1. 1 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay LIN 1300 What is language? Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay 1

2. 2 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay Monday, September 17  Last class › Human language  Today › Human language (continued)  Acquired or innate  Remark › Office: Arts 435 2

3. 3 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay How does language develop?  General cognitive ability › Starting point: tabula rasa/clean slate  Everything is acquired from the environment › Acquired  Language-specific genetic programme › Starting point: innate language acquisition device  Part of our knowledge about language is pre-wired in our brain, the rest is learned from the environment › Innate 3

4. 4 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay Language is ‘acquired’ General cognitive ability  Behaviourism  study of language as a behaviour › Psychology (Skinner) › Explains acquisition in general  not just language  Language acquisition is determined by both biological and environmental factors  There is no genetic programme specific for language acquisition in our brain › Acquisition = thanks to general cognitive processes 4

5. 5 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay  Practice › sounds, words, grammatical structures, etc.  Feedback › Positive (praise) › Negative (correction)  Habit formation › Creation of language habits through imitation and practice 5 Language is ‘acquired’: Behaviourism

6. 6 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay Language is ‘acquired’: Behaviourism  Role of the environment › Quality and quantity of input, practice and feedback matters  Explains variation in the acquisition process › Language as a ‘social behaviour’  Explains sociolinguistic variation 6

7. 7 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay  Behaviourism explains: › the acquisition of aspects of language that are regular and routinized › variation 7 Language is ‘acquired’: Behaviourism

8. 8 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay  Behaviourism does not explain: › Input vs. Knowledge  How can children develop such a complex linguistic system by being exposed to so little input?  Errors not found in the input  What do you think what Cookie Monster eats?  Irregular forms ( I goes, two foots, etc.)  Semantic innovations › Universality of the acquisition process › Feedback  Has little effect  Mostly on meaning rather than on form 8 Language is ‘acquired’: Behaviourism

9. 9 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay Language is ‘innate’ Language-specific genetic programme › Innatism (Chomsky)  study of the structure of language › Linguistics › Explains language acquisition only  Humans have a genetic predisposition for language acquisition › Brain ≠ tabula rasa (clean slate)  Language develops in children like other biological functions, automatically, without help › Ex: organs, learning to walk 9

10. 10 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay Language is ‘innate’: Innatism  Role of the environment › Not very important  Explains universality of acquisition sequence  Only activates the acquisition mechanism 10

11. 11 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay  Universal Grammar (UG) › Innate acquisition mechanism › Activated by exposure to language › Also (formerly) called Language Acquisition Device (LAD) › Underlying structure of human language  Not a particular language (e.g. English)  Contains the principles shared by all languages  Parameter setting as a result of exposure to a language  Word order, grammatical gender, null/overt subject, etc. 11 Language is ‘innate’: Innatism

12. 12 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay Language is ‘innate’: Innatism  Innatism explains:  Input vs. knowledge  Universality of the acquisition process  Properties universal to all languages 12

13. 13 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay Language is ‘innate’: Innatism  Aspects/Questions not answered  Where does UG come from?  What is UG genetically?  What is part of UG and is learnt from the environment? 13

14. 14 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay Language is ‘innate’ and ‘acquired’  Combination of innate and acquired  Evidence that language could be, at least in part, innate 14

15. 15 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay Language is innate: Evidence  Language is specific to our specie  Language acquisition is affected by a sensitive/critical period  Language acquisition happens quickly, without teaching, in a similar way for all children  ‘Poverty of the stimulus’ and ‘logical problem of language acquisition’  Language functions in the brain at birth  Language abilities are dissociated from other cognitive abilities  Language develops in a similar way even when it is invented 15

16. 16 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay  Langage is specific to our specie › Human language is unique › Other species cannot learn it 16 Language is innate: Evidence

17. 17 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay  Language acquisition is affected by a sensitive/critical period › Critical Period (CP)  […] a period in the life of an organism, during which this organism may be affected by exogenous influences more easily than at other times.  The organism is simply more sensitive to the stimulation in the environment during a critical period than at other times.  (adapted from Colombo, 1982, p. 261, in Bongaerts, 2003) 17 Language is innate: Evidence

18. 18 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay  Evidence of CP in other species › E.g birds  Evidence of CP for L1 acquisition in humans › Late L1 acquisition  Late exposure  Aphasia 18 Language is innate: Evidence

19. 19 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay  Late exposure to L1: Genie (Curtiss, 1977) › Found at the age of 13  Physically, emotionally and intellectually underdeveloped › Secluded and bound to a chair in a small and dark room › Deprived of interaction and punished for trying to communicate or even make noises  After years of rehabilitation › Education and instruction in English  Well adapted for various aspects (e.g. intelligence, mental age)  Language acquisition incomplete Language is innate: Evidence 19

20. 20 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay  Aphasia › “Language impairment that results from brain damage”  E.g. caused by head trauma after an accident, a stroke, etc.  Recovery  Fullvery difficult › birth4 years old 10 years oldadulthood Language is innate: Evidence Re-acquisition process more or less similar as the first time around Recovery is easier and often complete Very serious consequenc 20

21. 21 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay Language is innate: Evidence 21  Language acquisition happens quickly, without explicit teaching, in a similar way for all children › Acquisition by exposure to the input, no need/use for teaching or correcting errors › In the same way under varying circumstances  Similar rate and sequence even with different input, modality and language  6-8 months: babbling  10-12 months: first word  20-24 months: 2-word utterances ...

22. 22 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay  Poverty of the stimulus › How do children know so much with so little input?  The input is not rich enough to explain the complexity of the linguistic system that is acquired 22 Language is innate: Evidence

23. 23 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay  Logical problem of language acquisition › Productivity  We hear a finite number of sentences, yet we can produce an infinite number of different sentences we have never heard before › Errors  Children make errors, yet they all seem to respect certain constraints › Positive evidence mainly  Children are not told explicitly what is grammatical and what isn’t, yet they know  Children make the right generalisations based on the input 23 Language is innate: Evidence

24. 24 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay › Some mistakes are never found  e.g. generalisation of “wanna” for “want to”  object question  You want to see X = Who do you wanna see?  subject question  You want X to come = *Who do you wanna come? 24 Language is innate: Evidence

25. 25 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay  ‘Poverty of the stimulus’ and ‘logical problem of language acquisition’ › Summary of the ideas  Children know a lot more about their L1 than what they could have learned directly from the input 25 Language is innate: Evidence

26. 26 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay  Language functions in the brain at birth › Research on newborns  Methods  Dichotic listening  Electroencephalography (EEG)  Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) 26 Language is innate: Evidence

27. 27 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay › Dichotic listening  Selective attention in auditory system  Different stimuli in each ear  Right ear advantage for linguistic stimuli indicates language functions in the left hemisphere 27 Language is innate: Evidence

28. 28 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay  Electroencephalography (EEG) 28 Language is innate: Evidence  Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) › Brain activity indicates specialization of certain regions for language processing in first few days of life

29. 29 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay  Language abilities are dissociated from other cognitive abilities › If language acquisition depended on general cognitive abilities, language abilities would be affected whenever an individual’s cognitive development is affected  Specific Language Impairment (SLI)  Delays in lg development without cognitive issues  (appears to be hereditary)  Williams Syndrome  Cognitive issues with no/very little lg issues 29 Language is innate: Evidence

30. 30 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay  Language develops in a similar way even when it is invented › Deaf children deprived of language › Pidgins and creoles 30 Language is innate: Evidence

31. 31 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay  Deaf children deprived of language › Study (Goldin-Meadow and colleagues)  10 deaf children  Not exposed to language for first 1-4 years  Language development process similar to typical acquisition process  1year old: 1 st word  invented iconic signs (e.g. Mickey Mouse)  2 years old: 2-3 word utterances  similar word order (subject-verb, verb-object) 31 Language is innate: Evidence

32. 32 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay  Pidgins and creoles › Pidgin  Language invented by people from different linguistic communities in order to communicate 32 Language is innate: Evidence › Creole  A pidgin that has acquired native speakers  Similarities among pidgins  Similarities in the development process of creoles

33. 33 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay Discussion  Universal grammar › What do you think is part of universal grammar and what is learned?  Comments on each aspect:  Sounds (perception, production, etc.)  Words (concepts, meaning, form, etc.)  Sentences (structure) 33

34. 34 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay Next time…  Structure of language › phonetics  Read Yule Ch. 3 34