Introduction to Linguistics Chapter 10: Language Acquisition

1. Introduction to LinguisticsChapter 10: Language Acquisition Instructor: LIU Hongyong

2. Language acquisition • The process of acquiring a native language is called First Language Acquisition, or simply Language Acquisition. Why do we call it language acquisition?

3. Learning • Intentional process • Presupposes teaching • Teacher controls pace • Acquisition • Unconscious process • Does not presuppose teaching • Child controls pace

4. Definition • Language acquisition----refers to the child’s acquisition of his mother tongue, i.e. how the child comes to understand and speak the language of his community.

5. How language is learned? • child language acquisition theories • the Critical Period Hypothesis • learning environment • the stages of language learning

6. Theories of child language acquisition • A behaviorist view of language acquisition (Skinners)行为主义语言习得理论 • An innatist view of language acquisition (Chomsky)先天论理论 （天赋说） • An interactionist view of language acquisition语言习得的互动观

7. A behaviorist view of language acquisition • Traditional behaviorists view language as behavior and believe that language learning is simply a matter of imitation and habit formation. Imitation  Recognition  Reinforcement • The inadequacy of behaviorist view lies in the fact that children do not imitate adults’ language in much the same way as parrots do.

8. Drawbacks of the behaviorist theory • The behaviorist theory of child language acquisition offers a reasonable account of how children acquire some of the regular and simple aspects of the language, but it can not explain how children acquire complex grammatical structures. • Examples: a. Johni’s mother loves himi,j. b. * Hei loves Johni’s mother. c. Hisi, mother loves Johni.

9. An innatist view of language acquisition • According to the innatist view of language acquisition, human beings are biologically programmed for language，and that the language develops in the child just as other biological functions such as walking.

10. Noam Chomsky • Noam Chomsky (born on December 7, 1928) is an American linguist. He is a professor of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Chomsky is well known in the academic and scientific community as one of the fathers of modern linguistics.

11. LAD 语言习得机制 • Chomsky referred to the innate language ability as language acquisition device (LAD). • The Language Acquisition Device (LAD) is a postulated “organ” of the brain that is supposed to function as a inborn device for language acquisition.

12. Later Chomsky refers to this innate endowment as Universal Grammar. • Universal Grammar includes a set of principles which can be used to explain child language acquisition. • UG is an endowment that all children are born with. If children are pre-equipped with UG, then what they have to learn is the way in which their own language makes use of these principles.

13. Logical Problem of Language Acquisition • The logical problem refers to the fact that children come to know more about their language than what they could reasonably be expected to learn from their living environment.

14. An interactionist view of language acquisition • The interactionist view holds that language develops as a result of the complex interplay between the human characteristics of the child and the environment in which the child develops. • The interactionist theory emphasizes the importance of the interaction between biological and social (nature and nurture) aspects of language acquisition.

15. Language environment & the critical period hypothesis • Two important factors: the linguistic environment children are exposed to and the age they start to learn the language. • In behaviorist approach, language environment plays a major role in providing both language models to be imitated and necessary feedbacks.

16. The innatist view puts emphasis more on children’s internal processing of the language items to be learnt. The environment functions as a stimulus that triggers and activates the pre-equipped UG to process the materials provided by the linguistic environment around the children.

17. The interactionist view calls for the quality of the language samples available in the linguistic environment, only when the language is modified and adjusted to the level of children’s comprehension, do they process and internalize the language items.

18. Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH) Eric Lenneberg argues that the LAD, like other biological functions, works successfully only when it is stimulated at the right time ---- a specific and limited time period for language acquisition.

19. The strong version of CPH suggests that children must acquire their first language by puberty or they will never be able to learn from subsequent exposure. • The weak version holds that language learning will be more difficult and incomplete after puberty. (Support in Victor’s and Genie’s cases)

20. Victor of Aveyron Victor of Aveyron (also The Wild Boy of Aveyron) was a child who apparently lived his entire childhood naked and alone in the woods before being found wandering the woods near Saint-Sernin-sur-Rance, France in 1797. He was captured, but soon escaped. He was then captured again and kept in the care of a local woman for about a week before he escaped once more. However, on January 8, 1800, he emerged from the forests on his own. His age was unknown but citizens of the village estimated that he was about twelve years old.

21. Jean Marc Gaspard Itard Jean Marc Gaspard Itard, a young medical student, effectively adopted Victor into his home and published reports on his progress. Itard believed that two things separated humans from animals: empathy and language. He wanted to civilize Victor with the objectives of teaching him to speak and to communicate human emotion. Victor showed significant early progress in understanding language and reading simple words but failed to progress beyond a rudimentary level. The only two phrases that Victor ever actually learned to spell out was lait (milk) and Oh, Dieu (Oh, God). Victor died in Paris in 1828.

22. Stages in child language acquisition • Pre-speech • One word (holophrastic) stage • Two word stage • Telegraphic Stage • Fine-tuning

23. Pre-speech • 0-1 mo. Sleep, eat, cry • 1 mo. Intonational patterns • 2-5 mos. Cooing stage Cooing: the first recognizable sounds by 3-month-old children, e.g. /ku:/ • 5-12 mos. Babbling stage咿呀学语期

24. One-word stage • Infants may utter their first word as early as nine months, usually mama, dada  (these words resemble babbling).  Often the words are simplified: "du" for duck, "ba" for bottle. When the child has acquired about 50 words he develops regular pronunciation patterns.

25. I want milk …. Milk

26. Two-word Stage • 2 yrs. Two words, three possible interpretations • Subject-verb ‘Mary go.’ • Verb-modifier ‘Push truck.’ • Possessor-possesed ‘Mommy sock’ • Content words, no function words (Telegraphic speech)

27. Example: Mama book a) possession: This is Mama’s book. b) request: Mama gave me the book. c) statement:Mama is reading the book.

28. Multi-word Stage • 2 yrs., 6 mos. • 2-5 words with little morphology • Morphological overgeneralization • Easier, more productive morphemes first • 2-5 yrs. More elaborate syntax • Learning 20-30 words per day • Semantic overgeneralization/ undergeneralization

29. Atypical development • Atypical or abnormal language development occurs due to trauma or injury. Atypical language development includes: • Hearing impairment听力损伤 • Mental retardation智能障碍严 • Autism自闭症 • stuttering口吃，俗称结巴 • Aphasia失语症 • Dyslexia and dysgraphia 阅读困难症

30. 口吃(stuttering)俗称结巴，是儿童常见的一种语言障碍。即说话能力的缺陷，表现在说话时迟缓，发音延长或停顿，不自觉地阻断或语塞，间歇地重复一个字或一个词，失去正常的说话节律，呈现出特殊的断续性，称之语言流行障碍。 口吃可分为暂时性口吃、良性口吃和永久性口吃暂时性口吃是一种发育性口吃，始于l～2岁婴儿初学说话时出现的口吃，3岁年龄阶段最多。这时儿童言语发展到自己构造词句的阶段。但由于他们的神经生理成熟程度还落后于情绪和智力活动所需要表达的有关复杂内容，因而说话时出现踌躇和重复，常常一句长话停三四次才能说完。这是儿童言语发展的自然现象，随着年龄的增长，这种言语不流利的表现会逐渐消失。3～5岁出现的口吃称良性口吃，也要家长耐心矫正，半年到六年内多可消失。

31. 5～8岁后出现的口吃，常作为一种特殊的持续固定的言语形式存在，除非进行持续的有效的矫治，否则保持终生，称为永久性口吃。统计表明，任何种族、文化、语言都有口吃发生。2～5岁口吃发生率为1%。其中50%于5岁前起病，10岁后的口吃75%将终生存在。为避免儿童形成永久性口吃，及早发现，及时治疗十分必要。男性比女性多4～8倍。5～8岁后出现的口吃，常作为一种特殊的持续固定的言语形式存在，除非进行持续的有效的矫治，否则保持终生，称为永久性口吃。统计表明，任何种族、文化、语言都有口吃发生。2～5岁口吃发生率为1%。其中50%于5岁前起病，10岁后的口吃75%将终生存在。为避免儿童形成永久性口吃，及早发现，及时治疗十分必要。男性比女性多4～8倍。