PSY 369: Psycholinguistics

Language Acquisition

Acquiring language

Student in my psycholinguistics course

Dr. Cutting, language sure is complicated. How do you

expect us to learn all this stuff?

Acquiring language

Student in my psycholinguistics course

2 year old

Whadda’ ya mean, mommy. I can talk.

I can understand what you say. What’s so hard?

Acquiring language

Student in my psycholinguistics course

2 year old

How do we (humans) do it? How do we learn to use this complex behavior?

Overview Some of the major issues

Imitation vs Innateness Born to walk Born to talk?

How much explicit teaching do we get? Commonalities across languages and cultures

Language is complex everywhere Sounds, words, syntax, and more No primitive (simple) languages

Language development is similar everywhere Similar stages

Typical language development

6 Months Responds to his name Responds to human voices without

visual cues by turning his head and eyes

Responds appropriately to friendly and angry tones

Typical language development

12 Months Uses one or more words with meaning

(this may be a fragment of a word) Understands simple instructions,

especially if vocal or physical cues are given

Practices inflection Is aware of the social value of speech

18 Months Has vocabulary of approximately 5-20 words Vocabulary made up chiefly of nouns Some echolalia (repeating a word or phrase

over and over) Is able to follow simple commands

Typical language development

24 Months Can name a number of objects common to his

surroundings Is able to use at least two prepositions Combines words into a short sentence Vocabulary of approximately 150-300 words Volume and pitch of voice not yet well-controlled

Typical language development

36 Months Use pronouns I, you, me correctly Is using some plurals and past tenses Knows at least three prepositions Handles three word sentences easily Has in the neighborhood of 900-1000 words About 90% of what child says should be intelligible Verbs begin to predominate

Typical language development

In the beginning… Prelinguistic communication

and the womb

We experience language before we’re even born

Normal human language uses sounds between 100 and 4000 Hz

Sound travels through skin and fluids too In the womb, sounds up to 1000 Hz

Can’t hear individual words But can hear: Intonation, durations, rhythm, stress

What was that?You’re

mumbling.

In the beginning… Prelinguistic communication

and the womb

We experience language before we’re even born

Mahler (mid 80’s, in France) 4 day old babies Nonnutritive sucking method Played French or Russian Sucking pattern changed if language

was switched Sucking pattern didn’t change if

language wasn’t switched Babies knew (something about) the

languages

In the beginning… Prelinguistic communication

and the womb

We experience language before we’re even born

DeCasper, et al (1994)Fetal heart monitor

In the beginning… Prelinguistic communication

and the womb

We experience language before we’re even born

DeCasper, et al (1994)

Same story Different story

Had mothers read stories everyday to fetuses during 34-38 weeks of pregnancy

After 38th week, two stories were played to the fetuses (but mom couldn’t hear it)

Fetal heart monitor

In the beginning… Prelinguistic communication

and the womb

We experience language before we’re even born

DeCasper, et al (1994)

Same story Different story

Had mothers read stories everyday to fetuses during 34-38 weeks of pregnancy

After 38th week, two stories were played to the fetuses (but mom couldn’t hear it)

Fetal heart monitor

In the beginning… Prelinguistic communication

and the womb

We experience language before we’re even born

DeCasper, et al (1994) Had mothers read stories everyday

to fetuses during 34-38 weeks of pregnancy

After 38th week, two stories were played to the fetuses (but mom couldn’t hear it)

Same story Different story

Decreased fetalheart-rate

Baby learned something about the story

Fetal heart monitor

The early days

After birth

Prelinguistic communication

Phonological differences are key Higher in pitch More variable in pitch More exaggerated intonation

All may help to orient and maintain attention of infant

May help “bootstrap” later learning

Child-directed speech (motherese)

The early days

After birth

Prelinguistic communication

Turn taking behaviors From the movie - breast feeding

“conversations” Parents interpret infant’s

vocalizations as having meaning (also from the movie, Snow’s work)

Early “conversations”

Sharp phoneme boundary

1 ... 3 … 5 … 7

% /ba/

100

0

Eimas et al, (1971) Categorical perception in infants (1 month olds)

The early days: phonology

Young infants can distinguish different phonemes

The early days: phonology

A number of studies suggest that very young infants can perceive between a number of phonemic distinctions (e.g., Kuhl & Meltzhoff, 1997)

Not limited to their language context However, as they age/experience their context

language the ability to perceive some of these distinctions are lost (~10 to 12 months)

Categorical perception in infants

Nature/nurture debate: Are humans “pre-programmed” to distinguish speech

sounds?

1 ... 3 … 5 … 7

% /ba/

100

0

Sharp phoneme boundary

Eimas et al, (1971) Categorical perception in infants (1 month olds)

The early days: phonology

Chinchillas do it too!Kuhl and Miller (1975)

Are they “pre-programmed to perceive human speech?

We’re listening

Prelinguistic communication Prelinguistic gestures (around 8 months)

Demonstration that the infant is trying to communicate in some way

e.g., pointing behaviors Criteria

Waiting Persistence Development of alternative plans

Early speech production

Vocal track differences

Infants vocal tracts are smaller, and initially shaped differently The infant’s tongue fills the entire mouth, reducing the range of movement As the facial skeleton grows, the range for movement increases (which probably

contributes to the increased variety of sounds infants start to produce) May be (in part) why production lags behind comprehension

Infant Adult

Early speech production

The progression of cooing and babbling follows a universal pattern. Role of both nature and nurture

Nature/Biology plays an important role in the emergence of cooing & babbling.

The form of the child’s vocalization is also affected by the linguistic environment.

Early speech production

6 - 8 weeks: cooing 4 - 6 months: babbling

The progression of cooing and babbling follows a universal pattern. Babies, until around 6 months old, can produce

sounds/phonemes that their parents cannot produce or distinguish

Clear consonants and vowels are produced “da”, “gi”

Early speech production

6 - 8 weeks: cooing 4 - 6 months: babbling

The progression of cooing and babbling follows a universal pattern. Babies, until around 6 months old, can produce

sounds/phonemes that their parents cannot produce or distinguish

6 - 7 months: Reduplicated babbling “dada”, “gigi”

Early speech production

6 - 8 weeks: cooing 4 - 6 months: babbling

The progression of cooing and babbling follows a universal pattern. Babies, until around 6 months old, can produce

sounds/phonemes that their parents cannot produce or distinguish

6 - 7 months: Reduplicated babbling 8 - 9 months: CVC clusters may appear

“bod”, “tat”

Early speech production

The progression of cooing and babbling follows a universal pattern. Babies, until around 6 months old, can produce

sounds/phonemes that their parents cannot produce or distinguish

10 or 11 months: Variegated babbling Combining “incomprehensible words”

“dab gogotah” Intonation patterns

May reflect phonological rules of spoken language context

By 12 to 14 months some evidence of language specific phonological rules

Early speech production

Of course he said “arf.” What else did you expect

his first word to be?

Language Sponges

About 3,000 new words per year, especially in the primary grades

As many as 8 new words per day Production typically lags behind comprehension

Learning words

12 ms first words

2 yrs 200 words

3 yrs 1,000 words

6 yrs 15,000 words

Language Sponges Lots of individual differences But there is also a consistent pattern

Vocabulary growth Methods used to study this

Observational data (60s to present) Diary studies

Parents record their kids language development Taped language samples (Roger Brown)

Small numbers of children (Eve, Adam, Sarah) Went to home every month made tape recordings Extensive study needed

Hard to kids to “say all the words you know” or “say a question”

Early phonological production isn’t like adult production, often need to take great care deciding what the child meant

Large database CHILDES Many kids, many languages, including children with language

difficulties

Early speech production Transition to speech

This is your fis?Your fis?Oh, your fish.

No. … my fis.No. My fis!Yes, my fis.

Early speech production

This is your fis? Transition to speech

No, … my fis.

Your fis. No, my fis.

Oh, your fish. Yes, my fis.

Can’t hear the difference? Rejects adult saying fis

Can’t produce the correct sounds?

Sometimes, but evidence suggests not always the case

More general process of simplification

“frees up” resources for concentrating on other aspects of language learning

Early speech production

Early words Common Phonological processes

Reduction Delete sounds from words

Coalescence Combine different syllables into one syllable

Assimilation Change one sound into a similar sound within the

word Reduplication

One syllable from a multi-syllabic word is repeated

Transition to speech

Early speech production

Developed in systematic ways Sometimes simplifications of adult speech Or relate to sounds of the objects

Demonstrate Creative, not simply imitation Learned importance of consistency of names

First words Around 10-15 months (lots of individual differences) Emergence of systematic, repeated productions of

phonologically consistent forms Idiomorphs - personalized words