language

• Sapir-Whorf hypothesis


  language influences thoughts and how one perceives and experiences the world across cultures
• morpheme


  smallest unit of sound with information
• phoneme


  smallest unit of sound in speech
• syntax


  grammar ; rules that govern how words are put together in a sentence
• semantics


  meaning of each word/sentence
• language development at 6 weeks


  baby makes cooing/vowel sounds
• language development at 8 weeks


  baby turns head toward voices, imitates sounds
• language development at 6 months 


  baby begins babbling and making consonant sounds
• language development at 8 months


  baby uses complex and non-random babbling
• language development at 2 years

  child uses 50-250 words, 2-word phrases
• language development at 2.5 years


  child has a vocabulary of over 850 words
• babbling

  • drawn-out sounds made of a variety of vowel and consonant combinations
  • may sound like real sentences and questions because of the use of inflection and rhythm
  • different combinations later become real words
• language explosion occurs in children

  between 1.5-6 years old
• language explosion

  • vocabulary is rapidly expanding and the child masters the majority aspects of language
  • complex syntax improves
  • good speech segmentation in infancy creates a larger and expressive vocabulary
• universal phoneme sensitivity

  • very young infants can discriminate more phonemes than adults
  • ability of infants to discriminate between any sound (even non-native languages) is tested with head-turn procedures
  • by 10-12 months this ability drastically decreases
• social language theory

  • kids learn languages through imitating and operant conditioning (reinforcement)
  • not spontaneously proceeding
  • when looking at early social interactions, they are unable to develop language skills
• social language theory opposition

  • language proficiency is too fast to be driven by social interactions alone
  • once kids learn to produce words they combine them in ways not reinforced
• overextensions

  • supports innate mechanism theory
  • apply rules too broadly (word meanings)
• under extensions

  apply rules to specific objects only
• overregulation


  apply syntax rules too broadly (type of overextension)
• Nuam Chumsky


  created the language acquisition device theory
• language acquisition device

  • kids develop language skills without experience
  • innate mechanisms only in humans that help languages develop rapidly to universal rules
  • infant brains are listening to speech before understanding it
• honey bee communication


  use waggle dances to communicate location of food sources
• bird communication


  use highly complex songs for male attraction and competition
• names of gorillas tested in labs for language abilities

  Washue, Sarah, Kanzie
• Washue


  was taught ASL; could use signs arbitrarily and productively, but not regularly (syntax)
• Sarah


  was taught language with plastic symbols; could use them arbitrarily, regularly, but not productively (no new sentence combinations)
• Kanzie


  taught lexigrams (geometric figures) via full immersion ; could use them arbitrarily and productively, but not regularly
• regular language


  governed by rules and grammar ; can be recognized
• arbitrary language


  lack of resemblance between words and meanings ; words are made up and don't resemble their meanings
• productive language


  limitless combination of words