PSYC 2450 Lecture Notes - Illocutionary Act, Linguistic Universal, Phonological Awareness
27 Jun 2018
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Chapter 11 Development of Language and Communication Skills 1
Chapter 11
Development of Language and
Communication Skills
Chapter 11 Outline and Summary
Five Components of Language
There are five components to spoken language: phonology, morphology, semantics, syntax, and
pragmatics.
1. Phonology
Phonology refers to the basic sounds that make up a language and the rules for combining
those sounds into units of speech that convey meaning. Each distinct unit of sound within a
spoken language is called a phoneme.
2. Morphology
Morphological rules specify how words are formed from speech sounds.
3. Semantics
The expression of meaning, either in words or sentences, is called semantics. Individual
phonemes are combined to create either free morphemes or bound morphemes, both of
which represent the smallest units of a language to convey meaning. Morphemes include
root words, prefixes (such as un-), and suffixes (such as -ing). Prefixes and suffixes are
morphemes because their use can alter the meaning of root words.
4. Syntax
The rules that specify how words are combined to form meaningful phrases or sentences
make up the syntax of a language.
5. Pragmatics
Pragmatics involves sociolinguistic knowledge, or rules about the use of language in a social
context. This component of language includes the ability to adapt speech patterns to different
audiences or different settings, and also the ability to use and interpret nonverbal cues that
frequently accompany speech.
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Chapter 11 Development of Language and Communication Skills 2
Theories of Language Development
1. The Learning (or Empiricist) Perspective
Learning theorists emphasize the processes of imitation and reinforcement in their theories
of language learning, and both processes play a role in early language development. The fact
that children learn to speak the same language, dialect, and accent as those around them
shows the influence of imitation. When parents pay attention to their children’s early
vocalizations, the number and frequency of vocalizations increase; this indicates that
reinforcement has an impact on early language learning. Parents who frequently converse
with their children and who use a diverse vocabulary tend to have children who are relatively
more advanced in their language development.
a. Evaluation of the Learning Perspective
However, learning theorists have difficulty accounting for the development of syntax
(grammar). Analyses of conversations show that parents are more likely to pay attention to
(and therefore reinforce) the truth-value of a child’s statements, rather than the grammatical
correctness of those same statements. This suggests that reinforcement may not play a
significant role in “shaping” children’s grammatical skills. There is also not much evidence
to suggest that imitation can account for the development of syntax. During the preschool
years children’s speech often includes creative, ungrammatical terms (such as “broked” and
“wented”) that are clearly nonimitative.
2. The Nativist Perspective
Nativist theories are based on the assumption that humans are biologically programmed to
acquire language. Noam Chomsky proposed that humans come equipped with a language
acquisition device (LAD), which contains a universal grammar. Other nativists do not
assume that the knowledge of language is innate, but rather that there are inborn cognitive
and perceptual abilities that are specialized for language acquisition. Slobin referred to these
abilities as a language-making capacity (LMC). Regardless of the internal mechanism,
nativists see language acquisition as natural and relatively automatic, as long as children are
exposed to language.
a. Support for the Nativist Perspective
Several observations support the nativist perspective. First, there are a number of linguistic
milestones that appear to be universal in terms of both the timing and the sequencing of
acquisition. Second, specific areas of the brain have been identified that are linked to
language. Broca’s area is involved in the production of speech, and Wernicke’s area is
involved in the comprehension of speech. Third, nativist theorists have suggested that there
may be a sensitive period when language is most easily acquired, and the results from a
number of studies support this view; it appears that language is most easily acquired before
puberty. In fact, there are differences in brain organization between early and late second-
language learners. Fourth, only humans use an abstract, rule-bound linguistic system.
Finally, children who lack formal linguistic models appear to “invent” language to
communicate with their companions.
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Chapter 11 Development of Language and Communication Skills 3
c. Problems with the Nativist Approach
Some developmentalists have challenged the research findings that nativists use to support
their theories, and others have argued that attributing language development to a built-in
LAD doesn’t explain how language develops. Still other critics suggest that nativists
overlook the ways in which the environment promotes language development.
3. The Interactionist Perspective
Theorists who take an interactionist view of language development suggest that language
development involves an interaction among biological maturation, cognitive development,
and the linguistic environment a child experiences.
a. Biological and Cognitive Contributors
The fact that there are some clearly identified linguistic universals implies that physiological
maturation contributes to language acquisition. However, interactionist theorists suggest
language universals emerge, in part, due to the fact that the brain is not fully mature at birth.
During the first two years of life children around the world experience the same pattern of
brain maturation, and this universal pattern of brain development may account for the
presence of universals in language development.
b. Environmental Supports for Language Development
Interactionist theorists also stress that the environment can support or enhance language
development. Joint activities teach the give-and-take of conversation, and infants are more
likely to attend to child-directed speech (motherese), which is higher in pitch, slower, and
more repetitive than typical adult speech patterns. Parents also foster the development of
syntax when they utilize expansions and recasts. Expansions are grammatically correct,
enriched versions of ungrammatical utterances by the child; recasts involve transformations
of sentences generated by children into new grammatical forms. It is the dynamic interaction
of conversations that appears to be essential for language development; children who
passively listen to language, without engaging in conversational interactions, show slower
language development. According to Bates, grammatical speech arises out of social
necessity.
The Prelinguistic Period: Before Language
1. Early Reactions to Speech
Newborn infants can already discriminate speech from other sound patterns, and they pay
particular attention to speech sounds. Within the first few days after birth, infants already
show a preference for the sound pattern of the language that their mother speaks, over
foreign language patterns. Both of these findings suggest that the ability to discriminate
speech from nonspeech sounds and the ability to differentiate among a variety of speech
sounds is either innate or is acquired during the first days or weeks of life.
a. the Importance of Intonational Cues
Parents typically use rising intonations to capture the attention of their infant, and they use
falling intonations to comfort or to elicit a positive response from their infant. Between the
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