EPISTEMOLOGY

The etymology is: ​Epistem (Knowledge) Logy (Reason), so it is the study of the nature,
origin and limits of human knowledge and justified beliefs. It creates and disseminates
knowledge in particular areas of inquiry.

Philosophy of language: ​Is the reasoned inquiry into the ​origins of language​, t​he nature
of meaning​, ​usage and ​cognition of language​, and the relationship between language and
reality​. ​This occurs because as Aristotle said philosophy begins in a kind of wonder or
puzzlement and philosophers attempt to construct theories that are synoptic, descriptively,
accurate, explanatorily powerful and rationally defensible.

On the other hand, lays ​Philology​: It is concerned primarily with the historical development
of languages manifested in written texts associated with the literature and culture of a
specific culture. In contrast, there exists ​Linguistics that tends to give priority to spoken
language.

Linguistics: ​Is the scientific study of language

Three Dichotomies

1) A ​Synchronic description of a language describes the language as it is at a given

time; a ​Diachronic ​description is concerned with the historical development of the
language and its changes through time.
2) Theoretical Linguistics is the construction of a general theory of the structure of
language, ​Applied Linguistics is the application of the findings and techniques of
the scientific study of language in order to improve methods.
3) Microlinguistics analyzes language without reference to a specific social function,
acquisition, psychological mechanisms and so on; ​Macrolinguistics embrace all of
these aspects of language.

Function of language
● Referential prepositional
● Emotional expression: ​Getting rid of our nervous energy when we are under stress.
Emotive or expressive function of language..
● Social interaction: ​No factual content involved, language used just for the purpose
of maintaining rapport between people.
● The power of sound: ​Effects that the sounds have on the users or listeners. For
example, in literature with the meters of poems.
● The control of reality: ​Controlling the forces which the believers feel affect their
lives. Ideational communication, with a supernatural being as a recipient.
● Recording the past: ​The availability of the material recorded guarantees the
knowledge- base of subsequent generations.
● Instrument of thought: ​Speak thoughts out loud. Inner speech.
● Expression of identity: ​Fostering a sense of identity.
 Nature of language

It has two designs:

1) Arbitrariness: ​Is a matter of convention, that is, no natural connection between the
object and its name. Nonetheless, they are not random in their use.
2) Duality: ​Are sounds that can serve to make up words which are different in meaning.
For example:
● Face​ /Feis/
● Phase​ /Feiz/

Additional information: So language can be seen as distinctive because of its intricate

association with the human mind and with human society. It is related to both cognition and
communication, it is both abstract knowledge and actual behaviour.

The origins of language

It is uncertain how language originated because there is no direct evidence related to it.
However, there are some ​sources of speculation:

A) The Divine Source: ​God created Adam and “whatsoever Adam called every living
creature, that was the name thereof”. Hindu tradition, language comes from the
goddess Sarasvati, wife of brahma.
B) The Natural-Sound Source: ​Suggest that primitives words could have been
imitations of the natural sounds due to the fact that all modern languages have some
words with pronunciation relatively close to real nature sound, for example “Bang”,
“Splash”, “Boom”, “Japish”, and so on. They are onomatopoeic words.
C) The Oral-Gesture Source: ​It involves a link between physical gesture an orally
produced sounds.
D) Glossogenetics: ​This focuses mainly on the biological basis of the formation and
development of human language. That is, something unique in our anatomy that
allows us to be able to talk.
E) Physiological adaptation: ​The human mouth is relatively small, can be opened and
closes rapidly and contains a very flexible tongue. This biological characteristics are
very helpful not to hunt but to talk.

Interactions and transactions

One of the major functions of language is the ​Interactional function​. It has to do with how
humans use language to interact with each other, socially or emotionally. The other major
function is the ​transactional function​, that it, using our linguistics characteristics in order to
communicate knowledge.
 HUMAN LANGUAGE. Is it an ENDOWMENT OR an ACCOMPLISHMENT?

Noam Chomsky: Claims that language is a genetic ​endowment and the argument for this
genetic uniqueness of language is that it provides an explanation for facts that would
otherwise be inexplicable:
● Acquisition is not only a matter of accumulation but also of ​regulation. ​The argument is
that there must exist some kind of innate, genetically programmed ​Language
Acquisition Device (LAD) ​which directs the process whereby children infer the rules
from the language they are exposed to.
● What the LAD provides is a set of common principles of grammatical organization called
Universal Grammar (UG) w ​ hich is then realized in different languages. These principles,
according to ​Chomsky,​ define a number of ​general parameters (so in this respect all
languages are alike) which are given different ​settings (​in respect to this, languages are
all different).

LANGUAGE, MIND AND SOCIAL LIFE.

From Chomsky’s perspective, the nature of language is cognitive. Although language may
be a cognitive construct, it also functions as a ​means of communication and ​social
control​. ​It is internalized in the mind as abstract knowledge, ​but in order for this to
happen it must also be ​experienced in the external world as actual behaviour.
Michael Halliday:
● Language as a ​Social Semiotic: ​Language as a ​system of signs which are ​socially
motivated ​in that they are developed to ​express social meanings.
● The emphasis is on language as generic accomplishment.
● The concern for explanation with this social view is ​why is human language as it is? ---
because it has evolved with the socio-cultural evolution of human communities.
● Language should provide the means for people to act upon their environment. It has to
have an ​ideational function ​i.e. to help us to cope with the third person reality events
and entities, classify, organize and bring under control under “conceptual projection”
● Interpersonal function: ​to interact with each other, to establish a basis for cooperative
action and social relations. ​Features of universal grammar.

- Language can be seen as distinctive because of its association with human mind and
human society.
- Language is related to both, cognition and communication.
- It is both, abstract knowledge and actual behaviour.
- We can identify its essential character by specifying a range of design features:
arbitrariness and duality, the fact that it is context-independent, operates across dif. Media,
and at dif. Levels of organization.
- The phenomenon of languages as a whole is both pervasive ​(​spreading widely throughout an
area or a group of people)​ ​and elusive (​difficult to find, catch, or achieve).
 SCOPE OF LINGUISTICS
Scope is the extent of the area or subject matter that something deals with or to which it is
relevant. ​Linguistics deals with the study of language as a human phenomenon, in relation to
mind and thought. It also investigates the relation between language and society​. But in
order to do that Linguistics depends on some dissociation from the immediacy of experience,
that is, see language from another perspective.

Linguistics is a discipline like any other but what is distinctive is that it uses the
abstracting potential of language to categorize and explain language itself. As it is
seen as bewildering assortment of different facets. It is a shared and stable body of
knowledge of linguistics formas and their function which is established by convention
in a community.

MODELS AND MAPS

❖ The experience of language is extremely complex, so ​the purpose of linguistics is to provide

some explanation of this complexity by ​abstracting ​from it what seems to be of essential
significance. ​(Abstraction involves the idealization of actual data, constructing models
of linguistic description).
❖ The purpose of linguistic is to provide models of language which reveal features which are
no immediately apparent. They are idealized versions of reality.

DIMENSIONS OF IDEALIZATION

Language is a very general and abstract phenomenon.. It is a shared and stable body of
knowledge of linguistics forms and their function which is established by convention in a
community. At the same time it is very particular and variable if we look at the actuality of
linguistics behaviour.
 LANGUE AND PAROLE

Ferdinand de Saussure: established the principles for modern linguistics.

● Linguistics should concern itself with the shared social code, the abstract system,
which he called ​Langue: A collective body of knowledge, a kind of common
reference manual, copies of which were acquired by all members of a community of
speakers. (an abstract socially shared code) ---- ​What is ​distinctive ​about particular
languages as social phenomena?
● Leave aside the particular actualities of individual utterances (individual behaviour)
that is called ​Parole.

Language is dynamic. It is a process that needs to change according to the needs of the
users.
(Dichotomies of language): - Diachronic dimension: the study of language through time.
-Synchronic dimension: the study of language at a specific given time.
Diachronic change over time is simply a result of synchronic variation at any one time.

- COMPETENCE AND PERFORMANCE

Noam Chomsky: Distinguishes
● Competence: ​the knowledge humans have of their language as a system of abstract
formal relations.
● Performance​: the actual behaviour. It is particular, variable, dependent on
circumstances.
Although performance may be released from competence, it does not correspond to the
latter in any way.
Chomsky presented competence as a valid construct, as the central principle of language
itself.
Saussure thinks of language as socially shared, common knowledge.
For Chomsky, competence is psychological,imprinted. A genetic endowment of each
individual.
Competence is knowledge determined by the membership of the human species and the
focus is in what makes individual competences alike. ----What is distinctive about ​language
in general and as ​specific ​to human species?

Chomsky: linguistics as principally concerned with the universals of the human mind.
Linguistics as a branch of cognitive psychology.
Chomsky’s ​formal grammar s​ eeks to identify particular features of ​syntax w
​ ith reference to
universal and innate ​principles of human cognition.

- KNOWLEDGE AND ABILITY

One objection to Chomsky’s model is that it defines the nature of linguistics too narrowly to
mean knowledge of grammar and syntax only. In this other view, linguistics is essentially the
​ ow they are functionally informed: it is ​semantics ​which is
study of how languages ​mean, h
primary.
Thinking in terms of a ​functional grammar, to consider how language is differentially
​ nd reflects the functions it has
influenced by the environment ​how it is shaped by social use a
evolved to serve.
Communicative competence:
The ability to put our knowledge of language for communicative purposes. As teachers we
should aim to be communicative competent.
- PRESCRIPTIVISM:
Prescriptivism ​states that only one variety of a language has higher value than others, that
is the only one that should be imposed. It is connected with the ​standard written and spoken
language and it is mostly focused on grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation ​ergo, this view
characterized by its reliance on grammar rules. According to prescriptivists, derivations are
said to be incorrect.
Descriptive approach is an alternative to prescriptivism, where the grammarians have to
analyze language use and record the facts of language diversity. Descriptivists have been
seen as people who do not care about standard language because they see rules of usage
as equal.
Actually, both are important approaches that should be taken into consideration in a kind of
complementary way, specifically to teach. We as teachers have to be aware of the existence
of both theories, we cannot deny the importance of rules, grammar, vocabulary or avoid the
notion of language diversity.
Schools---> should have the resources to teach a common standard while recognizing the
existence and value of ​linguistic diversity.

The equality of languages

All languages meet the social and psychological needs of their speakers, are equally
deserving of scientific study and can provide us with valuable information about human
nature and society.
Misconceptions about languages: ‘Primitive languages’​. Nevertheless, they the cultures
which have those ‘primitive languages’ turn out to have a fully developed language, even
though they might have a simple grammar or a vocabulary consisting on a few words.
Languages of excellence

‘Natural superiority’ of certain languages. Latin and Greek, models of excellence in western
Europe.
No basis in linguistic fact, it is not possible to rate the excellence of languages in linguistic
terms. So, the thesis that some languages are intrinsically better than others has to be
denied.

The development of writing

Pictograms:
They are pictures or images that represent words, for example, ☀ or ☼ ​that
represents the sun.

Ideograms: JAJAJA Fue el gato lo juro ☭

 They are symbols that may take on a more fixed symbolic form, in this case ☼
means ​heat ​or d
​ aytime. ​This type of symbol is considered to be part of a system of
idea-writing.

Logograms:
When symbols come to be used to represent words in a language, for example in a
Egyptian writing, the ideogram for water was ​≡ but much later the derived symbol ​~ came to
e used for the actual word ​water.

Rebus Writing:

👁
In this process, the symbol for one entity is taken over as the symbol for the sound of

👁
the spoken word used to refer to that entity. For example, we can read the pictogram as
/aI/ that is related to the letter “I” and we can use it to refer to oneself. am Gastón.

Syllabic Writing:
This is a set of symbols which represents the pronunciation of syllabes

Alphabetic Writing:
An alphabet is essentially a set of written symbols which each represent a single type
of sound.

Why is frequent that most people make a mismatch between the forms of written
English and sounds of the spoken part?
 Properties of language
As we know, all creatures are capable of communicating with other members of the same
species. These next properties are the ones that differentiate human language from all other
forms of signaling.

Communicative vs informative:
There has to be an important distinction between what is ​communicative signals from what
can be unintentionally ​informative​. A person listening to you may become informed by
many signals e.g: they may note that you have a cold (bc you sneezed), that you are untidy
(bc you have ur hair unbrushed). However when you use language to tell a person “I want to
apply to the job” you are considered to be communicating something.

Unique properties: six that are described:

- Displacement: ​human language-users are capable of referring to past and future
time and to others locations. ​Displacement allow users of language to talk about
things and events not present in the immediate environment; it is this property which
allows humans to create fiction and to describe possible future worlds.
- Arbitrariness: ​It is generally the case that there is no natural connection between a
linguistic form and its meaning.
- Productivity: ​Language users manipulate the linguistics resources to produce new
expressions. Due to this property of language, the human, given similar
circumstances is capable of creating a new signal after initial surprise.
- Cultural transmission: ​The process whereby language is passed on from one
generation to the next.
- Discreteness​: The sounds used in a language are meaningfully distinct. Each of
them are treated as discret.
- Duality: ​It is a process in which humans are capable of combining different sounds to
convey different meanings.
- Other properties: ​Vocal-auditory channel, reciprocity, specialization,
non-directionality and arpid fade.

Universal properties of language

- Modularity: ​linguists believe that language is a modular system i.e. people produce
and interpret language using a set of modules in a coordinated way. The modules
are: ​phonetics, phonology, semantics, discourse, etc.
- Constituency and recursion: ​all languages are organized into constituents (words/
groups of words), this gives the languages a balance of structure and flexibility and
recursion is the property of language that enables us to apply grammar processes
repeatedly. They are both correlated.
- Reliance on context: ​the pronunciation of different words (homophones) are the
same, that is why the reliance on context is crucial not only to understand the
meanings of the words but also to interpret the meaning of entire utterances.
- Variability: ​is what allows people to communicate far more than the semantic
content of words and sentences we utter.
 The sound of language
Sounds of spoken English do not match up a lot of times with letters of written English. One
solution is to produce a separate alphabet with symbols which represents sounds. It is called
the ​Phonetic Alphabet.

Phonetics:
Is the general study of the characteristics of speech sounds, its physical aspect, it
studies the production and perception of sounds. Within it there are areas of study:
Articulatory phonetics, acoustic phonetics, auditory ​and​ forensic phonetics.

Phonology:
Is about abstract aspect of sounds and it studies the phonemes. It establishes what
are phonemes in a given language.
It is the description of the systems and patterns of speech sounds in a language.

Word and Word Formation processes

Coinage:
It is a process in which we can invent a new word by names for one company’s name
product which become general terms, for example: ​Aspirin​.

Borrowing:
It is a process in which one language takes over words from other language, like
Piano ​from Italy.

Compounding:
It is a process in which we can create new words with different meanings by linking
words, car-wash

Blending:
It is a kind of mixing process in which two words create new terms such as ​Brunch
(Breakfast + Lunch)

Clipping:
This occurs when a word of more than one syllable is reduced to a shortened form,
such as: ​Fanatic → Fan

Backformation:
Occurs when we create new words from the established ones such as the verb
Televise

Convention:
It is the change in the function of a word, for example, when a noun comes to be
used as a verb, for example ​Paper
Acronyms:
Are formed from the initial letters of a set of other words, for example, ​CD (Compact
Disk)

Derivation: ​Suffixes or Prefixes that change the word class. Add (Verb) Addition (Noun)

Prefixes and Suffixes:

Affixes that are added at the end or at the beginning of words

Infixes:
It is not common in English. It consists in an Affix which is incorporated inside
another word. Occasionally used in fortuitous or aggravating circumstances by emotionally
aroused. For example: "Fan-freakin'-tastic" equals exactly "fantastic"

Multiple Processes:
It is possible to trace the operation of more than one process at work in the creation
of a particular word.

Ch. 16 - Crystal: Grammar

- There are six types of grammar:
- Descriptive grammar: ​Is the approach that describes the grammatical constructions
used by a language without making any evaluative judgement.
- Pedagogical grammar: ​Is a book design for teaching a foreign language.
- Prescriptive grammar: ​A manual that focuses on the construction of language and
lays down rules that govern the socially correct use of it.
- Reference grammar​: A grammatical description that tries to comprehend the
language as much as possible in order to act as a reference book for those who want
to understand the language (in terms of grammatical facts).
- Theoretical grammar: ​Is the approach that goes beyond the study of individual
languages to determine what construct are needed for doing a grammatical analysis
and how it can be applied in the investigation of human languages. Is the main notion
in the investigations of linguistic universals
- Traditional grammar: ​Attitudes and methods found in the period of grammatical
study, before the advent of linguistic science.

​ tudy everything that is related among languages

Important (i guess): ​Linguistic universals: S
Typology: Identifying features that makes languages different.
 Grammar Ch9-Yule
Analysis in sentences.
Types of grammar:
- Mental grammar: ​A form of internal linguistic knowledge that operates in the
recognition and production of accurately structured expressions in a particular
language.
- Linguistic etiquette: ​the identification of the proper or best structures to be used in a
language.
- Third view: ​study and analysis of the structures found in a language with the aim of
describing the grammar of a language as distinct from the grammar of other
languages.
The parts of speech: (terminology) - they come from traditional grammar.
- Nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, pronouns, conjunctions.
- Other categories: ​Number, person, tense, active - passive voice, gender.

Structural analysis: ​A type of descriptive approach concerned with the investigation of the
distribution of forms in a language.
Immediate constituent analysis: ​this approach is designed to show how small constituents
in a sentence can go together to form larger constituents (​how some constructions are
possible).
Labeled and bracketed sentences: ​Designed to show the hierarchical organization of a
sentence.

Syntax by yule
The way in which we combine words in sentences in order to get meaning.

Generative grammar: ​Theoretical approach designed by chomsky and used by

universalists to study syntax. It consists in equating in order to get a grammatical correct
combination
Properties of grammar
- All and only criterion
- Productivity ​(despite it has a number of rules)
- Recursion: ​ability to apply one rule several times

Deep and surface structure:

Deep structure: the meaning
Surface structure: the grammatical form

I
 Syntax by Crystal:
Is the way in which the words are arranged to show relationships of meaning within (st
between) sentences. The unit of study is the ​sentence, ​it is the larger unit to which syntactic
rules apply.
Epistemology 2nd Term

Semantics:
Is the study of the meaning of words (Lexemes), phrases and sentences. It is focus
on conceptual meaning, that is, what the words conventionally mean, rather than on
what a speaker might want the words to mean.
Associative meaning are those connotation or association that society or culture
attached to a word. For example, the color green may lead us to think about good
luck.

Analyzing meaning

Analysis words in terms of semantic features::

Sometimes we can read sentences that are syntactically good, but semantically odd.
For example, “The hamburguer ate the man”. It is odd because the noun
hamburguer i​ s not capable of eating.
Semantics use different features to analyse sentences, they are +animate, -animate;
+human, -human; +male, -male; +adult, -adult.
Nevertheless, the scope of the problem of this approach is that it seems to have a
view of words in a language as some sort of “containers”, carrying
meaning-components.

Analysis words through roles:

AGENT-THEME-INSTRUMENT:
In the sentence “The boy kicked the ball”, ​Boy ​is the entity that performs the action
Kicked​. He is the ​AGENT, ​which can be non-human forces, machines, or creatures,
but are typically human. Another role is taken by the ​Ball, because it is affected by
the action, so it is the ​Theme​. If the agent uses another entity in performing an
action, that other entity fill the role of ​Instrument.
EXPERIENCER-LOCATION-SOURCE-GOAL:
When a noun phrase designates an entity as the person who has a feeling, a
perception or a state, it fills the role of ​experiencer​. For example, Did you see that?,
the ​experiencer​ is ​YOU ​and the ​theme ​is ​THAT.
The ​Location ​describes where an event occurs (in the park, on the table). Where an
entity moves from is the ​Source ​and where it moves to is the ​Goal.

Lexical relations
Not only can words be treated as “containers” or as fulfilling “roles”, they can also
have “relationships”. The types of lexical relations which are usually analyzed are:

Synonymy ​are two or more forms with very closely related meanings (Broad-Wide).

Antonymy ​are two forms with opposite meanings. They can be ​gradable antonyms
(Big-bigger / Small-Smaller), or ​non-gradable antonyms ​(Live/Death)

Hyponymy ​when the meaning of one form is included in the meaning of another. It
is like some type of hierarchical relationship:
Those who share the same superordinate are called ​co-hyponyms, ​for example
horse and dog, or carrot and daffodil.

Prototypes ​are the clearest example of a hyponymy. (Ant - Insects)

Homophony ​are two or more different forms that have the same pronunciation
(Meat-Meet).

The term Homonymy ​is used when one form has two or more unrelated meanings
(Bank of a river) (Bank, a financial institution). In a dictionary they will have separate
entries.

Polysemy ​are those words that can have multiple meanings which are all related by
extension. (Head - on top of…). In a dictionary they will have a single entry, with a
numbered list of the different meanings of it.

Metonymy ​is based on a close connection in a everyday experience. (Wheels-Car)

(He drank the whole bottle, it means the liquid that was inside it).

Collocation ​are those words that frequently tend to occur together. (husband and
wife)

Pragmatics

Pragmatics is the study of intended speaker meaning.

Invisible meaning: pragmatics is the study of the 'invisible' meaning or how we

recognize what is meant event when it is not actually said or written. In order for this
to happen, the speakers must be able to depend on a lot of shared assumptions and
expectations.
When we try to understand meaning, what we do is to use the meanings of the
words in combination and the context in which they occur and then you try to arrive
at what the writer of the sign of the sign intended his message to convey.

Context: ​we have to emphasize the influence of context. There are a different kind,
one kind is ​linguistic context is also known as co-text: the ​co-text is the set of other
words used in the same sentence, this has a strong effect on what we think the ​word
means. Then, more generally, we know what words mean in the basis of another
type of context, best described as ​physical context​: the physical location of a word
will influence your interpretation. Our understanding of much of what we hear or we
read is tied to physical context, particularly time and space.

Deixis: refers to words or expressions that cannot be interpreted at all unless the
physical context of the speaker is known. These words are: ​there, here, this, that,
yesterday,​ as well as most pronouns. These are known as deictic expressions. Any
expression used to refer to a person is an example of ​person deixis​, those used to
point to location are ​place deixis​, and those used to express time are time deixis.

Reference: ​is an act by which the speaker uses language to enable a listener to
identify something. Meanwhile, ​inference is any additional information used by the
listener to connect what is said to what it must be meant.

Anaphora:​ is a subsequent reference to an already introduced entity.

Presupposition: ​are shared assumptions between the speaker and the listener. It is
what a speaker assumes its true or is known by the hearer. Constancy under
negation: I​ t is when a presupposition remains constant even though the verb
changes from affirmative to negative.

Speech acts: ​the use of the term speech act means that we can actually recognize
the type of “act” performed by a speaker by uttering a sentence
Indirect speech act:
Direct speech act:

Politeness: ​is showing awareness of another person’s face. ​Face: ​in pragmatics,
your face is your public self- image, ​that is, the emotional and social sense of self
that we expect everyone to recognize. ​Face-threatening act ​is when you say
something that represents a threat to another person’s image, e.g: if you use a
speech act to order someone to do something. A face-saving act is when you say
something that lessens the possible threat to another’s face. ​Negative face: ​is the
need to be independent and to have freedom from imposition, your ​positive face is
your need to be connected, to belong, to be a member of a group.

First language acquisition

In collecting and analyzing language child language acquisition, researchers

often strive for naturalness and representativeness in their data. ​Natural data ​are
similar to the language children use in everyday life with familiar conversational
partners in familiar contexts. ​Representativeness refers two goals: First, the
language data collected from a particular child should be representative of the
language used by that child every day. Second, should representative of the general
population under investigation.
There are three approaches to collecting child language data: ​Parental
Diaries, Observational studies and Experimental studies.

Parental Diaries
In this approach parents describes their children’s language development.
Nevertheless, an inherent problem in this type of research is the fact that a diary
consists of ​one ​observer who is taking notes on just ​one ​child. The most famous of
these is Werner Leopold’s of his daughter Hildegarde’s simultaneous acquisition of
German and English. His diary is privileged in terms of the data’s naturalness, but
limited in terms of its representativeness.
 Observational Studies
In the sixties researchers began to audio record and transcribe the everyday
speech of children’s interaction in a small group. It allows researchers to examine,
for instance how questions or past-tense formulations develop over time among
different children, identifying both general patterns and individual differences.
Others have focused on language socialization practices, on how children are
socialized into culturally appropriate language behavior and how linguistic
competence develops. For instance, in some cultures babies are seen as
conversational partners from birth, but in others the baby’s sounds are not assigned
any particular meaning or communicative intent.
Observational studies have tended to be longitudinal, that is, they have
followed the same participants over several months or perhaps as long as several
years. Cross-sectional observational studies, have observed at the same time two
babies from two different cultures.
Because of the time-intensive nature that it requires, it includes only a small
numbers of child participants. Thus, it is not always clear to what extent the few
participants are representative of the wider population under study.

Experimental Studies
It tends to have narrowly defined research questions and to use more
controlled methods of collecting data, because in this way they can have a greater
number of participants, but at the same time they collect less data overall from each
of them.
One of the most known procedures is the ​High Amplitude Sucking
Paradigm (HASP)​. In this procedure, a machine records the rate and strength of the
infant’s sucking in response of the different stimulus that receives. For instance, they
can measure whether the infant perceives a difference between two similar sounds
or two words. (Maggie of The Simpsons).
There are also a number of methods for assessing the production and
comprehension of children’s syntax. For example, giving them pictures to produce
words and sentences. Another technique is the truth-value judgment task. In this
case the child is presented with a story and then is asked to render a yes/no
judgment about whether a statement accurately describes what happened in the
story.

The data: Milestones in child language development.

All acquires any of the world’s spoken signed languages in a similar way, and
reach the major milestones in the same order. However, at a different age.

The first sounds

What children develop during their first year of life is their speech perception,
that i, to recognize one’s own name in the speech stream, o to distinguish between
similar sounding vowels. These early language skills also involve visual information;
for instance, at two months they can imitate an accurate pronunciation using the
correct face movements.
These speech perception skills will ​bootstrap ​children into more complex
language competencies. That is, the possibility that skills in one area of language
might help infants to develop competences in other language areas. For instance,
may provide them with a means to recognize other novel, adjacent words. E.g.
Emma’s feet, Emma’s face, etc.
Different experiments demonstrate that six-month-old infants prefers words
linked with another familiar name.
The sharpest decline in perceptual ability occurring around the end of the first
year of life.
From six months to one year is very common to see infants babbling because
their tongue is larger than their mouths, for that reason many sounds will be palatal.
Also, they often stop babbling in order to listen to their interlocutor. And, around fifth
month, some infants are able to immediately imitate simple sound sequences
presented to them.
 The first words
Around first birthdays, children enter in a phase known as ​Holophrastic stage​, in
which they use single words to communicate a variety of complex functions. These
first words tend to be ​content words ​rather than ​function words.
While working to master the vocabulary around them, children often engage in
both semantic ​overextension ​and ​underextension. ​The first one refers to words
that includes another meanings, like “water” can mean juice, milk or soda. The
second one refers to the reverse phenomenon, for example, they may use ​baby only
to refer to an infant sibling and not to the other babies he/she encounters.
Around age two, children enter the ​two-word stage, ​that is, combining a subject and
verb, or a verb and modifier.
Sometime around he end of the second year, children’s productive vocabulary begins
to develop rapidly; this is known as ​vocabulary spurt. ​In this stage, they learn about two
hundred words a month to their vocabularies.
At approximately two and half years of age, children begin to produce phrases of
three or more words, entering the ​multi-word stage. ​Children’s language at this stage has
been described as ​telegraphic speech.

First sentences: Morphological and syntactic developmental

Once they are in the ​Multi-word state, ​children start the development of inflectional
and derivational morphology, and continue through age five.
Most children generally pass through almost the same process of acquisition. And, a
widely known study is Jean Berko’s famous “wug”, that is an invented word. It is presented
to them three birds, first one in solitary and with a sentence that says: “This is a wug”. Then,
they show them two and days “There are two_”. In this case children are supposed to put in
that blank “wugs”, demonstrating that they have learned the rule for forming plurals and
could apply this rule correctly in novel contexts, and were not jus repeating forms which they
had previously heard.

Crosslinguistic and crosscultural aspects of language acquisition

This research has shown that, while there are many patterns hat hold true across all
language, there are also some important and intriguing differences.

Language and grammatical development

 Two conclusions which seem to hold universally: 1) Onset times appear very similar
across languages for both word comprehension and production. 2) Wide individual variation
exists within each language concerning the pace and size of vocabulary growth.
Another line of research on word production concerns the emergence of nouns and
verbs. Gopnik and Choi (1995) presented data demonstrating that verbs are among the first
items acquired by korean children, and then they tend to perform better on tasks which are
related to verbs.
Other crosslinguistic research has focused on the development of grammatical
competence. That is, the way in which the structural differences across languages influence
the nature of the developmental sequence for each language. For example, children who are
learning languages which do not require auxiliaries for question formation, such as Italian or
Spanish, sound much more “adult-like” in the use of their questions from a young age. (
¿Dónde durmió? “Where sleep?”)

Cultural differences
Children are born into distinct communicative systems around the world, for example,
young Samoan children are not expected to initiate talk and their early vocalizations are not
interpreted as meaningful attempts to communicate. In contrast of European-American
homes, where infants’ interactions are mostly with one adult person at a time. Through these
early interactions, children learn to participate in multiparty conversations from a very young
age.

Bilingualism
Research on bilingualism is controversial and complicated because while some
claims that bilinguals seemed to demonstrate greater ​Metalinguistic awareness
(knowledge and awareness about language as a system) and mental flexibility, as well as
the ability to think more abstractly, others are worried about a period called ​code-mixing​,
that is, the move back and forth between their two languages, seemingly without
discrimination. However, more recently, child language researchers have explained
code-mixing as early code-switching, demonstrating that even very young children have the
social or strategic competence to move between two languages depending on the
conversational context.
 Researchers points to the fact that bilinguals are not “two monolinguals” in one
person, but, rather, individuals whose competencies reflect their particular learning
experiences and patterns of language use.

Theories that try to explain how children acquire language

Behaviorism
A theory that held that language is essentially a habit, and adults have to give
children positive reinforcement if they do thing right, and punish them if they are wrong.
Through these general learning mechanisms, the child’s utterances are shaped to fit the
standards of his/her particular speech community. Behaviourists tend to focus on observable
behaviors rather than internal or innate processes.

Nativism
Nativists hold that language is not the result of general learning mechanisms, but
rather is an innate capacity. That is why they point out that all children acquire their mother
tongue at the same rate and by progressing through the same developmental stages. Also,
they have argued that the adult speech that young children hear is a poor model, but from
that input they can construct a complex grammar, far more complex than they could have
ever learned from reinforcement or general learning mechanisms. They can create of
generate a rule-based system, for example: “He goed to the store”, such sentence never
would have been uttered by an adult.
Language is claimed to be a species-specific or uniquely human cognitive capacity
which is the result of an innate ​Language Acquisition Device (LAD). ​It is what allows
children to attend to language and develop an appropriate grammar quickly, without effort,
and with no specialized input.
There is, however, according to some researchers, a time limit, also known as a
critical ​or ​sensitive period, ​around puberty when acquisition becomes more difficult.

Connectionism
This approach, also known as ​Parallel Distributed Processing (PDP) ​approach,
generally holds that processing is carried out by nodes that are connected to other nodes in
a network by pathways that vary in their strength. They argue that children can learn
regularities of the language through an inductive process based on exposure to many
examples.
It ​is based on the principle of active learning. This work led to Thorndike's Laws.
According to these Laws, learning is achieved when an individual is able to form
associations between a particular stimulus and a response.

Social Interactionism
Social interactionists point to the importance of child-caregiver interactions in the
language acquisition process. They do not deny the existence of some LAD, but stress the
role of ​Language Acquisition Support System (LASS).
They have focused on ​child-directed speech, ​in which caregivers gives them simple
sentences with higher pitch and exaggerated intonation, and also as concrete as they can to
help them master more complex language forms.
Taking part in conversation allows them to learn about turning-taking and become
aware of the communicative nature of language. In this way, the caregiver supports, or
scaffolds​, the child’s emerging linguistic system.

Extra information: There has been a very long-standing debate concerning the relative
importance of ​nature and ​nurture in human development, with the naturists stressing the
importance of biological and genetic programming and the nurturists pointing to the role of
the environment.

Second Language Acquisition

Theories or second language acquisition

A ​second language refers to any language learned after one’s first language no
matter how many others have been learned. ​Second language learning refers to the
process of acquiring a non-native language that is spoken by the community where the
learner is living. ​Foreign language learning refers to the process of acquiring a non-native
language that is not spoken by the surrounding community.
 Behaviourism
It refers to the acquisition of the language through repetition and reinforcement.
Teachers often required learners to repeat linguistic forms in production drills without
necessarily paying much attention to meaning.
Behaviorists also claimed that errors could be attributed to ​interference ​from the
learner’s first language. Differences between learners’ L1 and L2 were thought to be the
main source of the difficulty. This became formally known as the ​contrastive analysis
hypothesis (CAH).

Comprehensible input and the natural order hypothesis

Researchers began to view language as a more complex interaction of internal and
external factors. For that reason, Stephen Krashen elaborated “Comprehensible input”, that
is, learners need to be exposed to an input that has to be slightly more advanced.
He also argues that there is a natural order in the acquisition. This natural hypothesis
is better known as Morpheme order studies. It claims that if the input is right, learners will
acquire the target language in a specific order.

The interaction hypothesis

It suggests that second language development can be facilitated when learners

attempt to communicate with other speakers in the L2, experience difficulties, and engage in
further interaction with their interlocutors to resolve their problems. During the interaction,
learners also need to produce output that is comprehensible to others. This is known as the
modified output.

Socioculturalism
It focuses on the impact of interpersonal and social aspects of interaction on
language learning. It claims that all cognitive development stems from interactions between
individuals. For example, when a less skilled L2 learner and a more expert make an
interaction. The second one acts as a scaffolding. The expert can provide the learner with
the opportunity to develop and practice a particular linguistic skill, enabling the learner to
accomplish more in collaboration with other than she could by herself.

Universali Grammar
 It is best known as Nativism and it focuses on the innate linguistic knowledge, or
universal grammar, ​believed to guide all language learning. Nativists argue that it is not
possible for children to deduce the complex lexical structures through the limited instruction
parents offer. For that reason, they posit that the only logical explanation for children’s
language acquisition is an innate language endowment guiding the process a ​language
acquisition device​ (LAD) in the brain.
Their claim is that UG is no longer available after a certain age. Once a learner has
passed a critical period for language acquisition, the LAD atrophies and the knowledge it
contains is no longer available to help guide the acquisition process. Instead, learners must
rely on general learning mechanisms such as memorization to make what progress they
can.

Frequency-based approaches
Argues that LAD may be more like an emergent than an innate endowment. Regular
patterns of actions, events, and objects that may involve learning through simple associative
processes where they occur frequently and where they occur infrequently. They form such
association and apply regularities to first and second language acquisition.

Individual differences in second language acquisition

This section is about the processes and stages characteristic of all learners.

First language: It points out that learners often consciously ​transfer ​or employ knowledge
about the L1 in their attempts to communicate in the L2. For example, rules for adverb
placement in French and English are similar but not identical.

Age: ​It points out that there exists a Critical Period Hypothesis that occurs before puberty
and when children reach native-like fluency. Since then, a number of neurological changes
like lateralization and myelination produce loss of complete access to UG. But, it is possible
to adults to achieve the same level. All depends on motivation and the input that they
receive.

Gender: ​Females tend to use more language learning strategies than males. Males indicate
non-understanding more often than females. Males, when interacting with females, tend to
talk more and dominate the conversation.
Working Memory: ​Is the ability to store and process information at the same time. Learners’
working memory capacities affect their ability to learn L2 vocabulary and grammatical rules.,
as well as their L2 reading ability and listening proficiency.

Motivation: ​When learners are willing to devote more time and energy to achieving fluency
in the target language. This is a complex, multidimensional construct and involves
instrumental orientations and practical reasons.

Context of second language learning: ​It refers to linguistic context such as the topic of the
conversation, the meanings expressed and the person with whom the learner is interacting.
The influence that context can have on the development of particular aspects of the L2 allow
learners to develop strengths and weaknesses.

SLA processes

Attention: ​For second language learners, a conscious attention to linguistic form in the
target language input is necessary for learning to occur,. This is the central claim of the
noticing hypothesis of SLA, ​put forward by Richard Schmidt, it claims that since learners
are exposed to mucho more language input than they can process, some kind of mechanism
is necessary to help them sort through the large volume of language data and eventually to
encode the data into memory.

Developmental sequences: ​Is a series of identifiable stages that L2 learners pass through
in acquiring the second language. Researchers are learned and examining how errores
change over time, for example, the sequences of developmental stages when learning
negation and question formation. Learning a second language involves psycholinguistic
processes that are only minimally influenced by contextual factors and the learner’s L1.

Fossilization: ​It has been argued that language learning typically fossilizes and remains
permanently at a level short of native-like speech. They have suggested the term
stabilization​.

Access to Universal Grammar in Second Language Acquisition

 It is known that some L2 learners could not acquire some things from the environment.
Thi happens in ​Direct Access to UG when knowledge of some aspect of language has
been acquired in an L2 that is not learnable from input, that was not part of the learners’ L1,
and that is unlikely to have been taught by language teachers. For example: Is sam is the
cat that brown? ​The communicative approach and the direct method imply direct access
since they rely on the target language; techniques of grammatical explanation imply no
access and exploit other faculties of the mind
And this is similar what happens with first language acquisition, so it claims that L2
learners have parallel competences in L1 and L2. And also, they may employ the principle of
UG and set the parameters without any reference to their L1 values.
Indirect access to UG says that L2 learning might utilize UG principles and parameters
in the same way in the new language as in the first. That is, L2 knowledge is tied into L1
knowledge. A translation model of teaching implies indirect access in that learner creates L2
competence by relating the L2 constantly to the L1.
​No access to UG: ​A second language can be learnt to some extent from a grammar
book or from drills. On interpretation of no access UG in L2 acquisition is that principals need
to be reinstantiated, parameters to be reset. Clahsen and Muysken say that they cannot
reset parameters, but principles are available for L2 acquisition via the L1. Tsimpli and
Roussou say that principles can be reinterpreted in L2 learning. Greek L2 learners of english
discover that English does not allow null subjects.