Language

Structure of Language• Phonemes

- Consonants, vowels, th, sh, ch,….

• Morphemes- Dog, van, ing, ed,…

How many phonemes (sounds) are in these words?Thing Psychology Hopes Sun Quickly Wish Weigh Laughed Nation

How many morphemes in the following words?People Swimming Orange Literally Reddish Radish Waited George’s Misspell Antidisestablishmentarianism

Structure of Language

• Words = 1 or more morphemes• Syntax = set of rules to

combine words

• Semantics govern meaning

“The girl the boy saw.” – violates syntax

“The rapid freedom ran around the curious emptiness.” – obeys syntax, but makes no sense due to meaning of the words

Language Development• Receptive Language - ability

to comprehend speech

• Productive Language – ability to produce words

• Surface structure v. deep structure– “Joey was swinging too high,

and the rope broke and he fell on his head.”

– “Joey hurt his head when he fell off the swing.”

Language Development• Babbling stage (4 months)• One-word stage (1 year)• Two-word stage (2 years)• Telegraphic speech

Challenges in Language Development

• Overextension– Same word applies to many things– “Juice” refers to milk, water, juice, etc.

• Underextension– Only use word to apply to one specific example,

rather than using it for others– Calls own dog “dog”, but not other dogs “dog”

• Overregularization/overgeneralization– Apply grammar rules w/out making appropriate

exceptions– EX: She “goed” to the store

Thinking in Images• Implicit memory – mental picture of

how you do a task

• Watching an activity will activate brain’s internal stimulation of it – Pianist mentally rehearses song– Dancer mentally imagines choreography

Explaining Language Development

• Skinner & Behaviorism– Association for seeing & hearing words– Imitation– Reinforcement or

punishment

• Nature or nurture?

Thinking & Language• Linguistic

determinism (Whorff)– Language determines

way we think– Culturally influenced

• Nature or nurture?

Thinking & Language• Bilingual advantage

(Lambert)– Bilingual children who

learn to inhibit one language while learning another, are also better able to inhibit their attention to irrelevant info

Explaining Language Development• Chomsky (Nativist theory) & Inborn

Universal Grammar– Language acquisition device: innate

mechanism or process that allows language (unique to humans)

– Universal grammar: common structure for language among all cultures

• Nature or nurture?

Explaining Language Development• Critical Periods – specific time period

early in life for language development

Do animals use language?