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Structure of
Language
I. Symbolic: Objects and actions
represented by spoken, signed, or written words Example: $ = money
II. Semantic: Meaningful
linguistic event
Example: Semantic: Gadgets
work around the house
Non-semantic: Gadgets kill passengers from the
eyes
III. Syntax: Specified
permissible order in which words and phrases may be arranged to form sentences. Grammar rules.
John hit the ball --simple,
active declarative
The ball was hit by
John--passive
John did not hit the
ball--negative
Did John hit the ball?
question
John the hit did ball --out
of syntax and non-semantical
IV. Generative: Limited number of
symbols can be combined in an infinite variety of ways generating infinite
number
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of messages. Everyday you
state sentences that you have never heard.
Examples: Hunters shoot
elephants between the eyes
Hunters shoot cattle between the horns
Hunters shoot psycholinguists between the
phonemes
Language Development
THE
BEGINNING:
Phonemes: base of language
hierarchy and is the basic unit
of language;
p in pat, b in bat, w in witch, oy in boy, s in shoe,
English language phonemes: 500,000 words in the English
language there must be an infinitesimal number if
phonemes. Linguist suspect that there are about 100 basic
units. English = 40-45. Some languages 20 and some as many
as 80.
2) Morphemes: smallest unit
of meaning. Phonemes combined
allow us to distinguish
morphemes.
The strange er s talk ed to the play er s
unfriendly (2) morphemes
50,000 English
Doesn't have to be a word.
Remarkable development: 
Age General characteristics
1-5 mo Undifferentiated crying,
cooing
and smiling
6-18 mo Babbling increasing
approximations--Phonemes
10-13 mo first word ma da universal
and
Ukranian objects > actions
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12-18 One word sentence
holophrase
Get Morpheme stage
2 years two word sentence
telegraphic
give food )
2.5 years three words overgeneralization.
runned, hitted, goed
3 years Full sentences
3.5 expanded grammar:
"visiting
relatives can be bothersome
4 years imagery and five word
5
complete syntax for story
telling
Summary
|
I: 0-8 weeks. Children of this age are only capable of reflexive
crying. We also call this the production of vegetative sounds. |
|
II: 8-20 weeks. Cooing and laughter appears in the child's vocal
expression. |
|
III: 20-30 weeks. The child begins with vocal play. This includes
playing with vowels (V) and consonants (C), for example: "AAAOOOOOUUUUIIII". |
IV: 25-50 weeks. The child begins
to babble. There are two kinds of babbling, a) reduplicative babbling CVCV, e.g., "baba", and b)
variegated babbling, e.g., VCV "adu". |
V:9-18 months. The child starts to produce melodic utterances. This
means that stress and intonation are added to the sound chains uttered. |
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|
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DIZZING PACE
Fast mapping: children map a
word onto an underlying concept
with rapidity ball dog and
cookie
Theories of Language
Acquisition:
Behaviorist Skinner
Imitation and reinforcement of verbal behaviors.
5.1.2 Stages
From this time on, children
start to produce entire words. There are three stages, each designating an
increasing
capability to use words for
communicative purposes:
1.Single words and holophrases.
Children may use a word to indicate things or persons, e.g.,
"boo" (=book), or "mama". Also, a single word is
employed to refer to entire contexts. At this stage,
"shoe" could mean "Mama has a nice shoe", "Give me my
shoe" or even "I want to wear my new red shoes when
we go for a walk"!
2.The next stage is the usage of two word phrases. This stage is
also called telegraphic speech. It begins around
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the second birthday, maybe sooner or later, depending on the
child. Examples are "Dada gone", "cut it", "in
car", "here pear". At this stage, children
design so-called pivot grammars. This means that the child has a
preference for certain words as the pivotal (axis) words,
implementing a variety of other words at different
points in time to create phrases:
3.The child begins to form
longer utterances. These lack grammatical correctness at first and are
perceived as,
though meaningful, rather rough assemblies of utterances.
Examples are "dirty hand wash it", "glasses on nose",
"Daddy car coming", or even "car sleeping
bed", which a boy uttered, meaning that the car was now parked in
the garage.
There are many phonological
and grammatical features of speech development, all of which cannot be listed
here. A
characteristic of children's
early language is the omission of consonants at the beginning, ending, or in
consonant
clusters in words. Examples:
"boo" instead of "book", "at" instead of
"cat", or "ticker" instead of "sticker". Children
learn grammatical morphemes,
commonly refered to as "endings", in a certain order. They often
start with the present
progressive
"-ing", as in "Mama talking". More complex forms, such as the contractable auxiliary be (as in "Pat's
going") are learned at
a later point in time.
Nativists Noam Chomsky
overgeneralize holographic
Language Acquisition Devise
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generaizability
fast mapping morphemes
speed and grammar and that
parents don't reinforce syntax
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Interactionist
Bio x environment
Cognitive Piaget
Social Communication
theories
Language and thought:
Whorf: Hypothesis One's
language determines nature of
thought:
Alaskan
Indian
Sexist rulesLanguage can
definitely sway thinking.
80 % chance OF success
20 % chance of failure
Tversky and Kahneman