“Language Acquisition and Cognitive Science”

“Language Acquisition and Cognitive Science”

1. Modularity

   • Do children learn language using a ''mental organ'', some of whose principals of organization are not shared with other cognitive systems such as perception, motor control, and reasoning.

2. Human Uniqueness

   • A related question is whether language is unique to humans. Other animals communication with a fixed repertoire of symbols, or with analogue variation like the mercury in a thermometer. But none appears to have the combinational rule system of human language.

3. Language and Thought

   • This is an intriguing hypothesis, but virtually all modem cognitive scientists believe it is false. Babies can think before they can talk.

4. input

   • Motherese
     • Parents and caretakers in most parts of the world modify their speech when talking to young children, one example of how people in general use several ''registers'' in different social settings.
   • Negative evidence
     • Referes to information about which strings of words are not grammatical sentences in the language, such as corrections or other forms of feedback from a parent that tell the child that one of his or her utterances is ungrammarical.
   • Context
     • Children do not hear sentences in isolation, but in a context. No chilld has learned language from the radio; indeed, children rarely if ever learn language from television.
   • Prosody
     • Normal human speech has a pattern of melody, timing, and stress called prosody. And motherese directed to young infants has a characteristic, exaggerated prosody if its own: a rise and fall contour for approving, a set of sharp staccato bursts for prohibiting, a rise pattern for directing attention, and smooth, low legato murmurs for comforting.
   • Positive evidence
     • Refers to the information available to the child about which strings of words are grammatical sentences of the target language.

5. What and when children learn?

   • People do not reproduce their parent's language exactly, the difference between parents language and the one their children ultimately acquire is small. We can conclude that most children have mastered their mothers tongue. Human language is something close to full mastery, and in a short period of time.

6. What is linguistic?

   • Is characterize which aspects of grammar are universal, prevalent, rare, and nonexist across languages.

7. Biology of language acquisition

   • Dissociations between language and general intelligence
     • Humans envolved brain circuitry, mostly in the left hemisphere surronding the sylvian fissure, that appears to be designed for language, though how exactly their internal writing gives rise to rules of language is unknown. There are syndromes showing the opposite dissociation, where intact language coexist with several retardation.
   • Maturation of the language system
     • The maturation of language circuits during a child's early years may be a driving force underlying the course of language acquisition. Successful acquisition of language typically happens by 4, is guaranteed for children up to the age 6, is steadily compromised from then until shortly after puberty, and is rare thereafter.
   • Evolution of language
     • The shape of the human vocal tract seems to have been modified in evloution for the demands of speech. Presumably language evolved in the human lineage for two reasons: our ancestors developed technology and knowledge of the local environment in their lifetimes,a nd were involved in extensive reciprocal cooperation.

8. The course of language acquisition

   • Language acquisition begins very early in the human lifespan, and begins, logically enough, with the acquisition of a language's sound patterns. Words are usually produced in isolation, this one-word stage can last from two months to a year.

9. Between the late two's and mid threes's

   • Children language blooms into fluent grammatcal conversation so rapidly that it overwhelms the researchers who study it.

10. What is learned?

    • Linguistic theory
      • Is an essential part of the study of language acquisition.
    • Linguistic research
      • Tries do three things, First, it must characterize the facts of English. Second, since children are not predisposed to learn English or any other language, linguistics has to examine the structure of other languages. Contarary to early suspicions, languages do not vary arbitrarily and without limit.