2. What is Language?
¨ A system of symbols used to communicate ideas
among two or more individuals.
¨ Must be learnable by children, spoken and
understood by adults, and capable of expressing
ideas that people normally communicate in a social
and cultural context.
4. Phonemes Morphemes
Content
morphemes
Function
morphemes Rules of syntax Tree diagram
Phrase structure
description
Definitional
theory of word
meaning
Semantic
features
Prototype
theory
Family
semblance
structure
Prototypes Subject Predicate
Proposition Semantic role Case markers Garden path
Basic-level
words Superordinates Subordinates
American Sign
Language (ASL)
Crib
bilingualism Aphasia
Specific
language
impairment (SLI)
Whorfian
hypothesis
Key Terms
5. 1. Sound Units
2. Morphemes and Words
3. Phrases and Sentences
The Building Blocks of Language
6. Speech Units
¨ Phonemes: Smallest units of
sound
¨ Morphemes: Smallest units of
sound that convey meaning
7. Holophrastic and Telegraphic Speech
Bottle!
Holophrastic speech refers
to the use of single words to
express whole phrases and
sentences!
8. Rules of Syntax
¨ The regular principles
governing how words
can be assembled into
sentences, and also
describing the structure
of those sentences
Tree diagram depicting phrase structure
9. 1. The Meaning of Words
2. The Meaning of Sentences
3. How We Understand
How Language Conveys Meaning
10. 1. Language Acquisition Rates
2. The Social Origins of Language Learning
3. Discovering the Building Blocks of Language
4. The Growth of Word Meaning
5. The Progression of Adult Language
How We Learn a Language
13. Stages of Language Development
Crying (newborn) Cooing (6wk-3mo) Babbling (4-6mo)
Word Comprehension
(9-10mo) Echolalia (9-10mo)
First words (13 mo:
10-15mo)
Holophrasic Speech
(12-18mo)
• Phoneme (unit of speech)
• Morpheme (meaning unit)
• Median expressive vocab: 50
words
Telegraphic Speech
(18-24mo)
• Median vocab: 200
words
14. Childhood Language Development
18 to 24 months
Telegraphic Speech
300 to 400 words
1.5 to 2.5/3 years
Vocabulary Growth: 50 words a
month
36 months: 1,000 words
3-4 word sentences
2.5-5 Years
Grammatically Correct Sentences
Questions, negatives, passive voice
School years
Metalinguistic Awareness
6 or 7 recognize words are different
than the concepts they represent
Use words humorously
15. Theories of Language Development
¨ Nativist View
¤ Chomsky
¤ Innate Language Acquistion Device (LAD)
¤ Learn in same sequence without formal
instruction
¨ Nurturist/Behavioral View
¤ Interaction with environment
¤ Imitation and reinforcement
¨ Interactionist View
¤ Nature and Nurture Combination
¤ “Motherese”
¤ Adults responde with extension
¤ Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis: speakers of
different languages think differently
17. Bootstrapping
¨ Semantic bootstrapping
¤ Use knowledge of word meaning to
inferm grammatical category
¨ Syntactic bootstrapping
¤ Using grammer knowledge to learn
the meaning of new words
¨ Prosodic bootstrapping
¤ Prosody (pitch, etc) to make
inferences about syntax
¨ Morphological bootstrapping
¤ Knowledge about morphemes to
deduce syntax or meaning
18. Language Structure
¨ Surface structure
¤ Organization of words,
phrases, and sentences
¨ Deep structure
¤ Underlying meaning of
sentences
¨ Speaking involves
transforming deep structure
(meaning) into surface
structure (grammatical
sentences)
20. 1. Wild Children
2. Isolated Children
3. Language without Sound
4. Language without a model
5. Children Deprived of Access to Some of the
Meanings
6. Children Exposed to More than One Language:
Bilingualism
Alternative Language Learning
21. Bilingualism and Bilingual Education
¨ Early studies: Bilinguilism leads to cognitive
deficits
¨ Current research: Bilingual do as well or better
¤ Cognitive flexibility
¤ Cognitive complexity
¤ Analytical reasoning
¤ Metalinguistic awareness
¨ Benefits may be temporary
¨ Education:
¤ Mixed results
¤ Language minority students in high-quality
programs may do better than those in English
only programs
22. Second-Language Acquisition
¨ More difficult for
adolescents and adults
¨ Exposure during
childhood, more likely
to speak with native
accent
23. Code Switching
¨ Alternating languages
during conversation
¨ Switch to native
language: express
better, establish rapport,
express attitude toward
listener
24. 1. When the Nature and State of the Brain is Changed
2. The Sensitive Period
3. Language in Nonhumans
Changed Endowments
25. Critical and Sensitive Periods
¨ Critical Periods
¤ Specific time most sensitive to
influences
¤ Specific event must occur or it will
not occur at all
¤ Lorenz: Gosling imprint 12-17 hours
¤ For humans, probably only with
physical development
¨ Sensitive Periods
¤ Human development
¤ Event has most impact
¤ i.e. attachment and language
26. Brain Damage & Language
¨ Broca’s aphasia is an
inability to speak fluently
without effort and correct
grammar. Speech is halting
and agrammatic.
¨ Wernicke’s aphasia is a
comprehension dysfunction.
Speech is fluent and
effortless but also
semantically vacuous.
27. Left for Language
¨ 90% of the population is left-
hemisphere dominant.
¤ Right- handedness and left
localization of Broca’s and
Wernicke’s are universal, at
least in males.
¤ Left-handed individuals may
present with left, mixed, or in
some cases right language
representation.
¨ Females show more bilateral
language representation.
28. The language zone extends far beyond Broca’s
and Wernicke’s areas in neocortical and
subcortical regions.
29. Contrasts to Animal Communication
¨ Only language uses symbols to represent objects. Words
are detached from their referents unlike the calls of a
bird or chimpanzee. Displacement in space and time is
thus possible with language.
¨ Productivity is ability to create novel sentences that can
be understood by other speakers of the language.
Although chimps can learn ASL and sign novel expressions,
there is a vast difference in productivity.
30. 1. Languages have many similarities and differences
2. How Language Connects to Thought
3. Do People Who Talk Differently Come to
Understand the World Differently?
4. How Can We Study Language and Thought?
Language and Thought
31. Language and Thought
• Language
determines
how we think
Whorf’s linguistic
relativity hypothesis
• Language and
thought are
independent
Nativist
• Language is
dependent on
thought
Piaget
32.
33. Gender and Language Style
• Establish dominance
• Gain attention
• Give orders
• Talk longer
• Interrupt more
Boys
• Provide support
• Demonstrate attentiveness
• Ask questions
• Attach tag questions
Girls
34. Dyslexia
¨ Deep Dyslexia
¤ Mistakes words for similar
meaning
¨ Surface Dyslexia
¤ Must sound out words
¨ Phonological Dyslexia
¤ Can’t read nonwords aloud
¨ Neglect
¤ Misreads first or last half of
word
37. Semantics
Semantics
What the words mean
Syntax
How words are assembled
into propositions
Phonology
How the words are
pronounced
Pragmatics
How language is actually
being used day to day
Semantics: The study of
meaning, how people mentally
represent the meaning of
words and images
38.
39. The manner in which speakers communicate their
intentions depends on the social context.
Direct speech acts (e.g., command: “Open the
window!”) may be socially awkward. Indirect
speech acts assume the guise of a different
speech act to achieve the same result (e.g.,
inform: “It is really hot in here.”)The
cooperative principle guides conversations so
that speakers utter appropriate statements. We
speak audibly, use language understood by the
listener, and follow the rules.
Listeners draw appropriate inferences called
conversational implicatures. For example, if I
say “I am out of gas” you might say “There’s a
gas station around the corner.”
