PSYCH-UA 34 Lecture Notes - Lecture 22: Language Acquisition, Speech Perception, Psychological Nativism
Document Summary
There are two forms of communication: 1) signs, 2) pointing. What is language: words are waves in the air that our brain interprets, has a symbolic understanding: chimps can map symbols out with words or actions, language is two things: 1) combinatorial: it strings words together to form a meaning. 2) generative: it can generalize beyond the meaning of individual words. Why a human thing: chimps don"t have the generative component of language; they are unable to make use of words in a more complex manner. By 2 years old babies are able to understand and learn language. B. f. skinner verbal behavior : language is acquired by operant conditioning and reinforcement, children simply listen and respond to input. Chomsky: children have a language acquisition device (lad) One area is used solely for language plastic idea: children can induce the rules of language from the speech of others. Children with minimal exposure to language can still learn language.