PSYC 2450 Chapter Notes - Chapter 11: Language Acquisition Device, Noam Chomsky, Language Development

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 2450
• Professor: Carol Anne Hendry

Document Summary

Language: a small number of individually meaningless symbols (sounds, letters, gestures) that can be combined according to agreed-on rules to produce an infinite number of messages. Communication: the process by which one organism transmits information to and influences another. Vocables: unique patterns of sound that a pre-linguistic infant uses to represent objects, actions, and events. Grandma, may i please have a cookie? rather than demanding, give me a cookie : children must become social editors, the task of becoming an effective communicator requires not only a knowledge of these. 5 aspects of language but also an ability to properly interpret and use nonverbal signals (facial expressions, gestures and so on) What evolved from this influx was hawaiian pidgin. Interactionists stress that language is primarily a means of communicating that develops in the context of social interactions as children and their companions strive to get their messages across one way or another.