Chomsky, etc'

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Chomsky, etc.

• Brief Review

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What is Special About Language Acquisition?

• Language is a highly structured and
  sophisticated system of communication that is
  unique to humans.

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What is Special About Language Acquisition?

• Despite its overwhelming importance and
  extraordinary complexity, children are capable of
  mastering language skills within a matter of
  years without explicitly being taught strict
  grammatical guidelines or any other facts
  concerning the structure of language.

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What is the Best Explanation For These Facts
(Chomsky)

• Humans posses an innate language faculty
  responsible for language acquisition, production,
  etc.
• This language faculty is a mental organ which,
  to a large extent, functions independently of
  other mental components.

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Common Quote (support for 1)

• It also became clear that direct teaching and
  correcting of their grammar could not account for
  childrens utterances either, because the rules
  children were unconsciously acquiring were
  largely buried in the unconscious of the adults
  around them.

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Aphasias (support for 2)

• Brocas Area Portion of left frontal
  hemisphere. Patients with the syndrome speak
  haltingly and omit grammatical elements of a
  sentence and have difficulty getting thoughts
  out. They have only small problems understanding.
  (nonfluent aphasia)
•  
• Wernickes Area Posterior portion of the left
  hemisphere. Speech flows with relative ease but
  is disordered and contains many wrong words.
  (fluent aphasia)

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Nature of the Language Faculty

• Basic set of principals and parameters which
  are, in a sense, switched on or off between
  various states, depending on the precise grammar
  of the language being learned.
• This set of principals and parameters, which is
  fundamental to every possible grammatical
  structure, is called Universal Grammar.

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Universal Grammar

• Despite superficial differences all human
  languages share a fundamental structure. This
  structure is a universal grammar. We have an
  innate ability to apply this universal grammar to
  whatever language we are faced with at birth.

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Evidence for Universal Grammar

• Children follow linguistic constraints, even in
  new situations.
• Not possible for children to have heard all
  possible grammatical sentences (noun inflections,
  etc.). Must have mastered rules.

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Evidence for Universal Grammar

• Direct teaching and correcting of grammar could
  not account for childrens utterances because the
  rules children were unconsciously acquiring are
  buried in the unconscious of the adults.
• Parents do not provide enough feedback to account
  for the rapidity and accuracy of child language
  acquisition.

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Whorf Hypothesis

• Can there be thought independent of language?

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Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf (1940)

• We dissect nature along lines laid down by our
  native language. The categories and types that we
  isolate from the world of phenomena we do not
  find there because they stare every observer in
  the face on the contrary, the world is presented
  in a kaleidoscopic flux of impression which has
  to be organized by our mindsand this means
  largely by the linguistic system in our minds. We
  cut nature up, organize it into concepts, and
  ascribe significances as we do, largely because
  we are parties to an agreement to organize it
  this wayan agreement that holds throughout our
  speech community and is codified in the patterns
  of our language. The agreement is, of course, an
  implicit and unstated one, but its terms are
  absolutely obligatory we cannot talk at all
  except by subscribing to the organization and
  classification of data which the agreement
  decrees.

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Examples

• Hopi language reflects a different conception of
  time from English. There is no word for past or
  future, and time is seen as a series of points
  rather than a continuous flow.
• The Pirahã have a one-two-many understanding of
  numbers. They dont perform well in tests of
  e.g., 6 objects.
• Members of the Talamuhara tribe who
  differentiate lexically only between white and
  black were more accurate in their identifcation
  of colors.

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Linguistic Relativity

• A distinction found in one language may not be
  the same as in any other language.

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What is the Whorf Hypothesis Saying?

• Stronger Claim (Linguistic Determinism) Our
  language determines the way we think. Language
  shapes thought.
• Weaker Claim (Linguistic Influence) Language
  influences thought. The construction of language
  makes it relatively easier or more difficult to
  think in certain ways.
•