Title: Language Development
1Language Development
- Big Goal Provide a sense of the mystery and
promise in child language research. - What are the challenges?
- Two competing approaches (Chomskyan and
(Neuro)Constructivist) - Poverty of the Stimulus Hypothesis - What are our
capacities and what information is in the
environment?
2Learning to recognize what we dont know
- The more we learn, the more we are - or ought to
be - dumbfounded. Our proper business is to
learn more and more and thereby separate our mere
ignorance from genuine mystery. Lewis Thomas
3Yearning and Learning
- In science, learning means trying as hard to
prove that something is false as to prove it is
true, even if that something is a cherished
belief - Yeaning is iosity. Yearning is the driving force
of science, art, and religionYearning without
learning is buying tabloid newspapers with
headlines announcing Newborn baby talks of
heaven. - - Chet Raymo Skeptics and Believer 199860
4Why is this implausible?
- Baby Born Talking - Describes Heaven
- Incredible proof of reincarnation
- Life in heaven is grand, a baby told an astounded
obstetrical team seconds after birth. Tiny Naomi
Montefusco literally came into the world singing
the praises of Gods firmament. The miracle so
shocked the delivery room team, one nurse ran
screaming down the hall. heaven is a beautiful
place, so warm and so serene, Naomi said. Why
did you bring me here? Among the witnesses was
mother Theresa Montefusco, 18, who delivered the
child under local anestheticI distinctly heard
her describe heaven as a place where no one has
to work, eat, worry about clothing, or do
anything but sing Gods praises. I tried to get
off the delivery table to kneel down and pray,
but the nurses wouldnt let. Sun 5/25/1985 cited
in Steve Pinker 1994262.
5Some simple facts
- Though various creatures have communication
systems, only humans have Language. - There are approximately 6,000 languages in the
world. - Any normal child growing up in any language
environment will eventually master the local
language(s).
6More Simple Facts
- Many exceptional children, i.e. blind, deaf,
cognitively deficient, neurologically impaired,
etc. may exhibit essentially normal language
development. (spoken or signed) - Masterful competence in Language is achieved
without explicit instruction.
7The Perception of Speech Sounds Coarticulation
- Coarticulation early movement of articulators
in anticipation of coming sounds
8(No Transcript)
9Identifying sameness despite differences
- The acoustic properties of individual sounds are
affected by the neighborhood in which they occur. - Sometimes there are little differences between
different sounds and big differences between the
the same sound in different contexts
10What we dont know we know(from Pinker, Word and
Rules 1998)
- Consider when we use irregular, not regular
forms - Prefixing overate/overeated, overshot/overshoot
ed, preshrank/pre-shrinked. - Compounding workmen/workmans,
superwomen/superwomans, stepchildren/stepchilds,
strawmen/mans, snowmen/snowmans -
11More regulars to consider
- The Toronto Maple Leafs/Leaves (a hockey team
named after Canadas national symbol, The Maple
Leaf). - Renault Elfs/Elves (cars).
- Michael Keaton starred in both Batmans/Batmen
(movie titles). - Were having Julia Child and her husband over for
dinner. You know, the Childs/Children are really
great cooks.
12But, some words only display regular marking -s
-ed
- All my daughters friends are low-lifes
(low-lives). - Im sick of dealing with all the Mickey Mouses in
this administration (Mickey Mice). - Boggs has singled, tripled, and flied out (flown
out) in the game so far.
13What else dont we know we know? Causatives
- Black Black-en
- Red Redd-en
- White Whit-en
- Green ?
- Dark ?
- Light ?
- Highlight ?
- Grue ?
- Drick ?
- Quiet Quieten (Guardian Unlimited 9/26/05
14A Paradox
- Normal adults have great difficulty achieving
moderate competence, let alone fluency, in a
second Language, despite - Greater cognitive sophistication than infants or
older children - Explicit instruction in classrooms
15Language in normal humans irrepressible
- Language creation situations
- Nicaragua sign language of deaf
- Bedouin sign language
16Enculturated creatures not irrepressible, but
- Kanzi (pygmy/bonobo chimp)
17Lexigrams
18English Comprehension Child vs. Chimp(Savage-
Rumbaugh et. al. 1993)
- Task Compare language development in a normal
child (Alia 20) and normal bonobo (Kanzi 80),
based on responses to 660 spoken instructions. - Kanzi Exposed to spoken English and lexigrams
from 60 mo. exhibited speech comprehension at
20 and spontaneous use of lexigrams at 25. - Alia Exposed to spoken English from birth and
lexigrams from 3 mo. comprehension of 32 spoken
words at 13 mo. and spontaneous use of lexigrams
at 11 mo.
19Some Results(Savage- Rumbaugh 199871)
- Rarely did either Kanzi or Alia make mistakes
that indicated a lack of understanding of the
basic grammatical structure of the sentences.Both
them readily differentiated between requests to
retrieve objects from locations (Go to location X
and get object Y) and requests to take objects to
locations (Take object X to location Y). They
also understood the difference between sentences
that required them to move through space in
addition to acting on objects and sentences that
required them to act on objects without moving
about.
20Interpretation(Savage- Rumbaugh et. al. 1993)
- under relatively similar rearing conditions
and virtually identical testing conditions, they
could comprehend both the semantics and the
syntax of quite unusual English sentences. - So, bonobos appear to perform some extraordinary
- language feats - well enough to even be
mistaken for a young human child, for a short
time. - But, bonbobos reach a threshold early on, while
the child keeps developing.
21A View From a Primate Researcher(Sue
Savage-Rumbaugh 1996 Discover Magazine)
- Now I understand in ways that I cannot fully
describe that language isnt a matter of learning
little building blocks like words and stringing
them together in some kind of hierarchical
structure and then going out and kind of throwing
these out to the rest of the world so that ideas
jump from my mind to yours. Language is a matter
of me learning to coordinate my behavior with all
of the other individuals in the world around me
and that much of this initial coordination is
through glances, through patternings of behavior
together, through joint understandings of how the
world works, and joint constructions of how were
going to operate in this world together.
22A View From a Developmental Psychologist(Annette
Karmiloff-Smith 199263)
- Child Whats that?
- Mother A typewriter.
- Child No, youre a typewriter, thats a
typewrite. (Yara, 4.0) - Thus, even if the chimpanzee were to have an
innately specified linguistic base, I speculate
that it would still never go as far as the human
child. It would never wonder why typewriter
isnt used to refer to people. It would simply
repeat the linguistic labels that it was given.
But children doi not simply reach efficient
usage they subsequently develop explicit
representations which allow them to reflect on
the component parts of words to progressively
build linguistic theories. - a crucial difference shows up when we look at
what happens beyond successful mastery.
Chimpanzees do not go beyond behavioral mastery.
Karmiloff-Smith 1995.
23Ignorance v. Mystery Complexity of Language
- for a few domains, like puddings, one can
assume a sample anywhere is as good as a sample
elsewhere. But, in complex systems, this is not
true. For example, it is a general fact that the
human body is 86 water. But from this it would
turn out to be foolish to make inferences such as
the body is 86 water water is chemically
simple so, the body is basically chemically
simple. Such inferences and strategies are, of
course, obviously wrong when one knows the
falsifying counter-information in advance. But
when one has very little knowledge of the domain,
they are commonly recruited. - M. Maratsos
1999192 - If language is a complex system, then it is an
incoherent question to ask How do children
learn language?
24The Main Subsystems
- Sound
- Phonological system (what is contained in
language particular sound systems, I.e., sounds,
how they combine) - Lexicon Grammar
- Morphological system (how words are formed)
- Syntactic system (how words combine into phrases
and sentences ) - Semantic system (meanings of words and larger
expressions) - Communication
- Pragmatic system (how language is used in
different contexts) - Discourse system (connecting utterances/sentences
into a coherent narratives)
25What linguists tell us about Language
- Language def A complex system made up of
independent, but interacting, subsystems (or
modules or components) coordinated with one
another, creating the appearance of a single,
unified entity. - These structures in these independent subsystems
need not neatly and straightforwardly correspond
with one another, I.e., the subsystems can
display mismatches.
26Mismatch 1 Phonology vs. Morphology
Phonological (Sound) Structure
Morphological (Word) Structure
27Mismatches between Morphology and Phonology
- The most well-motivated representation of the
internal structure of words from the perspective
of the meaningful pieces from which they are
composed differs from the best representation of
the same word from the perspective of the
organization of the sounds it consists of.
28Mismatch 2Syntax vs. Phonology
Syntactic (Word combination) Structure
Prosodic (Sentence melody) Structure
29Mismatches between Syntax vs. Phonology
- The best motivated representation of sentences as
composed of phrases differs from the best
representation of these phrases from the
perspective of the organization of how they are
grouped into units of sound.
30The Main Subsystems Developmental Milestones
31The Central Mystery
- How do children acquire the subsystems that make
up Language? - How do children acquire the sound system, word
shape system, word combination system, word
meaning (and sentence meaning) system -- and come
to coordinate all of these systems together?
32Necessary Questions
- What is Language? In what ways are all natural
languages alike? What ways are they different?
What distinguishes natural languages from animal
communication systems and artificial languages
and even programming languages? How can we
characterize the adults knowledge of his/her
native language(s)? - This is the domain of LINGUISTS.
33More Necessary Questions
- What is learning? How do children develop
mastery in non-linguistic domains such as facial
recognition or object recognition or concept
formation? What is the time course of learning
and are there correlations between learning in
different domains? What are the mechanisms or
processes that facilitate or impede learning? - This is the domain of DEVELOPMENTAL or COGNITIVE
PSYCHOLOGISTS.
34Resulting Interdisciplinary Questions
- What is language learning? How do children
develop mastery of their native language(s)? Do
they rely on the same operations as in
non-linguistic skills? What are the biological
bases and the actual learning patterns of the
language development process? How does learning
in normal and special populations differ and how
is it similar to language learning and learning
in other cognitive and social domains? What is
the relation between the adults knowledge and
the childs knowledge, I.e., what is the relation
between the infant startstate and the adult
endstate? - This is the domain of Developmental
PSYCHOLINGUISTS.
35Alternatively put
- The most fundamental question in the study of
the human language faculty is its place in the
natural world what kind of biological system it
is, and how it relates to other systems in our
species and others. - A second question is what parts of a persons
language ability (learned or built-in) are
specific to language and what parts belong to
more general abilities. - - Jackendoff Pinker 2005
36- The third question is which aspects of the
language capacity are uniquely human and which
are shared with other groups of animals, either
homologously, by inheritance from a common
ancestor, or analogously, by adaptation to a
common functionAs with the first two questions,
answers will seldom be dichotomous. They will
often specify mixtures of shared and unique
attributes, reflecting the evolutionary process
in which an ancestral primate design was
retained, modified, augmented or lost in the
human lineage. 20053
37The answer
- Nobody knows...but we have gotten increasingly
interested in - The types of methods used to explore key areas of
language, - The types of models proposed by researchers,
- The types of questions that need to be asked to
ultimately arrive at satisfying and compelling
answers.
38Some Consequences of Answers
- Help us to understand the nature of the human
mind. - Help us to understand the relation between human
behavior in relation to the behaviors of
non-human primates and other creatures Whats
our place in the biological world? - Help to understand the role of language in human
culture - Help to address issues in special populations,
I.e., deaf, neurogenetic disorders, etc.
39Major Issues
- Its mostly Nature
- Nativism (Plato 4th BC Kant 18th c.)
- Chomsky (1957, and more recent formulations)
- Rapid and effortless acquisition
- No explicit instruction
- Poverty of stimulus
-
- Its mostly Nurture
- Empiricism (Locke 17th c.)
- Behaviorism (Skinner 20th c.)
- Gradual (and effortful?) acquisition
- External stimulus leading to appropriate
responses. - Sufficiently reach stimulus
40Major Issues
- Its a balance between Nature Nurture contra
Chomsky, its the Nature of Nature that is the
question - Interactionism (Braine 1994)/Social
Interactionism (Snow 1989), Constructivism
(Piaget 1926) Emergentism, Neuroconstructivism
(MacWhinney 1999, Elman et. al. 1996,
Karmiloff-Smith1995 ) - There are no innately given language specific (
domain specific) capacities, but rather there are
innately given language relevant ( domain
general) capacities which conspire over time to
produce language.
41(Dis)Continuous Knowledge (Aitchison1976127)
Constructivist language specific structures and
categories of adult endstate are possibly
radically different from those infant startstate.
Chomskyan language specific structures and
categories of adult endstate are refined versions
whats at the infant startstate.
42Noun Coordination and Questions (Doctor
Doolittles Dilemma Stephen Anderson 2004224)(
- 3) Pat is majoring in Linguistics and
Philosophy. - 3) What is Pat majoring in Ø and Philosophy?
- 3) What is Pat majoring in Ø
- 4) Pat is majoring in Linguistics along with
Philosophy. - 4) What is Pat majoring in Ø along with
Philosophy?
43Sentence Coordination and Questions SA 2004224)
- Fred bought too many expensive presents and the
bank cut off his charge card. - 1) What did Fred buy Ø and the bank cut off his
charge card? - 2) Fred bought too many expensive presents, so
the bank cut off his charge card. - 2) What did Fred buy Ø,so that the bank cut
off his charge card?
44Observation
- Declarative sentences with very similar meanings,
I.e., 1 versus 2 and 3 versus 4, behave very
differently when you try to form questions. - Since you cannot form a question about only one
conjunct in a coordinated phrase, but you can
form a question from a single element when its
not in a coordinate phrase, the difference in
behavior isnt likely to be sensitive to meaning.
Instead, its possible that there are some
structure based restrictions.
45Empirical research and an interpretation
- Several decades of investigation support the
claim that - they restrictions like the coordinate structure
constraint) are true of all languagesThis kind
of knowledge could not plausibly have been
acquired on the basis of experience. Therefore
it seems likely that these aspects of syntactic
organization are as much a part of the
biologically determined human language faculty as
the structure of the vervet monkey calls is
specific to animals of that species. SA 2004229
46A (proposed) universal property of grammar
- Coordinate Structure Constraint
- A single conjunct in a coordinate structure
cannot be questioned alone. - XP
- XP1 and XP2
47Bevers Syllogism Representational Innateness
- To be proven Language is innate.
- 1. The essence of Language has property Pi
(Coordinate Structure Constraint). - 2. Pi cannot be learned by any (known)
(conceivable) theory of learning. - 3. Therefore, Pi is innate.
- 4. Therefore, the essence of Language is innate
(and caused thereby).
48Bevers Syllogism Developmental
- To be proven Language is learned.
- 1. The essence of Language has property Pi
(Coordinate Structure Constraint). - 2. Pi cannot be transmitted by any (known)
(conceivable) genetic mechanism. - 3. Therefore, Pi is learned.
- 4. Therefore, the essence of Language is learned
(and caused by how it is learned).