Language + Language Development

System for communicating with others using signals - Signals must be combined according to rules of grammar - Signals must convey meaning

Set of rules that defines how the units of language can be combined

1) Human language has complex structure 2) Human language can refer to intangible things (e.g. unicorns, happiness( 3) Humans use language to name, categorize, and describe things to ourselves when we think

Smallest –> largest Phenome, morphemes/words, words, phrases, sentences

Smallest unit of speech that distinguishes one unit from another; phenomes are combined to form words In English, the letters (B makes ba) or combinations of letters (sh makes sh sound) are phenomes

How phenomes can be combined to form words

Combinations of phenomes; the smallest meaningful unit of language In English, it could be a word (e.g. dog); however, the meaning of the word “dog” can be altered by adding an s (dogs), so s can be a morpheme as well

How morphemes can be combined to make words

Content: refer to things and events (dog, park, concert, etc) Function: serve grammatical function (and, or, but, etc) - Function morphemes give our language complexity NOTE: both content and function morphemes can stand alone as words

How words can be combined to form phrases (e.g. a sentence must contain a noun and a verb)

Responsible for language PRODUCTION; located in left frontal cortex

• Can only comprehend simple language • Lots of trouble w speech production

Responsible for language COMPREHENSION (spoken or signed); located in left temporal cortex

• Difficulty comprehending language • Produce grammatical but meaningless speech

• Monolingual and bilingual children don’t differ significantly in the course and rate of many aspects of language dev • May be correlated to delayed onset of Alzheimer’s • Other benefits still up for debate

Washoe: learned over 160 words in ASL + formed novel constructions (e.g. water bird for duck) - Infant chimp named Loulis learned 68 signs just by watching Washoe communicate w other chimps Kanzi: learned to communicate w geometric keyboard - Tried to teach mother but she couldn’t learn it –> suggests apes also have a critical period - Comprehension progressed faster than production – mirrors humans Limitations: limited vocab, could only communicate concrete objects and simple actions, limited understanding of grammar

1) Speed: children learn very fast – 10K words in 4 yrs btw ages 2-5 –> 6-7 new words a day 2) Few errors – children make few errors while learning how to speak 3) Comprehension > production – comprehension develops FASTER than production at every stage

• 4-6 months old • Perceptual narrowing • Can’t produce speech dependently – rely on other forms of communication (crying - birth, cooing - 1mo, babbling - 4-6mo)

• 6-8mo can distinguish btw all contrasting sounds in the human language at birth, BUT by 8-12 months, they lose that ability • Can only distinguish btw contrasting sounds in the language they hear being spoken around them • Benefits: infants that tune into the speech sounds of their native language faster –> larger vocabs at age 2

• Characteristic of infants • ALL infants go through the babbling sequence –> suggests babbling is a natural part of our natural development • Deaf infants also babble but less and later (11 mo) –> implies infants must be able to hear themselves to continue babbling

• Infants perceive speech sounds categorically • Ex: acoustic difference btw “b” and “p” falls on continuum but we perceive these consonants as 2 distinctive categories

10-12 months old

• Occurs at 2 years • Sentences without function morphemes (and, or, but, etc) and mostly consisting of content words, BUT they’re grammatical –> implies acquisition of syntax rules

• 2-3 yr olds use correct past tense but 4-5 yr olds don’t bc they OVERREGULARIZE/overuse (e.g. kid overregularizes rule that past tense is indicated by “-ed” so run –> “runned” or “ranned”) • Indicates that language acquisition is more than just imitating adult speech – children acquire grammar rules by listening to the speech around them to create new verbal forms without explicit awareness