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• PSY2020 Lecture 3 focuses on cognitive development, specifically language development

Agenda

• Five components of language
• Theories of language development
• Developmental pattern of language acquisition

Klingon vs Ubbi Dubbi

• A comparison between a fully developed language and a linguistic game is explored

Klingon

• Developed by linguist Marc Okrand for Star Trek
• Has a full linguistic structure:
  • Phonology: Contains specific sounds unique from other languages
  • Syntax: Rules dictate word order (e.g., object-verb-subject)
  • Vocabulary: Thousands of words with specific meanings
  • Grammar: Complex rules governing how words are combined

Ubbi Dubbi

• Ubbi Dubbi is a linguistic game often played by children
• The syllable "ub" is inserted before each vowel sound in a word (e.g., "hello" becomes "hubellubo")
• It is not a full language for these reasons:
  • No independent vocabulary: It modifies existing words from English
  • No unique syntax or grammar: It uses the grammatical structure of the base language (usually English)
  • No cultural or historical depth: It is a playful modification, not a system for nuanced or cultural communication

What is Language?

• A structured system of communication humans use to express thoughts, emotions, ideas, and information
• A fundamental tool for social interaction, cultural expression, and knowledge transmission

Types of Language

• Spoken Language: Using vocal sounds to convey meaning (e.g., English, Mandarin, Swahili)
• Written Language: Visual representation of spoken language through symbols or characters
• Sign Language: A visual-gestural language used by the Deaf community, with its own grammar and syntax (e.g., Sign Language)

Differences between Language and Communication

• Language:
  • System of symbols that can be combined according to rules, enabling communication
• Communication:
  • Process by which one organism transmits information to and influences another

Five Components of Language

• Phonology
• Semantics
• Syntax
• Morphology
• Pragmatics

Phonology

• Knowledge of a language's sound system
• Phonemes are unique sounds that can be joined to create words
• Example: the sound of the letter "p" in pin, pet, and pat

Morphology

• Rules specify how words are formed from sounds
• Examples:
  • firehouse = fire + house
  • Runs = run + s
  • 跑+步=跑步

Semantics

• Meanings are expressed in words
• Example: cat is a type of animal

Syntax

• Rules specify how words are combined to produce sentences
• Example: the correct syntax if: likes she teacher her

Pragmatics

• Knowledge of how language is used to communicate effectively
• Sociolinguistic knowledge involves rules for using language in particular social contexts
• Examples:
  • "Grandma, may I please have a cookie?" vs. "Give me a cookie, Grandma!"

Is language development learned or born?

• Theories:

  • Learned (Empiricist)
  • Born (Nativist)
  • Interactionist

• Genie was a 13-year-old child who had spent much of her life chained to a potty chair in her bedroom

• Genie could not speak, walk, or respond to people

• Her case attracted psychologists interested in whether she could still learn to speak

• Linguists led by Chomsky believed that human speech is a genetically programmed ability

• Eric Lenneberg, a neuropsychologist, agreed and added that if a person does not learn to speak by adolescence, the natural ability may be lost forever

• This is known as the "critical period hypothesis"

• Genie's caretakers were criticized for mixing research with her treatment.

Empiricist Perspective

• Language is entirely learned
• This is the "nurture" or "external" perspective
• Imitation, reinforcement, and correction are responsible for learning language
• Babies make sounds while babbling that resemble a real word
• Parents praise behavior, leading to more words.

Nativist Perspective

• Humans are biologically programmed to acquire language
• Language Acquisition Device (LAD): An inborn tool hardwired in the brain helps children learn rapidly and understand language (Chomsky)
  • A theoretical concept
• Universal grammar is a common set of rules to account for rapid language development in humans
• Language-Making Capacity (LMC, by Slobin) is a set of cognitive and perceptual abilities specialized for language learning

Support for the Nativist Perspective

• Presence of linguistic universals
• Brain specialization and language:
  • Broca's area: Supports speech production
  • Wernicke's area: Supports speech comprehension
• Sensitive-Period Hypothesis: Language most easily acquired from birth to puberty

Problems with the Nativist Approach

• Other species show auditory discrimination early in life, so the LAD is not needed
• Doesn't explain language development
• Overlooks the role of the environment

Interactionist Perspective

• Focuses on biological and cognitive contributors:
  • Humans are biologically prepared to acquire language
  • Gradual nervous system maturation explains development of similar ideas at the same age
  • Biological maturation affects cognitive development, affecting language

Environmental Supports for Interactionist Perspective

• Language is a means of communicating
• Lessons are learned from joint activities
• Conversations require taking turns, providing opportunities for grasping the regularities of language
• Lessons from child-directed speech use short, simple sentences (motherese)
  • Becomes more complex with language development

Infant-Directed Speech

• Also called "parentese," is how adults speak to infants, characterized by a higher pitch, slower tempo, and exaggerated intonation
• It engages infants' attention and aids in language acquisition
• Enhances attention and engagement
• Simplifies language input for easier learning
• Facilitates word segmentation and recognition
• Strengthens caregiver-infant bonding
• Research Findings
  • Infants prefer infant-directed speech
  • 4-month-olds in a study by Fernald listened to a stranger's speech (to the infant or to an adult)

Infant-Directed Speech and Language Acquisition

• Infant-directed speech is higher-pitched and easier to hear: Subjective loudness increases with pitch
• Infant-directed speech is smoothed and connected and easier to follow
• Exaggerated contours express emotion and are attention-catching
• A way of soothing babies

Effectiveness of Infant-Directed Speech

• Fernald studied 9-month-olds and discovered infants listen to the tone
• Infants play when hearing "approval” tunes (e.g., "Good!" or "Clever girl!")
• Infants hesitate to play when hearing "prohibition” tones (e.g., "No!" or "Don't touch that!")
• 18-month-olds listen to the words rather than the melody

What do 0-2 Month Babies Say?

• Reflexive vocalization is present
  • Examples: Crying, hiccups, burps, sighs
  • Not speech-like; lacks regular voicing
  • Communication function is reflexive and not linguistic

What do 2-Month Babies Say?

• Cooing (gurgling or mewing):
  • Sound characteristics are Real vowels, ="coo," "ga-ga," and "goo"
  • Developmental progress: Infants develop increasing control over vocal cords
  • The communication function is non-linguistic and not intentional

What do 4-6 Month Babies Say?

• Babbling is present
  • Sound characteristics: Consonant-vowel (CV) combinations, such as "mamama" and "papapa"
  • Developmental progress: Early babbling involves vocal play, with occasional real CV syllables (e.g., "ba")
  • Communication function: Pre-linguistic and exploratory; a stepping stone toward speech

First Word Acquisition

• Mama and Dada are common first words in many languages

12-14 Month Vocabulary

• New words appear slowly in production, typically one at a time
• Content words (Nelson, 1973: English):
  • Names for things (ball, doggie) – 51%
  • Action (up, off, gone)
  • Social (bye, no)
  • Routines (bath, lunch)
  • Modifiers (hot)
• No function words (the, but, or, until)

What do 18-24 Month Babies Say?

• Two Word Combinations:
  • Children begin combining words, typically ~6 months after first words
  • Characteristics of Word Combinations:
• mostly two word at a time
  • combinations focus on content words, leaving out function words
  • word order is correct early on
• Examples include:
  • Noun + Noun: "Doggie bed."
  • Noun + Verb: "Baby eat."
  • Verb + Noun: "Want cookie."

Telegraphic Speech (18-24 Months)

• Short sentences containing only critical words, with no grammatical markers
• Common in languages where word order is more critical than grammatical markers
• Semantic intent: Meaning is derived from words and context, rather than grammatical structures
• Examples:
  • "Want cookie."
  • "Daddy go."

18-24 Month Semantic Phrases Expressed

• Agent + action: Mommy come. Daddy sit.
• Action + location: Go park. Sit chair.
• Action + object: Drive car. Eat grape.
• Agent + object: Mommy sock. Baby book.
• Demonstrative + object: Dat money. Dis telephone.
• Object + attribute: Box shiny. Crayon big.
• Object + location: Cup table. Toy floor.
• Possessor + possession: My teddy. Mommy dress.

After 2-Word Combination Stage (~ 2-3 Years)

• There is a gradual increase in sentence complexity and length
• Function words are now acquired
• Children learn grammatical rules and morphemes (elements of meaning)
• Common phrase structure are the rule instead of the exclusion
• Regular cases: "shoe shoes," "walk walked."
• Irregular cases: "foot feet," "run ran."
• Children can apply rules incorrectly for longer words
  • Over-generalization: Applying rules incorrectly at first (e.g., "foot foots," and "run runned")
• There is progress, showing an understanding of linguistic rules

Understanding Function Words

• Researchers (including Gerken & McIntosh) discovered in a experiment a 24-month-old children could follow directions:

  • Grammatical: "Find the bird for me!"
  • Missing: "Find --- bird for me!”
  • Ungrammatical: “Find was bird for me!"
  • Nonsense: "Find gub bird for me!"gth of utterance = 1 – 2.5)

• Function Words Matter: Even 24-month-old children who are just starting to speak (1-word speakers) could process function words (e.g., "the" and "is")

• Children picked objects or images more accurately when the correct function word was used in speech

Role of Context

• Function words provide important grammatical cues, helping children make sense of sentences and link words to their meanings
• Enhance listeners understanding of relationships between nouns, verbs, and other sentence components

Language Development During the Preschool Period (2 ½ - 5 Years)

• Children's sentences become increasingly complex and resemble adult-like structures
• Grammatical morphemes are modifiers that enhance sentence precision by conveying specific meanings
  • '-s' Indicates plurality (e.g., "cats")
  • '-ed' Marks past tense (e.g., "jumped")
  • '-ing' Denotes present progressive (e.g., "running")
• Overregularization applies newly learned grammatical rules to irregular cases
  • Example correct usage: “dogs” → Incorrect: "foots" (instead of "feet")
  • Example correct usage: Correct: "played" Incorrect: "goed" (instead of "went")

Mastering Tranformational Rules

• Involves modifying a sentence structure by moving or adding elements
• Helps explain the relationship between different sentence types, such as statements and questions

Asking Questions

• Yes/No Questions: Are characterized by rising intonation (e.g., "You are coming?"
• Wh- Questions: Examples of usage are:
  • Introduced by words: who, what, where, when, and why
  • Requires reordering of sentence elements "You are going where?"

Producing Negative Sentences

• Early attempts to negate the subject involve simple structures:
• "No apple” (negating the presence of an item)
• “"No I go” (negating an action)
• Negation typically precedes the subject or verb early on

Producing Complex Sentences

• Age 3: Children begin combining clauses and using conjunctions (e.g., “I want to play because it's fun”)
• Embedded sentences emerge allowing for more complex structures
  • Example: "That's the box that they put it in"
• Ages 5- to 6: Grammar becomes sophisticated and closely resembles adult-like syntax
• Children demonstrate a strong grasp of sentence structure with embedded clauses and proper use of conjunctions

Semantic Development

• Ages 2-5: Children begin to understand and express relational contrasts, such as:
  • Size: big/little
  • Height: tall/short
  • Location: in/on, here/there
• Challenges With Passive Sentences: children often misinterpret passive sentence structures, focusing on grammatical cues in word order
  • "The cat was chased by the dog" may be understood as “The cat chased the dog.”

Developments in Middle Childhood

• Syntactic and Semantic Advancements
  • Syntactic refinement: Mastery of subtle grammatical rules and increasingly complex sentence structures
  • Semantic and metalinguistic awareness: Ability to analyze and think about language independently of concrete word meanings
    • Understanding figurative language like metaphors and idioms
    • Recognizing ambiguities in sentence meaning

Rapid Vocab Growth in Middle Childhood

• Children develop morphological knowledge and small units of meaning to infer new words:
  • Example: “unhappiness” → Understanding “un-” and -ness" .
• Children learn words to describe less tangible concepts:
  • Freedom
  • Justice

9-11 Year Old Language Comprehension Skills

• Ability to recognize subtle language cues and interpretations
• Examples of skills:
  • Drawing conclusions from context
  • Interpreting implied meanings in conversations or texts

Development of Communication Skills

• Referential Communication Skills:
  • improve by age 6-7
  • effective information exchange by referencing specific subjects, people, objects, or events
  • Provide clearer descriptions (ex: “The red ball on the table” instead of just "the ball")

Social Skills

• Children shift towards less egocentrism:
  • Increased ability to consider others' perspectives and adapt communication accordingly
  • Providing context when speaking to someone unfamiliar with the topic
• Children Clarify information from the other person instead of relying on their own perception:
  • When explaining, children add information with the listener is confused
    • such as “No, the small box, not the big one."

Milestones in Language Development

• include discrimination of speech, babbling, spatial learning, vocabulary improvement, grammatical acquisition and comprehension

The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

• It suggests the influence of language on one's perception. How individuals perceive what they interact in.
  • Emphasizes cultural and environmental relevance of language (Eskimo-Aleut languages.)

Genie's Cases

• She suffered from a modern day Wild Child case.
  • Found in 1970
  • 13 years of age at the time
  • California, USA
  • 13 years in confinement

Critical Period Hypothesis

• Lenneberg researched this in 1967. He theorized that in early childhood, there is a biological window; when one is receptive to the ability to acquire the language.
  • Post-puberty that window shrinks, making it harder to obtain this task.

Bilingualism And Language Development

• Children exposed to two languages prior to the age of three have the ability to achieve proficiency in both.
• Preschool Language Learning
  • Learning a second language with near proficiency in a years time.
• These children test with high scores in IQ and awareness of different levels of language.
  • Control and attention skills are higher.