PSY 369: Psycholinguistics Language Acquisition

Acquiring language Student in my psycholinguistics course Dr. Cutting, language sure is complicated. How do you expect us to learn all this stuff?

Acquiring language Student in my psycholinguistics course 2 year old Whadda’ ya mean, mommy. I can talk. I can understand what you say. What’s so hard?

Acquiring language Student in my psycholinguistics course 2 year old How do we (humans) do it? How do we learn to use this complex behavior?

Overview Some of the major issues Imitation vs Innateness Born to walk Born to talk? How much explicit teaching do we get? Commonalities across languages and cultures Language is complex everywhere Sounds, words, syntax, and more No primitive (simple) languages Language development is similar everywhere Similar stages

Typical language development 6 Months Responds to his name Responds to human voices without visual cues by turning his head and eyes Responds appropriately to friendly and angry tones

Typical language development 12 Months Uses one or more words with meaning (this may be a fragment of a word) Understands simple instructions, especially if vocal or physical cues are given Practices inflection Is aware of the social value of speech

18 Months Has vocabulary of approximately 5-20 words Vocabulary made up chiefly of nouns Some echolalia (repeating a word or phrase over and over) Is able to follow simple commands Typical language development

24 Months Can name a number of objects common to his surroundings Is able to use at least two prepositions Combines words into a short sentence Vocabulary of approximately words Volume and pitch of voice not yet well-controlled Typical language development

36 Months Use pronouns I, you, me correctly Is using some plurals and past tenses Knows at least three prepositions Handles three word sentences easily Has in the neighborhood of words About 90% of what child says should be intelligible Verbs begin to predominate Typical language development

In the beginning… Prelinguistic communication and the womb We experience language before we’re even born Normal human language uses sounds between 100 and 4000 Hz Sound travels through skin and fluids too In the womb, sounds up to 1000 Hz Can’t hear individual words But can hear: Intonation, durations, rhythm, stress What was that? You’re mumbling.

In the beginning… Prelinguistic communication and the womb We experience language before we’re even born Mahler (mid 80’s, in France) 4 day old babies Nonnutritive sucking method Played French or Russian Sucking pattern changed if language was switched Sucking pattern didn’t change if language wasn’t switched Babies knew (something about) the languages

In the beginning… Prelinguistic communication and the womb We experience language before we’re even born DeCasper, et al (1994) Fetal heart monitor

In the beginning… Prelinguistic communication and the womb We experience language before we’re even born DeCasper, et al (1994) Same story Different story Had mothers read stories everyday to fetuses during weeks of pregnancy After 38th week, two stories were played to the fetuses (but mom couldn’t hear it) Fetal heart monitor

In the beginning… Prelinguistic communication and the womb We experience language before we’re even born DeCasper, et al (1994) Same story Different story Had mothers read stories everyday to fetuses during weeks of pregnancy After 38th week, two stories were played to the fetuses (but mom couldn’t hear it) Fetal heart monitor

In the beginning… Prelinguistic communication and the womb We experience language before we’re even born DeCasper, et al (1994) Had mothers read stories everyday to fetuses during weeks of pregnancy After 38th week, two stories were played to the fetuses (but mom couldn’t hear it) Same story Different story Decreased fetal heart-rate Baby learned something about the story Fetal heart monitor

The early days After birth Prelinguistic communication Phonological differences are key Higher in pitch More variable in pitch More exaggerated intonation All may help to orient and maintain attention of infant May help “bootstrap” later learning Child-directed speech (motherese)

The early days After birth Prelinguistic communication Turn taking behaviors From the movie - breast feeding “conversations” Parents interpret infant’s vocalizations as having meaning (also from the movie, Snow’s work) Early “conversations”

Sharp phoneme boundary … 5 … 7 % /ba/ Eimas et al, (1971) Categorical perception in infants (1 month olds) The early days: phonology Young infants can distinguish different phonemes

The early days: phonology A number of studies suggest that very young infants can perceive between a number of phonemic distinctions (e.g., Kuhl & Meltzhoff, 1997) Not limited to their language context However, as they age/experience their context language the ability to perceive some of these distinctions are lost (~10 to 12 months) Categorical perception in infants Nature/nurture debate: Are humans “pre-programmed” to distinguish speech sounds?

… 5 … 7 % /ba/ Sharp phoneme boundary Eimas et al, (1971) Categorical perception in infants (1 month olds) The early days: phonology Chinchillas do it too! Kuhl and Miller (1975) Are they “pre- programmed to perceive human speech? We’re listening

Prelinguistic communication Prelinguistic gestures (around 8 months) Demonstration that the infant is trying to communicate in some way e.g., pointing behaviors Criteria Waiting Persistence Development of alternative plans

Early speech production Vocal track differences Infants vocal tracts are smaller, and initially shaped differently The infant’s tongue fills the entire mouth, reducing the range of movement As the facial skeleton grows, the range for movement increases (which probably contributes to the increased variety of sounds infants start to produce) May be (in part) why production lags behind comprehension InfantAdult

Early speech production The progression of cooing and babbling follows a universal pattern. Role of both nature and nurture Nature/Biology plays an important role in the emergence of cooing & babbling. The form of the child’s vocalization is also affected by the linguistic environment.

Early speech production weeks: cooing months: babbling The progression of cooing and babbling follows a universal pattern. Babies, until around 6 months old, can produce sounds/phonemes that their parents cannot produce or distinguish Clear consonants and vowels are produced “da”, “gi”

Early speech production weeks: cooing months: babbling The progression of cooing and babbling follows a universal pattern. Babies, until around 6 months old, can produce sounds/phonemes that their parents cannot produce or distinguish months: Reduplicated babbling “dada”, “gigi”

Early speech production weeks: cooing months: babbling The progression of cooing and babbling follows a universal pattern. Babies, until around 6 months old, can produce sounds/phonemes that their parents cannot produce or distinguish months: Reduplicated babbling months: CVC clusters may appear “bod”, “tat”

Early speech production The progression of cooing and babbling follows a universal pattern. Babies, until around 6 months old, can produce sounds/phonemes that their parents cannot produce or distinguish 10 or 11 months: Variegated babbling Combining “incomprehensible words” “dab gogotah” Intonation patterns May reflect phonological rules of spoken language context By 12 to 14 months some evidence of language specific phonological rules

Early speech production Of course he said “arf.” What else did you expect his first word to be?

Language Sponges About 3,000 new words per year, especially in the primary grades As many as 8 new words per day Production typically lags behind comprehension Learning words 12 ms first words 2 yrs 200 words 3 yrs1,000 words 6 yrs 15,000 words

Language Sponges Lots of individual differences But there is also a consistent pattern

Vocabulary growth Methods used to study this Observational data (60s to present) Diary studies Parents record their kids language development Taped language samples (Roger Brown) Small numbers of children (Eve, Adam, Sarah) Went to home every month made tape recordings Extensive study needed Hard to kids to “say all the words you know” or “say a question” Early phonological production isn’t like adult production, often need to take great care deciding what the child meant Large database CHILDESCHILDES Many kids, many languages, including children with language difficulties

Early speech production Transition to speech This is your fis? Your fis? Oh, your fish. No. … my fis. No. My fis! Yes, my fis.

Early speech production This is your fis? Transition to speech No, … my fis. Your fis.No, my fis. Oh, your fish.Yes, my fis. Can’t hear the difference? Rejects adult saying fis Can’t produce the correct sounds? Sometimes, but evidence suggests not always the case More general process of simplification “frees up” resources for concentrating on other aspects of language learning

Early speech production Early words Common Phonological processes Reduction Delete sounds from words Coalescence Combine different syllables into one syllable Assimilation Change one sound into a similar sound within the word Reduplication One syllable from a multi-syllabic word is repeated Transition to speech

Early speech production Developed in systematic ways Sometimes simplifications of adult speech Or relate to sounds of the objects Demonstrate Creative, not simply imitation Learned importance of consistency of names First words Around months (lots of individual differences) Emergence of systematic, repeated productions of phonologically consistent forms Idiomorphs - personalized words