Language

Language – our spoken, written or signed words and

the ways we combine them to communicate meaning

Language can be…..

Language Structure

• Phonemes• Morphemes• Grammar– Semantics– Syntax

All languages contain….

Phonemes• The smallest units of

sound in a language.• English has about 44

phonemes.

Morphemes• The smallest unit of

meaningful sound.• Examples :

– Can be words like a or but.

– prefixes or suffixes…”ed” at the end of a word means past tense

• How many phonemes in cats?• How many morphemes in cats?

Example: How many phonemes does platypus have?

How many phonemes and morphemes?

Phonemes• Rich• Hat  • Knock  • Bring   • Through • Strict • Stretch

Morphemes• Bats• Called• Nightly• Luck, lucky, unlucky• Coolness• Zebras• Defroster

Language Structure• Grammar: The rules of a language.

– Example: Subject/verb agreement - singular subject takes a singular verb, while a plural subject takes a plural verb.

– Semantics - rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences.• Examples:

– Arms race means weapons race, not body parts race– ed on the end of a word makes it past tense

– Syntax: the order of words in a language.• Examples:

– Adjectives come before nouns

– Don’t use dangling participles, run on sentences, fragmentsIs this the White House or the House White?

Language Acquisition

• Receptive language– Ability to

comprehend speech– Begins at @ 4

months– Can read lips– 7 mo. Can segment

spoken sounds into individual words

– Can listen to an unfamiliar language

• Productive language– Ability to produce

words with meaning– Starts around 4

months of age with babbling

Language AcquisitionStages that we learn language…1. Babbling Stage

– make speech sounds both in and out of native language– First able to discriminate speech sounds– Example: Ba da ta

2. Holophrastic Stage/one word stage– Productive language begins (speaking meaningful words)– Receptive language (comprehension of meaning)– Example: Momma, dada, dog

3. Telegraphic Stage/two word stage– Grammatically correct 2 word saying– Contains mostly nouns and verbs– Follows rules of syntax– Example: Want juice– Overgeneralization - extending the application of a

rule to items that are excluded from it in the language norm,• Example: Mommy holded the baby

4. Speaking in Complete Sentences

How do we learn language?

1. Behaviorist Theory2. Nativist Theory

Behaviorist Theory

• B.F. Skinner • Association – sights

and sounds• Imitation –

modeling others • Reinforcement- by

smiles and hugs

Chomsky’s TheoryInborn Universal Grammar

• Universal language acquisition device – In born (innate)readiness to learn grammatical rules– Prewired to learn language, social interaction

turns the switch on• The stages of language development occur at

about the same ages in most children, even though different children experience very different environments.

• Universal grammar – common grammatical building blocks that all languages share (inborn).

• Children use nouns first before they learn verbs or adjectives

• All languages have nouns and verbs, subjects and objects, negations and questions

• If there is a word purple in a language it will also have a word for red

• Example: Overgeneralization

Overgeneralization

• Overgeneralization - Applying a grammatical rule too widely and thereby creating incorrect forms– Supports Chomsky’s

Universal Grammar

• Example: “I goed to the store to get cookies”, “I rided my bike”

Statistical Learning and Critical Periods

• Statistical Learning – discerning word breaks, analyzing which syllables most often go together

• Infants up to the age of 10 months can do this, after that they become functionally deaf to other languages

• Critical Period – sensitive period for mastering certain aspects of language

• Children not exposed to language by age 7 gradually lose ability to master any language

• Learning a language as an adult you will always speak with an accent

• Most easily master language as a child

• Your little sister says: “Taked cupcake!” Explain how this utterance may illustrate the following language concepts: phoneme, morpheme, telegraphic speech, language acquisition device.

Whorf’s Linguistic Determination Hypothesis

• The idea that language determines the way we think.

• The Hopi tribe has no past tense in their language, so Whorf says they rarely think of the past.

• Underestimates how much thinking occurs without language

Thinking and Language

• Bilingual advantage

• Thinking and images

• Thinking affects language, which then affects our thoughts.