PSYC 111 Chapter Notes - Chapter 8: Benjamin Lee Whorf, Language Acquisition Device, Noam Chomsky
Document Summary
B. f. skinner outlined an approach to language in his book verbal behavior (1957). Argued that children learn language through imitation, reinforcement, and other ways of conditioning. Noam chomsky suggested that there are an infinite number of sentences in a language. Unreasonable to expect that children learn language by imitation. Nativist theory suggests that humans are equipped with a language acquisition device (lad), which is an innate mechanism or process that facilitates the learning of language. Humans learn language because they are biologically equipped to. Biology and experience both make important contributions to the development of language. Believe that the human organism is biologically well equipped for learning language. Nature and nurture are both important to language acquisition. The acquisition of two languages that use different speech sounds, vocabulary, and grammar. The hypothesis that one"s language determines the nature of one"s thought. Benjamin lee whorf claimed that different languages lead people to view the world differently.
