1. Language
Language – our spoken, written or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning

2. Language can be…..

3. Language Structure
Phonemes
Morphemes
Grammar
Semantics
Syntax

4. All languages contain….
Phonemes
Morphemes
The smallest units of sound in a language.
English has about 44 phonemes.
The smallest unit of meaningful sound.
Examples :
Can be words like a or but.
prefixes or suffixes…”ed” at the end of a word means past tense
How many phonemes in cats?
How many morphemes in cats?
Example: How many phonemes does platypus have?

5. How many phonemes and morphemes?
Rich
Hat  
Knock  
Bring   
Through 
Strict
Stretch
Bats
Called
Nightly
Luck, lucky, unlucky
Coolness
Zebras
Defroster

6. Language Structure Grammar: The rules of a language.
Example: Subject/verb agreement - singular subject takes a singular verb, while a plural subject takes a plural verb.
Semantics - rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences.
Examples:
Arms race means weapons race, not body parts race
ed on the end of a word makes it past tense
Syntax: the order of words in a language.
Adjectives come before nouns
Don’t use dangling participles, run on sentences, fragments
Is this the White House or the House White?

7. Language Acquisition Receptive language Productive language
Ability to comprehend speech
Begins 4 months
Can read lips
7 mo. Can segment spoken sounds into individual words
Can listen to an unfamiliar language
Productive language
Ability to produce words with meaning
Starts around 4 months of age with babbling

8. Language Acquisition Stages that we learn language… Babbling Stage
make speech sounds both in and out of native language
First able to discriminate speech sounds
Example: Ba da ta
Holophrastic Stage/one word stage
Productive language begins (speaking meaningful words)
Receptive language (comprehension of meaning)
Example: Momma, dada, dog
Telegraphic Stage/two word stage
Grammatically correct 2 word saying
Contains mostly nouns and verbs
Follows rules of syntax
Example: Want juice
Overgeneralization - extending the application of a rule to items that are excluded from it in the language norm,
Example: Mommy holded the baby
4. Speaking in Complete Sentences

9. How do we learn language?
Behaviorist Theory
Nativist Theory

10. Behaviorist Theory B.F. Skinner Association – sights and sounds
Imitation – modeling others
Reinforcement- by smiles and hugs

11. Chomsky’s Theory Inborn Universal Grammar
Universal language acquisition device – In born (innate)readiness to learn grammatical rules
Prewired to learn language, social interaction turns the switch on
The stages of language development occur at about the same ages in most children, even though different children experience very different environments.
Universal grammar – common grammatical building blocks that all languages share (inborn).
Children use nouns first before they learn verbs or adjectives
All languages have nouns and verbs, subjects and objects, negations and questions
If there is a word purple in a language it will also have a word for red
Example: Overgeneralization

12. Overgeneralization
Overgeneralization - Applying a grammatical rule too widely and thereby creating incorrect forms
Supports Chomsky’s Universal Grammar
Example: “I goed to the store to get cookies”, “I rided my bike”

13. Statistical Learning and Critical Periods
Statistical Learning – discerning word breaks, analyzing which syllables most often go together
Infants up to the age of 10 months can do this, after that they become functionally deaf to other languages
Critical Period – sensitive period for mastering certain aspects of language
Children not exposed to language by age 7 gradually lose ability to master any language
Learning a language as an adult you will always speak with an accent
Most easily master language as a child

15. Your little sister says: “Taked cupcake
Your little sister says: “Taked cupcake!” Explain how this utterance may illustrate the following language concepts: phoneme, morpheme, telegraphic speech, language acquisition device.

16. Whorf’s Linguistic Determination Hypothesis
The idea that language determines the way we think.
The Hopi tribe has no past tense in their language, so Whorf says they rarely think of the past.
Underestimates how much thinking occurs without language

17. Thinking and Language Bilingual advantage Thinking and images
Thinking affects language, which then affects our thoughts.