psy 369: psycholinguistics language acquisition acquiring language student in my psycholinguistics...
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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