Transcript Introduction to Linguistics Chapter 6: Pragmatics

Introduction to Linguistics
Chapter 10: Language Acquisition
Instructor: LIU Hongyong
Language acquisition
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The process of acquiring a native language is
called First Language Acquisition, or simply
Language Acquisition.
Why do we call it language acquisition?
Learning
 Intentional process
 Presupposes teaching
 Teacher controls pace
 Acquisition
 Unconscious process
 Does not presuppose teaching
 Child controls pace
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Definition
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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.
How language is learned?
 child language acquisition theories
 the Critical Period Hypothesis
 learning environment
 the stages of language learning
Theories of child language acquisition
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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
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.
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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.
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An innatist view of language acquisition
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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.
Noam Chomsky
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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.
LAD 语言习得机制
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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.
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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.
Logical Problem of Language
Acquisition
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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.
An interactionist view of language acquisition
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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.
Language environment
& the critical period hypothesis
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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.
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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 preequipped UG to process the materials provided
by the linguistic environment around the children.
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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.
Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH)
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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.
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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)
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 SaintSernin-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.
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.
Stages in child language acquisition
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Pre-speech
One word (holophrastic) stage
Two word stage
Telegraphic Stage
Fine-tuning
Pre-speech
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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:/
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5-12 mos. Babbling stage咿呀学语期
One-word stage
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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.
I want milk ….
Milk
Two-word Stage
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2 yrs. Two words, three possible interpretations
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Subject-verb ‘Mary go.’
Verb-modifier ‘Push truck.’
Possessor-possesed ‘Mommy sock’
Content words, no function words
(Telegraphic speech)
Example: Mama book
a) possession: This is Mama’s book.
b) request: Mama gave me the book.
c) statement: Mama is reading the book.
Multi-word Stage
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2 yrs., 6 mos.
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2-5 words with little morphology
Morphological overgeneralization
Easier, more productive morphemes first
2-5 yrs. More elaborate syntax
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Learning 20-30 words per day
Semantic overgeneralization/
undergeneralization
Atypical development
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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
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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。
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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。