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LANGUAGEWhat is it? (TRADITIONAL VIEW) communication that uses SYMBOLS

(words stand for things, actions, ideas) Allows us to convey MEANING of information

about things that are…– NOT PRESENTLY IN FRONT OF US– OR ARE “ABSTRACT.”

Language also seems to affect how we think, reason, and relate

SPEECH = is SPOKEN language

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What are the basic cognitive skills of infants?What are the basic cognitive skills of infants?

LANGUAGE

Where does it come from?

GENETIC? IN BORN? “LANGUAGE ACQUISITION DEVICE”? ---- Chomsky

LEARNED? IMITATION? SHAPED BY PARENT FEEDBACK? ----- Skinner

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Language Milestones (Norms)Language Milestones (Norms)

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The “Structure” of LanguageThe “Structure” of Language

5 major components (“structures”) of language :1. PHONOLOGY

2. MORPHOLOGY

3. SYNTAX

4. SEMANTICS

5. PRAGMATICS

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““Structure” of LanguageStructure” of LanguagePHONOLOGY

study of language sounds Language sounds called PHONEMES human voice can produce about 150 phonemes English uses 44 phonemes (ex. ee, oo, th, s, g, etc.) phonemes are either VOICED or NON-VOICED

sounds Maturation needed in vocal areas of mouth/throat before

babies can produce the sounds very well

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CATEGORICAL CATEGORICAL PERCEPTIONPERCEPTION

Says that infants have innate ability to respond differentially to different speech sounds (phonemes), even if they are not in their native language

However, with experience in a given language, some of these discriminations disappear if not used

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““Structure” of LanguageStructure” of LanguageMORPHOLOGY Is study of word construction rules Root words (ex. bat, rake) and their prefixes (im, non,

un, etc.) and suffixes (ing, s, ed, ive, etc.)are called MORPHEMES.

Young kids generally mess up these word construction rules (ex. foots, sheeps, falled, goed, wented)

These morpheme “mess ups” are called OVERREGULARIZATIONS

Chomsky said these overregularizations “prove” we have language rules built-in at birth. Any contrary arguments to this?

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““Structure” of LanguageStructure” of Language

SYNTAX Is study of word arrangements and

combinations to form sentences SURFACE STRUCTURE = all the possible “allowable”

word combinations for a sentence Ex) “Johnny hit the ball.” (ACTIVE surface structure) Ex) “The ball was hit by Johnny.” (PASSIVE structure)

DEEP STRUCTURE = the underlying meaning of the sentence

Passive surface structures make it more difficult to understand the deep structure than active surface structures

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““Structure” of LanguageStructure” of Language

More on SYNTAXDEEP STRUCTUREthe infant’s understanding can be tested in a

clever way: Golinkoff and colleagues presented two video

images to babies and recorded which image was looked at more

The “cue” was either – “Big Bird is tickling Cookie Monster.” OR– “Big Bird is being tickled by Cookie Monster.”

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““Structure” of LanguageStructure” of Language

SEMANTICS

study of how words acquire their meaningThat is, how do we learn that the word BANANA

refers to that fruit? ASSOCIATIVE LEARNING!!

RECEPTIVE comprehension always occurs before EXPRESSIVE

NOUN learning always precedes VERBS, then come ADJECTIVES, then ADVERBS.

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““Structure” of LanguageStructure” of LanguagePRAGMATICS

study of how language use is adjusted to suit the situation to better convey our meaning

Ex.) “Hey, Dude” vs. “Dear Sir”Includes changes in syntax, vocabulary,

intonation (prosody), and “wordiness.”PARENTESE = how parents adjust language for

kids

(see more on next slide)

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““Structure” of LanguageStructure” of Language

“PARENTESE”

Parents change the way they talk when the recipient is a child!

Slower, clearer, pronunciation emphasisSimpler word forms (“choo-choo”)Simplified grammarExpansion of infant utterancesRepetitiveUse higher pitched voice

Time to Time to go home!go home!

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