Geography 2060A/B Study Guide - Final Guide: African Grey Parrot, Home Sign, Carl Wernicke
26 Apr 2018
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Chapter Nie: Laguage Developet
Aims
1) Components of Language
2) Theories of Language Development
3) Language Development
Part One: Components of Language
- Phonology – rules governing the structure and sequence of speech sounds, specific to each language
- Semantics – vocabulary – the way underlying concepts are expressed in words and word
combinations
- Pragmatics – the rules for engaging in appropriate and effective communication
o How close you stand to people, whether or not you can touch them, etc.
- Grammar – consists of the following
o Morphology – the grammatical use of markers (word parts) indicating number, tense, case,
person, gender, active/passive and other meanings PREFIX/SUFFIX
▪ Changes/MORPHS the word
▪ -ing, -ed,
▪ Does’t ea athig o its o
▪ In French would be words that change for gender – un, une, des, du, etc.
o Syntax – the rules by which words are arranged into sentences
▪ Proper way for a sentence to be formed
▪ Yoda breaks all rules of syntax
Part Two: Theories of Language Development
- Noam Chomsky proposed the Nativist Theory
o Language is uniquely human accomplishment (1)
o Etched into the structure of the human brain (2)
- Language Acquisition Device (LAD) (3) – an innate system that permits children, once they have
acquired sufficient vocabulary, to combine words into grammatically consistent novel utterances and
to understand the meaning of sentences they hear ***
o Used to talk AND understand grammatical sentences
- Universal grammar – a built-in storehouse of rules common to all human languages. Housed within
the LAD
- Evidence relevant to nativism:
o Humans around the world develop language at the same approximate ages – LAD regardless
of where in the world you grew up you would develop language at the same rat
o People can invent language (e.g. sign language)
o Aials do’t lea gaa
o There are dedicated language areas of the brain
o There are sensitive periods in development – certain parts of the brain must be triggered
and turned on at a certain time to ensure that they develop correctly
Global Language Development Patterns **
- Babies usually start babbling around 6 months
- They start saying their first words around 1 year
- They are able to combine words around 2 years
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
- And by 4-5 years have pretty good vocabularies and most grammatical rules
Children Inventing Language
- Some parents discourage their deaf children from using manual signs and address them verbally
- These toddles ad peshooles usuall do’t lea laguage
- But they do come up with their own system of communicating with their hands, called homesign
- The homesigns vary from individual to individual
- But for each individual, the homesign seems to conform to basic grammar rules
- For many years in Nicaragua, there had been no formal schooling for children who were deaf, so
children just relied on homesign
- Then they decided to form a school for deaf children, and formed a community of individuals who
essentially could not talk to each other since they had their own unique language (each having
created their own homesign)
- Within 20 years, the children themselves had created their own language, that matched just about
any other human language in structural complexity
- Today this language is known as Nicaragua Sign Language, and is still used today
Aial’s Do’t Learn Grammar
Nim Chimpsky
- Despite log stigs of sigs Ni’s atual setees aeaged .5 sigs
- Nim had never signed a true sentence
- Tried go get him to learn sign language
- Raised as an infant in a family home, exposed to all the language and things that the children in the
home were – never developed a true sentence
- Could get like one or two words together
Kanzi the Bonobo
- Understanding of new sentences was about a 2-year-old child
- Taught to use sign language with a visual communication board (pictures)
- Given a large vocabulary
- Learned through watching her mom use sign language as an infant
- Did’t lea ople gaa
Alex the Parrot
- African grey parrot purchased from pet store at 1 year old
- Had a 150-word vocabulary
- Could do math
- Could add several words together and communicate with them
- Could not use grammar
Border Collies
- Knows the labels of around 200-1000 different items, and can retrieve them on command
- Can infer that he unfamiliar item matches with the unfamiliar word
- Not speaking or telling us things in the traditional way
- Receptive language is incredible
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find more resources at oneclass.com
Language Areas of the Brain
Broca’s Area
- Paul Broca was a French surgeon who studied groups of patients who had lesions in the brain
- There was one patient in particular that was a very interesting case, a patient they called Tan
o He seemed to understand language, but the only word that he could ever seem to say was
tan
o Once he died, they took a look at his brain and noticed that the lesion was in a particular
spot
- Certain parts of the brain develop and become really good at language
- Part of the brain that is used for producing language
- Left frontal cortex
- Were able to understand what was being said to them, could not communicate (stroke in brocas
area)
Wericke’s Area
- Carl Wernicke was studying a different group of patients with aphasia
- This goup ould podue a lot of ods although the did’t eessaily make sense), but had great
difficulties understanding language
- The damage was located in the left temporal lobe (just behind and beneath our ears), in an area that
e o all Weike’s aea
- Patients who could talk and make sentences, had grammatical morphemes, had correct sentence
order, but could not understand what you were saying to them
- Language comprehension part of the rain
**multiple choice
- Weike’s aea is i the tepoal loe - udestadig laguage , oa’s aea is i the left fotal
cortex - producing language
The Linguistic Brain
- The brain kind of has a beautiful structure to it.
- Weike’s aea, hih e use to udestad laguage, is ight ea ou eas ad the pia
auditory cortex, right were language is coming in.
- The it just takes a ti hop oe to Weike’s aea, ad e a udestad the patte of souds
that have come in through our brains.
- Similarly, there is a beautiful organization to being able to speak a word.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Aims: components of language, theories of language development, language development. Phonology rules governing the structure and sequence of speech sounds, specific to each language. Semantics vocabulary the way underlying concepts are expressed in words and word combinations. Pragmatics the rules for engaging in appropriate and effective communication: how close you stand to people, whether or not you can touch them, etc. Grammar consists of the following: morphology the grammatical use of markers (word parts) indicating number, tense, case, person, gender, active/passive and other meanings prefix/suffix. Ing, -ed: changes/morphs the word, does(cid:374)"t (cid:373)ea(cid:374) a(cid:374)(cid:455)thi(cid:374)g o(cid:374) its o(cid:449)(cid:374) Noam chomsky proposed the nativist theory: language is uniquely human accomplishment (1, etched into the structure of the human brain (2) Universal grammar a built-in storehouse of rules common to all human languages. They start saying their first words around 1 year. They are able to combine words around 2 years. And by 4-5 years have pretty good vocabularies and most grammatical rules.
