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1  Second  Language  (L2)  Acquisition:  the  acquisition  of  a  second  language  by  someone  who  has  already  acquired  a  first  language.  Bilingual  language  acquisition:  the  more  or  less  simultaneous  acquisition  of  two  languages  beginning  in  infancy.2    Theories  of  Bilingual  Development  ➢  The  unitary  system  hypothesis:  The  child  constructs  only  one  lexicon  and  one  grammar.  The  reason  children  may  not  have  the  same  set  of  words  in  both  languages  is  that  they  use  their  two  languages  in  different  circumstances  and  acquire  the  vocabulary  appropriate  to  each  situation.  3  ➢The  separate  systems  hypothesis:the  bilingual  child  builds  a  distinct  lexicon  and  grammar  for  each  language.  How  can  we  explain  the  mixed  utterances? 1.  Children  mix  because  they  have  lexical  gaps. 2.  It  is  similar  to  codeswitching  used  by  many  adult  bilinguals  4  Two  Monolinguals  in  One  Head  Bilingual  children  develop  their  grammars  along  the  same  lines  as  monolingual  children.  They  go  through  a  babbling  stage,  a  holophrastic  stage,  a  telegraphic  stage,  and  so  on.    From  a  grammar  –  making  point  of  view,  the  bilingual  child  is  like  “two  monolinguals  in  one  head.”  5  The  Role  of  Inputin  helping  the  child  to  separate  the  two  languages  • One  input  condition  that  is  thought  to  promote  bilingual  development  is  “one  person,  one  language”.  It  means  keeping  the  two  languages  separate  in  the  input  will  make  it  easier  for  the  child  to  acquire  each  without  influence  from  the  other.  

• Another  condition  is  that  the  child  should  receive  roughly  equal  amounts  of  input  in  the  two  languages  to  achieve  native  proficiency  in  both.  

6  Cognitive  Effects  of  Bilingualism  Many  early  studies  showed  that  bilingual  children  did  worse  than  monolingual  children  in  IQ  and  other  cognitive  and  educational  tests.  Bilingual  children  seem  to  have  better  metalinguistic  awareness,  which  refers  to    a  speaker’s  conscious  awareness  about  language  -­‐  the  ability  to  objectify  language  as  a  process  as  well  as  a  thing.  7  The  fundamental  difference  hypothesis  of  L2  Acquisition  It  is  believed  that  L2  acquisition  is  something  different  from  L1  acquisition.  However,  L2  acquisition  is  like  L1  acquisition.  Learners  go  through  the  same  stages.  They  construct  grammars.    8  Interlanguage  The  rule-­‐governed  language  that  the  learner  constructs  between  L1  and  L2.    It  is  influenced  by  both  L1  and  L2  Transfer    The  use  of  first  language  features  or  rules  in  the  second  language.  9  Factors  Affecting  Second  Language  Acquisition  ➢Age  ➢Motivation  ➢  Cognitive  Style  10  Critical  period  for  L2  Acquiition  L2  acquisition  abilities  decline  with  age  and  there  are  “sensitive  periods”  for  the  native-­‐like  mastery  of  certain  aspects  of  the  L2.  The  sensitive  period  for  phonology  is  the  shortest.  To  achieve  native-­‐like  pronunciation  of  an  L2  requires  exposure  during  childhood.  Other  aspects  of  language,  such  as  syntax,  may  have  a  larger  window.

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1 LANGUAGE ACQUISITION Language is extremely complex. All children are able to quickly and effortlessly extract the intricate system of rules from the language the hear around them and thereby “reinvent” the grammar their of parents. 2 Language was viewed as a kind verbal behavior, and it was proposed that children learn language through

imitation, reinforcement, analogy, and similar processes. B. F. Skinner claims that language is learned; it is basically a stimulus-response mechanism. 3 Noam Chomsky claims that language is innate, a cognitive system that could not be acquired by behaviorist principles. Noam Chomsky convincingly presented twelve types of evidence that language is basically innate, not learned. 4 1.Language is very complex. Consider the complexity of any complete English grammar book. 2. The model for language learning is imperfect. Mothers use caregiver language; friends use baby talk;

children use modified grammar. 3. All humans learn a spoken language (NOTE: Chomsky does not claim that written language is innate). 5 4. No animals learn a human-type language. However, some animal languages are impressive. 5. There are many human-language universals, and these are only a small subset of semiotic possibilities; computer languages don’t have these same natural-language constraints (embedding, cross-over, A over A, etc.). 6. There is a critical age for foreign-language acquisition (around puberty). 7. There is a sequence in language acquisition (holophrastic, pivot-open, telegraphic, adult). 6 8. Human language is rule-governed (like mathematics). It is not memorized. 9. Human language is very creative. Except for small-talk, almost all sentences are novel. 10. Human language has duality. A limited number of symbols are reused in many different ways. 7 11. Human language has displacement in Time, Place, and Truth. 12. Human language is not predictable. Given a particular stimulus, there is a much wider range of responses for humans than for animals. 8 Is the language acquisition process the same for all children?

All children acquire language in the same way. In order to understand child language acquisition, we need to keep two very important things in mind:1. children do not use language like adults. Acquiring language is a gradual, lengthy process, and they shouldn't be corrected, because errors will disappear in time.2. Second, children will learn to speak the dialect(s) and language(s) that are used around them.

9 Theories about how children aquire language: ▪Imitation ▪Correction & Reinforcement (behaviorist) ▪Analogy ▪Connectionism (behavior, analogy, & reinforcement) ▪Structured Input ▪Innateness Hypothesis """"""""""""

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10 First Language Acquisition Stages

11 The Logical Problem of Language Acquisition Children acquire the grammar of their language—a SYSTEM of RULES for Syntax and Morphology and Phonology, etc. with input that is “…incomplete, noisy, and unstructured. The utterances include slips of the tongue, false starts, ungrammatical and incomplete sentences, and no information as to which utterances heard are well formed and which are not.” 12

THE INNATENESS HYPOTHESIS The Innateness Hypothesis Linguists believe that children are equipped with an innate template or blueprint for language (referred to as Universal Grammar) and that this blueprint aids the child in the task of constructing a grammar of his language. 13 Development of Grammar ◆ Acquisition of Phonology ◆ Acquisition of Word Meaning ◆ Acquisition of Morphology ◆ Acquisition of Syntax ◆Acquisition of Pragmatics 14 The Development of Grammar Phonology: The sound system of a language; the component of a grammar that indicates the inventory of

sounds (phonetic and phonemic units) and rules for their combination and pronunciation; the study of the sound systems of all languages.

• First words are generally monosyllabic with CV (consonant-vowel) form.

• Children acquire the small set of sounds that are common to all languages before the sounds that are specific to child’s language.

• Acquisition begins with vowel sounds

• Manner of articulation: Nasals (m, n), glides (j, w), stops (p,t,k), liquids (l,r), fricatives (f), and affricates (t,d).

• Place of articulation: labials (lips), velars (back part of the tongue against the soft palate), alveolars (tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge), and palatals (tongue raised against the hard palate).

• Can comprehend more phonological contrasts than they can produce. (wabbit – ring, wing)

Stage Typical Age Description

Babbling 6-8 months Repetitive CV patterns

One-word stage or holophrastic stage

9-18 months Single open-class words or word stems

Two-word stage 18-24 months "mini-sentences" with simple semantic relations

Telegraphic stage or early multiword stage

24-30 months "Telegraphic" sentence structures of lexical rather than functional or grammatical morphemes

Later multiword stage 30+ months Grammatical or functional structures emerge

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15 The Acquisition of Word Meaning

• Intuitively we know children learn words when we label objects. • Children overextend words by calling all men daddy. • After child acquired about 75-100 words, begin to narrow the meanings. • Underextension – when children apply a word like “bird” only to family pet but not to animals in

trees outside. • Children learn about fourteen words a day for the first six years of life! • Syntactic bootstrapping is when children use syntax and context clues to determine word

meaning. 16 The Acquisition of Morphology

Morphology: The study of the structure of words; the component of the grammar that includes the rules of word formation.

• Overgeneralization is evidence of “rule learning”, when children use terms like bringed, goed…we know they are not using imitation to acquire language.

• Children usually go through 3 phases of acquisition of irregular forms of verbs o Phase 1 – child uses correct form (brought) o Phase 2 – when child forms rules for past tense and applies the rule to all verbs (bringed) o Phase 3 – child understands past tense and knows there are exceptions to the rule. They

use (brought) again but now understand the root of the word is bring. Children acquiring other language may also have to learn number and gender rules. 17

The Acquisition of Syntax • In a study done on children, infants tend to look longer at videos of the sentences they hear.

Results show that children as young as 17 months can understand the differences between sentences

o i.e. "The dog is chasing the cat." vs."The cat is in the tree." • Around the age of 2, children start to put words together.

o These 2 word sentences have clear syntactic and semantic relations. ▪ i.e. "mommy sock" (noun noun) expresses a subject + object relation [Mommy has

my sock] • Telegraphic speech occurs as children create multiword utterances. During this stage, they tend to

leave out auxiliaries, function words, and determiners. But the sentences contain the required words for basic understanding.

o i.e. "Daddy build house." • Between ages 2 years 6 months and 3 years 6 months, a "language explosion" occurs.

18 The Acquisition of Pragmatics

• Birth to 9 months o looking/listening to speaker (eye contact) o smiles/coos/vocalizes in response to a voice o enjoys being played with o Recognizes familiar people

• 9-1 year 1/2 months o Shakes head no, Waves o reaches to request objects o comments by pointing o teases, scolds, warns using gestures

• 1.5 years - 3 years o Verbal turn-taking o Expresses emotion

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o 2 word phrases

• 3 years - 5 years o Pretend play o longer dialogue

19 Sixteen month-old JP’s Vocabulary

[/aw] not [s:] aerosol spray [bÃ/]/[mÃ/] up [sju:] shoe [da] dog [haj] hi [i/o]/[si/o] Cheerios [sr] shirt / sweater [sa] sock [sQ:]/[«sQ:] what’s that?/hey, look [aj]/[Ãj] light [ma] mommy [baw]/[daw] down [dQ] daddy "20 Acquisition Order of Sounds Manner Place of Articulation of Articulation Nasals Labials Glides Velars Stops Alveolars Liquids Palatals Fricatives Affricates 21 Perception and Production

Linguist Neil Smith and his 2-year-old son Father: What does [maws] mean? Amahl: Like a cat. Father: Yes, what else? Amahl: Nothing else Father: It’s part of your head. Amahl: [fascinated] Father: [touching Amahl’s mouth] What’s this? Amahl: [maws] 22 Simplifying the Sounds of a Language [ pun ] spoon [ peyn ] plane [ tIs ] kiss [ taw ] cow [ tin ] clean [ pol«r ] stroller [ majtl ] Michael [ dajt«r ] diaper [ pati ] Papi [ mani ] Mommy [ b«rt ] Bert [ b«rt ] (big) Bird

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23 The Problem of Acquiring Meaning

“A child who observes a cat sitting on a mat also observes…a mat supporting a cat, a mat under a cat, a floor supporting a mat and a cat, and so on. If the adult now says. ‘The cat is on the mat’ even while pointing to the cat on the mat, how is the child to choose among these interpretations of the situation?”

24 Innate Bias in Acquiring Word Meaning 1. Whole object principle 2. Form over color principle 3. Everything has a name 4. Each thing has only one name 25 Stages of Irregular Verb Acquisition Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 broke breaked broke brought bringed brought went goed went 26 Acquisition of Morphology TOM: Where’s Mommy? CHILD: Mommy goed to the store. TOM: Mommy goed to the store? CHILD: NO! (annoyed) Daddy, I say it that way, not you. CHILD: You readed some of it too…she readed all the rest. DAN: She read the whole thing to you, huh? CHILD: Nu-uh, you read some. DAN: Oh, that’s right, yeah. I readed the beginning of it. CHILD: Readed? (annoyed surprise) Read! (pronounced / rEd /) DAN: Oh, yeah, read. CHILD: Will you stop that, Papa? "27 Morpheme Acquisition Order -ing in, on -s (REGULAR PLURAL) -s (1st PERS SINGULAR PRESENT) ’s (POSSESSIVE) 28 Two-Word Sentences allgone sock hi Mommy bye bye boat allgone sticky more wet it ball Katherine sock dirty sock

29 Chapter 7 Homework (Exercise 5, pp. 370-371) 1. don’t [ dot ] simplification: ConCl 2. skip [ kHIp ] simplify: ConsClust 3. shoe [ su ] substitute 4. that [ dQt ] substitute 5. play [ pHe ] simplify: ConsClust 6. thump [ dÃp ] substitute & simplify 7. bath [ bQt ] substitute 8. chop [ tHap ] substitute/simplify

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9. kitty [ kIdi ] ?? 10. light [ wajt ] substitute 11. dolly [ dawi ] substitute 12. grow [ go ] simplify: ConsClust "30 Chapter 7 Homework (Exercise 7, p. 371) Adult Form Child form a. children childs b. went goed c. better gooder d. best goodest e. brought bringed f. sang singed g. geese gooses h. worst baddest i. knives knifes j. worse badder "Assignment

Exercise 3: Chapter 7 in Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., & Hyams, N. (2011). An Introduction to Language. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, p. 369

Resources Crain, S. & Pietroski, P. (2001). Nature, Nurture and Universal Grammar. Linguistics And Philosophy, 24(2), 139-186. "Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., & Hyams, N. (2007). An Introduction to Language. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Publishing. "Hill, J. D. & Flynn, K. M. (2006). Classroom Instruction That Works with English Language Learners. [Retrieved] 5/28/2012, [from] http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/106009/chapters/The-Stag es-of-Second-Language-Acquisition.aspx. "Stages of Language Acquisition in Children. (n.d). [Retrieved]5/28/2012 [from] http://www.ling.upenn/edu/courses/ Fall_2003/ling001/acquisition.html "

L.R. Gleitman and E. Wanner. 1982. Language Acquisition: The State of the State of the Art. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 10.] [Reference not given in 2009, 9th ed.; given in 2003.] "

Steven Pinker. Words and Rules. New York: Basic Books, 1999, pp. 199-200.

"

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1  The  Human  Mind  at  Work:Human  Language  Processing  Psycholinguistics  is  concerned  with  linguistic  performance  or  processing,  which  is  the  use  of  linguistic  knowledge  (competence)  in  speech  production  and  comprehension.  2  Comprehension  Comprehension,  the  process  of  understanding  an  utterance,  requires  the  ability  to  access  the  mental  lexicon  to  match  the  words  in  the  utterance  to  their  meanings.  Comprehension  begins  with  the  perception  of  the  acoustic  speech  signal.  3  The  speech  signal  can  be  described  in  terms  of  the  fundamental  frequency  of  the  sounds,  perceived  as  pitch;  the  intensity,  perceived  as  loudness;  and  the  quality,  perceived  as  differences  in  speech  sounds,  such  as  between  an  [i]  and  an  [a].  The  speech  wave  can  be  displayed  visually  as  a  spectrogram,  sometimes  called  a  voiceprint.  In  a  spectrogram,  vowels  exhibit  dark  bands  where  frequency  intensity  is  greatest.  4  Speech  Perception  and  Comprehension  The  speech  signal  is  a  continuous  stream  of  sounds.  Listeners  have  the  ability  to  segment  the  stream  into  linguistic  units  and  to  recognize  acoustically  distinct  sounds  as  the  same  linguistic  unit.  5  If    you  heard  someone  say                              The  cat  chased  the  rat  and  you  perceived  the  sounds  as                            [ð  ə  kʰ  æ  ʔ  tʃʰ  e  s  t  ð  ə  r  æ  t]  a  lexical  look-­‐up  process  would  lead  you  to  conclude  that  an  event  concerning  a  cat,  a  rat,  and  the  activity  of  chasing  had  occurred.  You  could  know  this  only  by  segmenting  the  words   in   the  continuous  speech  signal,  analyzing  them  into  their  phonological  word  units,  and  matching  these  units  to  similar  strings  stored  in  your  lexicon.  6  Bottom-­‐up  and  Top-­‐down  Models  The  perception  of  the  speech  signal  is  necessary  but  not  sufficient  for  the  comprehension  of  speech.  To  get  the  full  meaning  of  an  utterance,  we  must  parse  the  string  into  syntactic  structures,  because  meaning  depends  on  word  order  and  constituent  structure  in  addition  to  the  meaning  of  words.  Some  psycholinguists  believe  we  use  both  top-­‐down  processing  and  bottom-­‐up  processing  during  comprehension.  7  Top-­‐down  processing  uses  semantic  and  syntactic  information  in  addition  to  the  lexical  information  drawn  from  the  sensory  input  For  example,  upon  hearing  the  determiner  the,  the  speaker  begins  constructing  an  NP  and  expects  that  the  next  word  could  be  a  noun,  as  in  the  boy.  In  this  instance  the  knowledge  of  phrase  structure  would  be  the  source  of  information.  bottom-­‐up  processing   uses   only   information   contained   in   the   sensory   input.   According   to   this  model   the   speaker  waits  until  hearing  the  and  boy  before  constructing  an  NP,  and  then  waits  for  the  next  word,  and  so  on.  8  Lexical  Access  and  Word  Recognition  ➢  Semantic  Priming  

➢  Naming  Task  

➢  Shadowing  Task  

9  Psycholinguistic  experimental  studies  are  aimed  at  uncovering  the  units,  stages,  and  processes  involved  in  linguistic  performance.  Several  experimental  techniques  have  proven  to  be  very  helpful.  In  a  lexical  decision  task,  subjects  are  asked   to   respond   to   spoken  or  written   stimuli  by  pressing  a  button   if   they   consider   the   stimulus   to  be  a  word.   In  naming  tasks,  subjects  read  from  printed  stimuli.    10  The   measurement   of   response   times,   RTs,   in   naming   and   other   tasks   shows   that   it   takes   longer   to   process   less  frequent  words   compared   to  more   frequent  words,   longer   to   produce   irregularly   spelled   versus   regularly   spelled  

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words,  and  longer  to  pronounce  nonsense  forms  as  opposed  to  real  words.  In  addition  to  using  behavioral  data  such  as  RT,  researchers  can  now  use  various  measures  of  electrical  brain  activity  to  learn  about  language  processing.  For   example,  more   commonly   used  words   such   as   car   are   responded   to  more   quickly   than  words   that  we   rarely  encounter  such  as  fig.  Subjects  read  irregularly  spelled  words  like  dough  and  steak  just  slightly  more  slowly  than  regularly  spelled  words  like  doe  and  stake.  11  A  word  may  prime  another  word  if  the  words  are  related  in  some  way  such  as  semantically,  phonetically,  or  even  through  similar  spelling.  For  example,  making  a  lexical  decision  on  the  word  doctor  will  be  faster  if  you  just  made  a  lexical  decision  on  nurse   than   if  you   just  made  one  on  a  semantically  unrelated  word  such  as   flower.  This  effect   is  known  as  semantic  priming:  we  say  that  the  word  nurse  primes  the  word  doctor.  12  Syntactic  Processing  In  addition  to  recognizing  words,  the  listener  must  figure  out  the  syntactic  and  semantic  relations  among  the  words  and  phrases  in  a  sentence,  that  is  “parsing.”    Listeners  actively  build  a  phrase  structure  representation  of  a  sentence  as  they  hear  it.  They  must  therefore  decide  for  each  “incoming”  word  what  its  grammatical  category  is.  Many  sentences  present  temporary  ambiguities,  such  as  sentences  in  which  the  phrase  structure  rules  allow  two  possible  attachments  of  a  constituent,  as  illustrated  by  the  following  example:                              After  the  child  visited  the  doctor  prescribed  a  course  of  injections.  13  Experiments   that   track   eye   movements   of   people   when   they   read   such   sentences   show   that   there   may   be  attachment  preferences   that  operate   independently  of   the  context  or  meaning  of   the  sentence.  When  the  mental  syntactic  parser  receives  the  word  doctor,  it  attaches  it  as  a  direct  object  of  the  verb  visit  in  the  subordinate  clause.  For  this  reason,  subjects  experience  a  strange  perceptual  effect  when  they  encounter  the  verb  prescribed.  They  must  “change  their  minds”  and  attach  the  doctor  as  subject  of  the  main  clause  instead.  Sentences  that  induce  this  effect  are  called  garden  path  sentences.  14  There  are  two    principles  that  have  been  suggested  to  deal  with  syntactic  ambiguity:  minimal  attachment  and  late  closure.  Minimal  attachment  says,  “Build  the  simplest  structure  consistent  with  the  grammar  of  the  language.”  In  the  string  The  horse  raced  past  the  barn  fell,   the  simpler  structure   is  the  one   in  which  the  horse   is  the  subject  and  raced  the  main  verb;  the  more  complex  structure  is  similar  to  The  horse  that  was  raced.  .  .  ..  15  The  second  principle,   late  closure,  says  “Attach   incoming  material   to  the  phrase  that   is  currently  being  processed.”  Late  closure  is  exemplified  in  the  following  sentence:                        The  doctor  said  the  patient  will  die  yesterday.  Readers   often   experience   a   garden   path   effect   at   the   end   of   this   sentence   because   they   interpret   yesterday   as  modifying  will  die,  which  is  semantically  inappropriate.  Late  closure  explains  this:  The  hearer  encounters  yesterday  as  he   is   processing   the   embedded   clause,   of   which   die   is   the   main   verb.   On   the   other   hand,   the   verb   said,   which  yesterday  is  supposed  to  modify,  is  part  of  the  root  clause.  The  hearer  must  therefore  backtrack  to  attach  yesterday  to  the  clause  containing  said.  16  Another  technique  is  shadowing,  in  which  subjects  repeat  as  fast  as  possible  what  is  being  said  to  them.  Subjects  often   correct   errors   in   the   stimulus   sentence,   suggesting   that   they   use   linguistic   knowledge   rather   than   simply  echoing  sounds  they  hear.  fast  shadowers  often  correct  speech  errors  or  mispronunciations  unconsciously  and  add  inflectional  endings  if  they  are  absent.  Even  when  they  are  told  that  the  speech  they  are  to  shadow  includes  errors  and  they  should  repeat  the  errors,  they  are  rarely  able  to  do  so.    17  Speech  Production  The  units  and  stages  in  speech  production  have  been  studied  by  analyzing  spontaneously  produced  speech  errors.  Anticipation  errors,  in  which  a  sound  is  produced  earlier  than  in  the  intended  utterance,  and  spoonerisms,  named  after  William  Archibald  Spooner,  in  which  sounds  or  words  are  exchanged  or  reversed,  show  that  we  do  not  produce  one  sound  or  one  word  or  even  one  phrase  at  a  time.  Rather,  we  construct  and  store  larger  units  with  their  syntactic  structures  specified.  """

LA �10

18  Indeed,  speech  errors  show  that  features,  segments,  words,  and  phrases  may  be  conceptualized  well  before  they  are  uttered.  This  point  is   illustrated  in  the  following  examples  of  speech  errors  (the  intended  utterance  is  to  the  left  of  the  arrow;  the  actual  utterance,  including  the  error,  is  to  the  right  of  the  arrow):  1.  The  hiring  of  minority  faculty.  →  The  firing  of  minority  faculty.  (The  intended  h  is  replaced  by  the  f  of  faculty,  which  occurs  later  in  the  intended  utterance.)  2.  ad  hoc  →  odd  hack  (The  vowels  /æ/  of  the  first  word  and  /a/  of  the  second  are  exchanged  or  reversed.)  3.  big  and  fat  →  pig  and  vat  (The   values   of   a   single   feature   are   switched:   in   big   [+voiced]   becomes   [–voiced]   and   in   fat   [–voiced]   becomes  [+voiced].)  19  Lexical  Selection  Word  substitutions  and  blends  show  that  words  are  connected  to  other  words  phonologically  and  semantically.  The  production  of  ungrammatical  utterances  also  shows  that  morphological,  inflectional,  and  syntactic  rules  may  be  wrongly  applied  or  fail  to  apply  when  we  speak,  but  at  the  same  time  shows  that  such  rules  are  actually  involved  in  speech  production.  20  Such  blends  are  illustrated  in  the  following  errors:  1.  splinters/blisters  →  splisters  2.  edited/annotated  →  editated  3.  a  swinging/hip  chick  →  a  swip  chick  4.  frown/scowl  →  frowl  These  blend  errors  are  typical  in  that  the  segments  stay  in  the  same  position  within  the  syllable  as  they  were  in  the  target  words.  21  Brain  and  Language  The  attempt  to  understand  what  makes  the  acquisition  and  use  of  language  possible  has  led  to  research  on  the  brain-­‐mind-­‐language  relationship.  Neurolinguistics  is  the  study  of  the  brain  mechanisms  and  anatomical  structures  that  underlie  linguistic  competence  and  performance.  22  The  Human  Brain  The  nerve  cells  that  form  the  surface  of  the  brain  are  called  the  cortex,  which  serves  as  the  intellectual  decision  maker,  receiving  messages  from  the  sensory  organs  and  initiating  all  voluntary  actions.  The  brain  of  all  higher  animals  is  divided  into  two  parts  called  the  cerebral  hemispheres,  which  are  connected  by  the  corpus  callosum,  a  network  that  permits  the  left  and  right  hemispheres  to  communicate.  23  Each  hemisphere  exhibits  contralateral  control  of  functions.  The  left  hemisphere  controls  the  right  side  of  the  body,  and  the  right  hemisphere  controls  the   left  side.  Despite  the  general  symmetry  of  the  human  body,  much  evidence  suggests  that  the  brain  is  asymmetric,  with  the  left  and  right  hemispheres  lateralized  for  different  functions.  24  The  Localization  of  Language  in  the  Brain  An  issue  of  central  concern  has  been  to  determine  which  parts  of  the  brain  are  responsible  for  human  linguistic  abilities.  In  the  early  nineteenth  century,  Franz  Joseph  Gall  proposed  the  theory  of  localization,  which  is  the  idea  that  different  human  cognitive  abilities  and  behaviors  are  localized  in  specific  parts  of  the  brain.  25  Aphasia  The  study  of  aphasia  has  been  an  important  area  of  research  in  understanding  the  relationship  between  brain  and  language.  Aphasia  is  the  neurological  term  for  any  language  disorder  that  results  from  brain  damage  caused  by  disease  or  trauma.  In  the  second  half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  significant  scientific  advances  were  made  in  localizing  language  in  the  brain  based  on  the  study  of  people  with  aphasia.  In  the  1860s  the  French  surgeon  Paul  Broca  proposed  that  language  is  localized  to  the  left  hemisphere  of  the  brain,  and  more  specifically  to  the  front  part  of  the  left  hemisphere  (now  called  Broca’s  area).  26  A  decade  later  Carl  Wernicke,  a  German  neurologist,  described  another  variety  of  aphasia  that  occurred  in  patients  with  lesions  in  areas  of  the  left  hemisphere  temporal  lobe,  now  known  as  Wernicke’s  area.    

LA �11

Language,  then,  is  lateralized  to  the  left  hemisphere,  and  the  left  hemisphere  appears  to  be  the  language  hemisphere  from   infancy  on.  Lateralization   is   the   term  used   to   refer   to   the   localization  of   function   to  one  hemisphere  of   the  brain.  27  The  Linguistic  Characteristics  of  Aphasic  Syndromes  Neurolinguists  have  studied  the  living  brain  as   it  processes  language.  By  studying  split-­‐brain  patients  and  aphasics,  localized  areas  of  the  brain  can  be  associated  with  particular  language  functions.  For  example,  lesions  in  the  part  of  the  brain  called  Broca’s  area  may  suffer   from  Broca’s  aphasia,  which  results   in   impaired  syntax  and  agrammatism  (they  often  leave  out  obligatory  function  words  and  inflections).  Damage  to  Wernicke’s  area  may  result  in  Wernicke’s  aphasia,   in  which   fluent   speakers   produce   semantically   anomalous   utterances,   or   even  worse,   jargon   aphasia,   in  which  speakers  produce  nonsense   forms  that  make  their  utterance  uninterpretable.  Damage  to  yet  different  areas  can  produce  anomia,  a  form  of  aphasia  in  which  the  patient  has  word-­‐finding  difficulties.  28  Language  and    Brain  Development  The  critical-­‐age  hypothesis  assumes  that  language  is  biologically  based  and  that  the  ability  to  learn  a  native  language  develops  within  a  fixed  period,  from  birth  to  middle  childhood.  During  this  critical  period,  language  acquisition  proceeds  easily,  swiftly,  and  without  external  intervention.  After  this  period,  the  acquisition  of  grammar  is  difficult  and,  for  most  individuals,  never  fully  achieved.    However,  it  is  possible  to  acquire  words  and  various  conversational  skills  after  this  point.  This  evidence  suggests  that  the  critical  period  holds  for  the  acquisition  of  grammatical  abilities,  but  not  necessarily  for  all  aspects  of  language.  29  The  Modular  Mind:  Dissociations  of  Language  and  Cognition  The  language  faculty  is  modular.  It  is  independent  of  other  cognitive  systems  with  which  it  interacts.  There  are  children  without  brain  lesions  who  nevertheless  have  difficulties  in  acquiring  language.  They  show  no  other  cognitive  deficits;  they  are  suffering  from  specific  language  impairment  (SLI).  Only  their  linguistic  ability  is  affected,  and  often  only  specific  aspects  of  grammar  are  impaired.    30  

Assignments  "1.  Speech  errors  -­‐  Ex.  1:  ch.8  /  p.  421.  2.    What  are  arguments  and  evidence  that  have  been  put  forth  to  support  the  notion  that  there  are  two  separate  parts  of  the  brain?  """

LA �12

1Language  and  Society  Differences in Language Different  languages   Different  dialects    (AAE)   Lingua  Franca   Pidgins  and  Creoles   Styles     Slang   Jargon  and  Argot  (Register)   Taboo  words   Euphemisms    

2  Dialects          Every  person  has  a  unique  way  of  speaking,  called  an  idiolect.  The  language  used  by  a  group  of  speakers  is  a  dialect.  The  dialects  of  a  language  are  the  mutually  intelligible  forms  of  that  language  that  differ  in  systematic  ways  from  each  other.  Dialects  develop  because  languages  change,  and  the  changes  that  occur  in  one  group  or  area  may  differ  from  those  that  occur  in  another.  Regional  dialects  and  social  dialects  develop  for  this  reason.  Some  differences  in  U.S.  regional  dialects  may  be  traced  to  the  dialects  spoken  by  colonial  settlers  from  England.  Those  from  southern  England  spoke  one  dialect  and  those  from  the  north  spoke  another.  3  It  is  also  not  easy  to  draw  a  distinction  between  dialects  and  languages  on  strictly  linguistic  grounds.  dialects  merge  into  each  other,  forming  a  dialect  continuum.    4          The  study  of  regional  dialects  has  produced  dialect  atlases,  with  dialect  maps  showing  the  areas  where  specific  dialect  characteristics  occur  in  the  speech  of  the  region.  A  boundary  line  called  an  isogloss  delineates  each  area.            Social  dialects  arise  when  groups  are  isolated  socially,  such  as  Americans  of  African  descent  in  the  United  States,  many  of  whom  speak  dialects  collectively  called  African  American  (Vernacular)  English,  which  are  distinct  from  the  dialects  spoken  by  non-­‐Africans.  5  Isoglosses  and  Dialect  Boundaries  Isogloss  is  the  line  which  represents  the  boundary  between  the  areas  with  regard  to  that  one  particular  linguistic  ties.  (e.g.  paper  bag/  paper  sack)  Dialect  Boundary  is  a  more  solid  line  of  a  number  of  isoglosses.    6           Dialect   differences   include   phonological   or   pronunciation   differences   (often   called   accents),   vocabulary  distinctions,   and   syntactic   rule   differences.   The   grammar   differences   among   dialects   are   not   as   great   as   the  similarities,  thus  permitting  speakers  of  different  dialects  to  communicate.             In  many  countries,  one  dialect  or  dialect  group  is  viewed  as  the  standard,  such  as  Standard  American  English  (SAE).  Although  this  particular  dialect  is  not  linguistically  superior,  some  language  purists  consider  it  the  only  correct  form  of  the  language.  Such  a  view  has  led  to  the  idea  that  some  nonstandard  dialects  are  deficient  7  Accent  and  Dialect  Accent  is  the  description  of  aspects  of  pronunciation  which  identify  where  an  individual  speaker  is  from,  regionally  or  socially.    Dialect  describes  the  features  of  grammar  and  vocabulary,  as  well  as  aspects  of  pronunciation.    8  The  Standard  Language  

Standard  English  is  the  variety  which  forms  the  basis  of  printed  English  in  newspapers  and  books,  which  is  used  in  the  mass  media  and  which   is   taught   in  schools.     It   is  more  easily  described   in   terms  of   the  written   language  than  the  spoken  language.  9  African American English ◆ Phonology    ◆ Syntax    ◆Vocabulary  

LA �13

10  AAE Phonology 1 ◆ r-­‐deletion       guard   god       sore     saw  "11  AAE Phonology 2 ◆ l-­‐deletion    (some  speakers)         all     awe       help     hep  ◆  Consonant  cluster  simplification       passed   pass       meant   men  "12  AAE Syntax 1 ◆ Multiple  negatives       He  don’t  know  nothing.  " ◆  Deletion  of  the  verb  ‘be’         SAE       AAE       He  is  nice  /   He  nice          He’s  nice  13  AAE Syntax 2  Habitual  “Be”  In  SAE,  the  sentence  John  is  happy  can  be  interpreted  to  mean  John  is  happy  now  or  John  is  generally  happy.  In  AAE,  this  distinction  is  made  syntactically;  an  uninflected  form  of  be  is  used  if  the  speaker  is  referring  to  habitual  state.  John  be  happy.         “John  is  always  happy.”  John  happy.           “John  is  happy  now.”  *John  be  happy  at  the  moment.  He  be  late.           “He  is  habitually  late.”  He  late.           “He  is  late  this  time.”  *He  be  late  this  time.  "14  Genderlects The  linguist  Deborah  Tannen  calls  the  different  variants  of  English  used  by  men  and  women  “genderlects”  (a  blend  of  gender  and  dialect).  "15  Lakoff’s Women’s Language

More  hedges       I  suppose,  I  would  imagine,  This  is         probably  wrong  but…    More  tag  questions    

    He’s  not  a  very  good  actor,  is  he?    Words  showing  politeness  

    please,  thank  you    Intensifying  adjectives    

    really,  so    "16  Sociolinguistic  Analysis  The   linguist   William   Labov   carried   out   a   sociolinguistic   analysis   in   New   York   City   that   focused   on   the   rule   of   r-­‐dropping/r/,  and  its  use  by  upper-­‐,  middle-­‐,  and    lower-­‐class  speakers.      While  most  American  accents  are  rhotic,  New  York   (and  Boston)  have  distinctive  non-­‐rhotic  accent.  Labov  showed  that  rhotic  use  of  /r/  reflected  social  class  and  aspiration,  and  was  more  widespread  in  younger  speakers  ""

LA �14

17  Languages  in  Contact  In  areas  where  many  languages  are  spoken,  one  language  may  become  a  lingua  franca  to  ease  communication  among  people.  In  other  cases,  where  traders,  or  travelers  need  to  communicate  with  people  who  speak  a  language  unknown  to  them,  a  pidgin  may  develop.  When  a  pidgin  is  widely  used,  and  constitutes  the  primary  linguistic  input  to  children,  it  is  creolized.  18  Pidgins  and  Creoles  A  pidgin  is  a  variety  of  a  language  (e.g.  English)  which  developed  for  some  practical  purpose  (e.g.  trading).  The  English  Pidgins  are  characterized  by  an  absense  of  any  complex  grammatical  morphology  and  a  limited  vocabulary.  E.g.:  plural  -­‐  s  and  possessive  -­‐'s  are  very  rare  in  the  English  Pidgins.  e.g.:  Functional  morphemes  often  take  the  place  of  inflectional  morphemes  found  in  the  source  language.  (instead  of  your  they  use  belong  you)  Your  book  =  buk  bilong  yu  19  When  a  Pidgin  develops  beyond  its  role  as  a  trade  language  and  becomes  the  first  language  of  a  social  community,  it  is  described  as  a  Creole.  A  Creole  develops  as  the  first  language  of  the  children  of  Pidgin  speakers.  Creoles  have  large  numbers  of  native  speakers  and  are  not  restricted  at  all  in  their  uses.  20  Codeswitching  is  shifting  between  languages  within  a  single  sentence  or  discourse  by  a  bilingual  speaker.  It  reflects  both  grammars  working  simultaneously  and  does  not  represent  a  form  of  “broken”  English  or  Spanish  or  whatever  language.  21  Language  in  Use  Besides  regional  and  social  dialects,  speakers  may  use  different  styles,  or  registers,  depending  on  the  context.  Slang  is  not  often  used  in  formal  situations  or  writing  but   is  widely  used  in  speech;  argot  and   jargon  refer  to  the  unique  vocabulary  used  by  particular  groups  of  people  to  facilitate  communication,  provide  a  means  of  bonding,  and  exclude  outsiders.  22  Register  and  Jargon  A  register  is  a  conventional  way  of  using  language  that  is  appropriate  in  a  specific  context,  which  may  be  identified  as  situational  (e.g.  in  church),  occupational  (e.g.  among  lawyers)  or  topical  (e.g.  talking  about  language).  One  of  the  defining  features  of  a  register  is  the  use  of  jargon,  which  is  special  technical  vocabulary  (e.g.  plaintiff,  suffix)  associated  with  a  specific  area  of  work  or  interest.  In  social  terms,  jargon  helps  to  create  and  maintain  connections  among  those  who  see  themselves  as  "insiders"  in  some  way  and  to  exclude  “outsiders."  23  Slang  Whereas  jargon  is  specialized  vocabulary  used  by  those  inside  established  social  groups,  often  defined  by  professional  status  (e.g.  legal  jargon),  slang  is  more  typically  used  among  those  who  are  outside  established  higher-­‐status  groups,  Slang,  or  "colloquial  speech,"  describes  words  or  phrases  that  are  used  instead  of  more  everyday  terms  among  younger  speakers  and  other  groups  with  special  interests,  24  In  all  societies,  certain  acts  or  behaviors  are  frowned  on,  forbidden,  or  considered  taboo.  Attitudes  toward  specific  words   or   linguistic   expressions   reflect   the   views   of   a   culture   or   society   toward   the   behaviors   and   actions   of   the  language  users.  At  times,  slang  words  may  be  taboo  where  scientific  or  standard  terms  with  the  same  meaning  are  acceptable   in   “polite   society.”   Taboo   words   and   acts   give   rise   to   euphemisms,   which   are   words   or   phrases   that  replace  the  expressions  to  be  avoided.    25  Assignment  

1. What  are  the  factors  that  determine  if  a  particular  way  of  speaking  is  considered  to  be  a  dialect  or  a  language?  

2. Ex.  5  /  ch.9:  p.  482.  

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