chapter two the human capacity for language. introduction in this chapter, we will learn about...

28
Chapter Two The Human capacity for language

Upload: leslie-vivien-leonard

Post on 25-Dec-2015

225 views

Category:

Documents


0 download

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Chapter Two The Human capacity for language. Introduction In this chapter, we will learn about language through psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics

Chapter Two

The Human capacity for language

Page 2: Chapter Two The Human capacity for language. Introduction In this chapter, we will learn about language through psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics

Introduction

• In this chapter, we will learn about language through psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics.

• Psycholinguistics– the study of comprehension and production of language and its development in children.

• Neurolinguistics– the study of human brain mechanisms underlying language– how our brains are organized for language.

Page 3: Chapter Two The Human capacity for language. Introduction In this chapter, we will learn about language through psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics

Our capacity to acquire language

• Humans are cognitively predisposed to acquire language according to Chomsky.

• In other words, children do not learn their first language because we teach it to them.

• Children by the time they reach 4-5 years old, under normal circumstances are able to acquire an extremely complicated grammatical system.

Page 4: Chapter Two The Human capacity for language. Introduction In this chapter, we will learn about language through psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics

What children’s “mistakes” tell us

• Mouses and Footss: Overgeneralizing rules• The process of figuring out a grammatical rule and

applying it generally I called overgeneralization. E.g. bringed and goed, e.g. pg. 31

• Read Language alive: one wug and two.. Wugs• Children’s acquisition of language also provides us

with evidence of UG –set of grammatical rules and principles that are common to all languages.

Page 5: Chapter Two The Human capacity for language. Introduction In this chapter, we will learn about language through psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics

Evidence of UG

• Example #1– Questions formation:-- Who did John see Mary with__? Here we

questioned the object of the preposition with.--Children make many errors e.g, Where the

dog is?; Why I can’t go? They have not developed the adult form of the rule.

-- BUT they never produce this form: Who did John see Mary and __?

Page 6: Chapter Two The Human capacity for language. Introduction In this chapter, we will learn about language through psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics

Cont..

• The fact that young children never make this kind of error (#2) suggests that they already have the relevant grammatical information in their heads, wired into their brains as part of the UG.

• Another error studied by Stephen Crain (watch Youtube)

-- What do you think what’s in there? What do you think what she said?

Page 7: Chapter Two The Human capacity for language. Introduction In this chapter, we will learn about language through psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics

Cont..

• These children “errors” tell us that children do not simply modify their their grammatical rules to conform to the adult version; they create their own versions of grammatical rules and that they don’t learn from pure imitation or correction.

• The example shows that this child’s rule conforms to the way questions are formed in German.

Page 8: Chapter Two The Human capacity for language. Introduction In this chapter, we will learn about language through psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics

Children do not learn by analogy

• According to Chomsky, children do not learn by analogy– learning rules and applying them to other similar expressions; learning through comparison.

• He conducted several experiments: -- We painted the chair green-- We saw the green chairAll these examples of language acquistion in children

show that there’s linguistic hardwiring and UG.

Page 9: Chapter Two The Human capacity for language. Introduction In this chapter, we will learn about language through psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics

Stages of First Language Acquistion

• Children language acquisition follows a predictable sequence.

• The Prelinguistic stage– The early months• The babbling stage– 4-8 months--- same consonants /p,b,t,m,d,n,k,g,s,h,w,j/;

/f,v,l,r/ are infrequently produced.Even at the babbling stage, babies are

predisposed to language.

Page 10: Chapter Two The Human capacity for language. Introduction In this chapter, we will learn about language through psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics

The One-word stage

• 9-18 months• They employ overextension and underextension• Example of overextension—moon for grapefruit

halves, cakes and the letter o, and daddy for all man.

• Underextension—kitty for a particular cat and not for other cats

• Holophrastic stage– one word basically can function as a sentence or proposition. E.g juice, ball, moon.

Page 11: Chapter Two The Human capacity for language. Introduction In this chapter, we will learn about language through psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics

The two-word stage

• 18-24 months• Naming explosion, fast mapping• Combine words into two word utterances, the word

order is consistent but is semantically determined. • See examples on pg. 37• Mama sleep• Kick ball• Kitty bed• Dada boat

Page 12: Chapter Two The Human capacity for language. Introduction In this chapter, we will learn about language through psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics

Cont..

• In this stage, children speak telegraphically• They leave out function words (articles—a, an,

the, prepositions, in, on) and inflectional endings (plural-s, past tense, -ed)

• They rely on content words such as nouns, verbs and adjectives which convey more meanings.

Page 13: Chapter Two The Human capacity for language. Introduction In this chapter, we will learn about language through psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics

The early multiword stage• 24-30 months• Read Language Alive to see the order of grammatical acquisition in

English (p. 38)• From around 2-4, children form questions by placing such question

words such as where and what at the front of the sentence.--Where kitty? What me think?They rely on intonation to form questions, producing utterances such

as;That mine?See doggie? And also the use of negation-- no, allgone, e.g. no eat, no

sit down, no do that

Page 14: Chapter Two The Human capacity for language. Introduction In this chapter, we will learn about language through psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics

The Later Multiword stage

• 30 months and older• Development is so rapid at this stage.• Children produce sentences of varied length and complexity.• Examples on pg. 39-40, the use of why and how, more complex

negative structures, use not in the position after a wider range of auxiliary verbs, consistent with the adult’s version; invert subject and auxiliary verb in questions. See table 2.2 , p.40

• Conclusion: So language like other biological behaviors appears to simply emerge in children when they are exposed to it (Eric Lennerberg) similar to eyesight in cats and flight in birds.

Page 15: Chapter Two The Human capacity for language. Introduction In this chapter, we will learn about language through psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics

A Critical period for language acquisition

• Critical period– the only window for language acquisition– early childhood to pre-puberty

• Is there a critical period for first language acquistion?• According to Eric Lennerberg, yes there is, although it

is a controversial subject.• Watch video on Genie and Victor• Sign language acquisition—a study found that deaf

children exposed to sign language after age 13 systematically differs from the grammar of signers exposed to sign language from birth.

Page 16: Chapter Two The Human capacity for language. Introduction In this chapter, we will learn about language through psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics

Second Language Acquisition

• How does first language acquisition differ from second language acquistion?

• Learning in class vs. immersing in the society.• Learning or acquisition? Depends on the

proficiency one gains in the first language, in the book the author uses SLA-Second language acquisition.

• This differs from bilingualism– simultaneous acquisition of two languages

Page 17: Chapter Two The Human capacity for language. Introduction In this chapter, we will learn about language through psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics

Interlanguage grammar

• The grammar that is influenced by both the first language (L1) and second language (L2) and has features of each.

• The speakers transfers the L1 phonology or syntactic rules to L2. (e.g. Hindi, French, Japanese)

Page 18: Chapter Two The Human capacity for language. Introduction In this chapter, we will learn about language through psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics

Social aspects of SLA

• A crucial part of learning a second language is social.• Adults are more conscious of the cultural codes and

rules which can both help or hinder the language learning process.

• L2 learners also have been exposed to metalanguage a way of talking about language that we often learn in school.

• Motivation—we learn a second language for a specific reason; integrated vs. instrumental motivation

Page 19: Chapter Two The Human capacity for language. Introduction In this chapter, we will learn about language through psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics

SLA and UG

• An important difference between L1 and L2 acquisition is the role of UG.

• Do we have less access to UG when learning a 2nd language?

• Is that why learning a 2nd language as an adult more difficult than as a child?

Page 20: Chapter Two The Human capacity for language. Introduction In this chapter, we will learn about language through psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics

Two Native Languages: Bilingualism

• Bilingualism– simultaneous acquisition of more than one language

• Misconceptions of Bilingualism (myths)-- Bilingual speakers can’t keep the two

languages they speak straight.--Codeswitching means that speakers don’t

know either language very well.

Page 21: Chapter Two The Human capacity for language. Introduction In this chapter, we will learn about language through psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics

Our capacity to create language

• Our spontaneous creation of new languages—called language genesis– is another piece of evidence for our innate linguistic ability

• Pidgins—a simplified non-native “contact” language that develops to enable speakers of distinct languages to communicate. (p. 48 for characteristics of pidgin)

• Creoles– native language with full grammatical complexity that develops over time from a pidgin (Haitian creole, Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea)

• Pidgins and Creoles also are evidences of innate human capacity to create language.

Page 22: Chapter Two The Human capacity for language. Introduction In this chapter, we will learn about language through psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics

Language and the Brain

• Our capacity for language is somewhat separate from our other cognitive abilities.

• Specific Language Impairment– a disorder in which children do not acquire language in a normal way but are otherwise not cognitively impaired.

• Linguistic savants—Christopher (watch youtube) who is linguistically gifted but whose other cognitive abilities are below average.

• Williams syndrome—rare genetic disorder that involves severe retardation, distinct physical characteristics, and uniquely expressive language ability

Page 23: Chapter Two The Human capacity for language. Introduction In this chapter, we will learn about language through psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics

A language center in the brain?

• Neurolinguistics—how the brain is structured for language

• Brain– the organ encased in our skulls, an organ made up of more than 100 billion neurons which controls virtually everything we do.

• Localization– theory that different parts of the brain are associated with or control particular behaviors and functions– Phrenology—personality traits and bumps on the skull (watch youtube on Phineas Gage)

Page 24: Chapter Two The Human capacity for language. Introduction In this chapter, we will learn about language through psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics

Cont..

• Damage to brain particularly to the frontal lobe of the left hemisphere experience language disorder and deficits

• Two major types of disorders are Broca’s aphasia and Wernicke’s aphasia.

• Broca’s aphasia– labored speech and general agrammatism (omit function words, inflectional endings– function words are stored differently than content words)

• Wernicke’s aphasia– fluent speech that makes little sense

Page 25: Chapter Two The Human capacity for language. Introduction In this chapter, we will learn about language through psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics

Cont..

• Language is lateralized in the left side of the brain.• Also, certain regions are associated with specific linguistic

behaviors.• Agrammatism-trauma to Broca’s area– word order does

not conform to grammatical rules of language• Wernicke’s aphasia—speaking fluently with appropriate

word order in sentences that make little sense. (see e.g. on pg 56, 57)

• Anomia—aphasia that affects the semantic classes of words. People with anomia cant find words and will substitute or use circumlocations, e.g. wing for bird.

Page 26: Chapter Two The Human capacity for language. Introduction In this chapter, we will learn about language through psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics

More evidence for lateralization

• Dichotic listening—method of testing processing of linguistic stimuli, wherein people hear different sounds in two ears simultaneously.

• Brain imaging• Corpus callosum— a bundle of fibers which transmits

information between the two hemispheres.• The brain is controlled contralaterally, meaning that

sensory information is received in the opposite side of the brain from the side of the body for which it is sent.

Page 27: Chapter Two The Human capacity for language. Introduction In this chapter, we will learn about language through psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics

Cont..

• Left hemisphere is the dominant side for language

• Spilt- brain patients—severed corpus callosum usually to relieve epileptic seizures

• Gazzaniga conducted an experiment with spilt-brain patients.

• Objects put in the right hand can be named without a problem, but objects put in the left hand can’t be named.

Page 28: Chapter Two The Human capacity for language. Introduction In this chapter, we will learn about language through psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics

Brain imaging

• PET, MRI and EEGs are used for studying brain activity while the person being tested performs specific tasks.