Intro to Linguistics

• The study of the relationship between language and the brain is called neurolinguistics
• Establishing the location of language in the brain was an early challenge, but one event incidentally provided a clue
• Phineas Gage


  Sept. 1848 accident: gunpowder exploded three and a half foot rod upper left cheek and out from the top of his head
• A month later, Phineas Gage was up and about, with no apparent damage to his senses or his speech
• Phineas Gage's medical marvel proved that while language may be located in the brain, it is clearly not situated at the front
• The brain


  • It is the most complex organ of the body: 10 billion nerve cells (neurons) and billions of fibers that interconnect them
  • The cortex is the decision-making organ of the body– receives messages from all sensory organs and initiates all voluntary actions
• Since Mr. Gage's accident, a number of discoveries have been made about the specific parts in the brain that are related to language functions
• Broca's Area


  Anterior speech cortex, named after Paul Broca, a French surgeon, who reported in 1860s that damage to this part of the brain was related to extreme difficulty in producing speech
• Wernicke's Area


  Posterior speech cortex, named after Carl Wernicke, a German doctor, who reported in the 1870s that damage to this part of the brain was related to speech comprehension difficulties
• The Motor Cortex


  Close to Broca's area, it controls the articulatory muscles of the face, jaw, tongue, and larynx
• To speak a word that is written

  1. Information reaches the primary visual cortex

  2. Transmitted to Wernicke's area where it is processed into "stuff to speak"

  3. Proceeds to Broca's area

  4. Transmitted to the primary motor cortex to "tell the mouth to start speaking"
• To speak a word that is heard

  1. Information gets to the primary auditory complex

  2. Transmitted to Wernicke's area, where it is interpreted

  3. Travels to Broca's area

  4. Proceeds to the primary motor cortex
• Long before a child starts school, s/he has become an extremely sophisticated language user
• Aside from speed, first language acquisition also occurs without overt instruction supporting the claim that there is an innate predisposition in the human infant to acquire a language
• First two-three years of first language acquisition


  A child requires interaction with other language users in order to bring their general language capacity in operation with a particular language
• Cultural transmission


  The language that a child learns is not generally inherited, but acquired in a particular language-using environment
• Physical capability


  The child must be physically capable of sending and receiving sound signals in a language
• Infants usually make "cooing" or "babbling" noises during their first year, but congenitally deaf ones stop after about six months
• In order to speak a language, a child must be able to hear that language being used
• Hearing language sounds is not enough, the crucial requirement appears to be the opportunity to interact with others via language
• Many linguists and psychologists believe that language is not acquired by solely by imitation
• Children have an undeniable capacity to be creative with language even without hearing a particular word or sentence being uttered
• Foreign language setting


  Learning a language that is not generally spoken in the surrounding community
• Second language setting


  Learning a language that is spoken in the surrounding community
• Acquisition


  The gradual development of ability in a language by using it naturally in communicative situations with others who know the language
• Learning


  A more conscious process of accumulating knowledge of the features, such as vocabulary and grammar, of a language, typically in an institutional setting
• Innateness hypothesis


  Linguists such as Noam Chomsky believe that the potential for language is innate to humans, and children are born with their brains hardwired for ability to learn language
• Universal grammar (UG)


  The innate capacity of children to process grammar, involving phonemic differences, word order, and phrase recognition
• Language acquisition device (LAD)

  The hardwiring in the brains of children that allows them to learn language
• Critical period hypothesis


  Eric Lenneberg proposed that after the age of puberty (12 to 15 years old), the language acquisition device ceases to function and the ability to learn a language with native fluency essentially disappears
• Imitation hypothesis


  Children learn the language (or languages) that they hear spoken or signed around them
• Reinforcement hypothesis


  Children learn language by positive reinforcement when they produce a grammatical utterance and by being corrected when they don't
• Krashen's acquisition-learning hypothesis


  The acquired system is the product of a subconscious process and requires meaningful interaction in the target language, while the learned system is the product of formal instruction and learning, which involves a conscious process
• Krashen's monitor hypothesis


  The acquired system acts to initiate the speaker's utterances and is responsible for spontaneous language use, whereas the learned system acts as a "monitor" or "editor", making minor changes and polishing what the acquired system has produced
• Krashen's input hypothesis


  Acquisition occurs when one is exposed to the language that is comprehensible and contains "i + 1", where the input contains forms and structures just beyond the learner's current level of competence
• Krashen's affective filter hypothesis


  The affective filter is an imaginary/ metaphorical barrier that prevents learners from acquiring language from the available input, depending on the learner's state of mind
• Krashen's natural order hypothesis

  L2 learners acquire the features of the target language in predictable sequences, and the language features that are easiest to state are not necessarily the first to be acquired
• Words are the centerpiece of language, and they are its most tangible elements
• Word usage


  Sounds, meanings, related words, use in sentences
• Morphology


  The study of the internal construction of words, looking at the structure and classification of words and the units that make up words