McGarrity COM 374 -- Week 3 outline on Language Acquisition I. How do children acquire language? A. Memorization? i.

We memorize words (mental lexicon) ii. But the ability that we have to produce/understand an infinite # of novel utterances (Productivity) must mean we do not store whole sentences in our brains, but rather words and patterns, or rules (= Mental Grammar) B. Imitation? i. Children say things parents never say 1. Phonological: fis fish, goggie doggie 2. Overgeneralizations: When children apply rules incorrectly as a result of hypothesis-testing a. Morphological: runned, goed, bringed, holded b. Syntactic: I am cute, amnt I? C. Teaching/Reinforcement? i. Sometimes language is not taught 1. Rules of language are unconscious (e.g., expletive infixation, etc.) 2. Children can learn language parents dont know (e.g., immigrants, pidgins and creoles) ii. Sometimes language cant be taught 1. Nobody dont like me dialogue (from Aitchison) 2. Other one spoon dialogue (from Aitchison) Paradox of Language Acquisition A. Problem: Children acquire unconscious patterns/rules unconsciously, with little or no deliberate training. B. Solution: Universal Grammar (the innate knowledge of language that all humans are equipped with; it is what helps children during the language learning task) C. Language = Part learned (Mental Grammar) + Part innate (UG) Stages of acquisition: All (normal) children go through same stages in same order (though age and rate of progression can vary) A. Crying (0-1 month) B. Cooing (2-3 months) C. Vocal Play (3-6 months) D. Babbling (6 months): http://www.vocaldevelopment.com/ i. CV monosyllables: consonant-vowel syllables (ma, pa, da) ii. reduplicated babbling: repeated CV syllables (mamama, papapa, dididi) iii. variegated babbling: different CV syllables (badigu, potaki) iv. jargon babbling: meaningless word-like units with intonation E. One-word stage (1 - 1 years): i. Lexicon < 50 words (avg. ~ 15) ii. Words for people and things iii. Holophrases (one-word phrases, e.g., gimme, whassat, allgone) F. Two-word stage (1 - 2 years): i. Lexicon > 50 words

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McGarrity ii. 2-word combinations indicate semantic rather than syntactic relations, e.g., Mommy book, baby sleep, kick ball, baby up iii. No inflections G. Telegraphic speech (2+ years): i. Can combine more than 2 words ii. contains only content words (i.e., nouns and verbs, but no function words) iii. Syntactically organized (i.e., proper word order, etc.) H. Word inflections (2+ years): i. Progressive -ing ii. Plural -s iii. Possessive -s iv. 3rd person singular -s v. Past tense vi. Negatives Critical Period Hypothesis: (Eric Lenneberg) A. Definition: Acquisition of a normal language is guaranteed for children up to the age of six, is steadily compromised from then until shortly after puberty, and is rare thereafter. B. Evidence: i. Brain plasticity: Children, but not adults, can recover fully from left hemisphere brain damage ii. Critical periods in animal kingdom (kitten vision, bird songs) iii. Deaf exposed to sign language in adulthood vs. childhood iv. Second language learning in adults vs. children v. Pidgins vs. creoles vi. Wild children 1. Isabelle (discovered at age 6): learned normal language 2. Chelsea (discovered at age 31): did not learn normal language Genie A. Isolated until age 13, never spoken to B. Had cognitive development of 15-month-old when found C. Went through early stages of acquisition, though more slowly D. Learned first words (lexicon) faster than normals E. Never mastered language F. Cognitive development advanced beyond language ability after intervention G. Provides evidence for special language-learning ability that is separate from generalpurpose learning abilities (e.g., intelligence) which can extend beyond childhood Double dissociation of language and intelligence A. Definition: When someone does well on task A but poorly on task B, while someone else does well on task B but poorly on task A B. Suggests that A and B arent governed by same mechanism in brain

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Study questions: What is the difference between Mental Grammar and Universal Grammar?

McGarrity Provide examples of some rules that we use in speech that support the claim that children cannot learn strictly by example. What does this say about the language learning process? In what ways does Genies language acquisition deviate from normal language acquisition? In what ways is it similar? Why is Genies case important for theories about language learning? What does it say about the relationship between language and other cognitive abilities, like intelligence?