference
       • mutual exclusivity
         • 1 label/object
       • taxonomic constraints
         • optimizing explanation to kids
     • cues
       • structure: sensitive to the framing of a sentence, transitives and intransitives and regularities of lg
       • social: look for reliability
   • Grammar
     • 3rd
       • critical period
         • affects grammar, preference for content words
       • Semantic bootstrapping
         • identifying categories and rules
       • construction grammar
         • systematic use of a linguistic pattern
       • connectionist account
         • uses correlations to make predictions
   • Communication
     • throughout
       • infant directed speech: higher pitched voice, hyperarticulation, simplified vocabulary= more engaging
       • consistency of sign lg acquisition= same as oral
         • motivation to communicate is the same= deaf kids will create their own signs

4. Particularities

   • Species-specific
     • complex system with structure and generativity
   • Species-universal
     • all humans have the potential for learning a language

5. Thinkers

   • Chomsky
     • nativist
     • lg is innate (UG)
     • lg is special
   • McWhinney
     • lg is special
     • universal despite variability in input
     • self-motivation
     • double dissociation