Scott Merkley & Jake Erikson Language Development Scott Merkley & Jake Erikson

Language Language is a form of communication, either spoken, written, or signed, that is based on a system of symbols used to display experiences, concepts, and emotions

Language Infinite Generativity: the ability of language to produce an endless number of meaningful sentences Phonology: a languages sound system Language is made up of basic sounds or phonemes like /k/, c, r Morphology: a languages rule for word formation Morpheme is the smallest unit of language, help + er

Language Syntax: a languages rules for combining words to form acceptable phrases and sentences Semantics: the meaning of words and sentences in a particular language Pragmatics: The useful characteristics of language and the ability of language to communicate even more meaning than is verbalized

Language and Cognition Language is a vast system of symbols capable of expressing most thoughts Although we do not always think in words, our thinking would be greatly impoverished without words Language is a tool for representing ideas

Cognition in Language Dyslexia: a learning disability characterized by difficulty with learning to read fluently and with accurate comprehension, despite normal intelligence Many gifted individuals have had dyslexia including Steve Jobs, Tom Cruise, and Mohammed Ali

Biological Influences on Language Scientists believe that human language originated around 100,000 years ago beginning with grunting and shrieking as an abstract form of speech Noam Chomsky has argued that humans are born biologically prewired to learn language at a certain time in a certain way Evidence is based on children around the world reach language milestones at about the same time

Environmental Influences Genie, 13 years old Locked away in almost total isolation during her childhood.

Language Development over the Life Span 0-6 months: cooing, discrimination of vowels, babbling 6-12 months: babbling includes sounds of spoken words, first words around 10-13 months 12-18 months: understands 50+ words on average 18-24 months: vocabulary of 200 words, 2 word combination 2 years: vocab rapidly increases, past tense, some prepositions 3-4 years: yes and no, wh- questions, increased awareness of pragmatics 5-6 years: vocab of 10,000 words, simple sentences 6-8 years: vocab increases, conversational skills improve 9-11 years: word definitions include synonyms 11-14 years: understand metaphor and satire, complex grammar forms 15-20 years: understand adult literary works

New Languages Special kind of cognitive exercise Learning to ignore sounds that aren't important to your first language Overriding old habits with new ones