Development of Language Language: refers to our spoken, written, or gestured words and how they are combined to communicate.

Language: Building Blocks 1. Phonemes: the smallest distinctive sound unit. How many phonemes are in the word: Cheat? Tom? Brady?

2. Morphemes: the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix) How many Morphemes are in the word “previewed?” How many Morphemes are in the word “rabbits?

Language: The Rules Grammar: a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others. Includes semantics and syntax. Semantics: the study of meaning; rules for how we get meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences in a given language. Semantic Examples: adding –ed to end of word does what? Adding –s to a noun does what?

Examples of Language Rules Syntax: the rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a given language. Syntax Examples: In English adjectives come before nouns but the opposite is true in Spanish. Pretty girl Chica bonita

Overgeneralization: Applying a specific language rule to all situations: Ex. Add –ed to make past tense: “I walked to the store.” “ I rided to the store.”

Stages of Language beginning at 3 to 4 months Babbling Stage: beginning at 3 to 4 months the stage of speech development in which the infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language One word stage: from about age 1 to 2 the stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly in single words, but those words carry meaning

Stages of Language Two-Word Stage beginning about age 2 the stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly two- word statements **Telegraphic Speech early speech stage in which the child speaks like a telegram – “go car” – using mostly nouns and verbs and omitting “auxiliary” words -Occurs later in two-word stage

Babbles many speech sounds. Two-word, telegraphic speech. Language Summary Summary of Language Development Month (approximate) Stage 4 10 12 24 24+ Babbles many speech sounds. Babbling reveals households language. One-word stage. Two-word, telegraphic speech. Language develops rapidly into Complete sentences.

Theories of Language Development: B. F. Skinner vs. Noam Chomsky A. K Theories of Language Development: B. F. Skinner vs. Noam Chomsky A.K.A. Dudes I Need to Know For the Test VS.

Tools for learning language according to Skinner: Theory 1: Skinner Believed We Learn Language Through Learning Techniques (Class. Cond., Op. Cond, Observation) (Nurture Argument) Tools for learning language according to Skinner: Association: associate the sight of things with certain sound of words Imitation: watch models speaking words and syntax and then we imitate them. Reinforcement: given positive feedback and words of encouragement when we speak correctly.

Theory 2: Chomsky Believes Our Brains Are Hardwired With Inborn Universal Grammar. (Nature Argument) Language is enabled by a: Language Acquisition Device: humans are born with innate abilities to acquire language. the rate they acquire words and grammar without being taught is too astonishing Believes Our Brains Are Hardwired With Inborn Universal Grammar. (Nature Argument) Subscribed to idea of the “critical period,” a time when something must happen for development to proceed normally.

Benjamin Whorf: Language and Thinking Linguistic Determinism (linguistic relativity): idea that language determines the way we think. English has many self-focused emotions vs. Japanese which has many words for interpersonal emotions.

Linguistic Relativity and Doublespeak describes when language is used to disguise the actual meaning and possibly mislead people. Examples: “Downsizing”=multiple firings of employees. “Physical Persuasion”=torture “Collateral Damage”=death of civilians “Concentration Camp”=labor/death camp

Whorf video