The document discusses language acquisition and the debate between nature vs nurture. It presents Chomsky's theory of Universal Grammar, which argues that humans are born with an innate, biologically-based capacity for language acquisition. According to Chomsky, the linguistic stimuli children receive are too impoverished to account for their language development, suggesting an inborn linguistic organ or "faculty of language." This faculty includes principles that are universal across languages and parameters that vary between languages, which children set during acquisition. The document also discusses Piaget's cognitive theory of language learning versus Fodor's modularity theory and domain specificity.

1. Language Acquisition
LCD 105 – Professor Nathacia

2. Communication Systems vs. Language
Training vs. Acquisition
Do animals talk?

3. Imitation?
Pattern recognition?
Teaching and reward?
What about kids?

4. How come we know that MUCH
from so FEW stimuli?

5. The Poverty of the Stimulus Argument
”That is the logical problem: How is it possible that a finite set of stimuli
creates a system that generates infinite/ unlimited products? In other
words, how do we go from finite stimuli to the discrete infinitude,
fundamental characteristic of human language? How a finite list of
particular uses of language can create a system that is infinitely productive
as the language competence?” (Kenedy, 2013)

6. The Poverty of the Stimulus Argument
”The argument for the poverty of stimulus states that the precise and
elaborated knowledge on language structure that children built cannot be
deducted exclusively from language stimuli information, it doesn’t matter
how rich and numerous they are.” (Kenedy, 2013)

7. (1) John thinks that Peter won’t help him fix the machine.
(2) Peter thinks that John won’t help him fix the machine.
(3) Blake told John that Peter won’t help him fix the
machine.
(4) John asked Peter if Mary want to talk to him.

8. COMPETENCE x PERFORMANCE

9. COMPETENCE
Knowledge that a native speaker has
about his/her own language. It is an
unconscious knowledge. It is the set
of all language rules and restrictions,
and the set of lexical items that s/he
knows.

10. PERFORMANCE
The usage that a native speaker gives
to the linguistic knowledge that s/he
has. It is the competence being used
in real situations.

11. COMPETENCE
PERFORMANCE

12. COMPETENCE

14. BEHAVIORISM
PERFORMANCE
TABULA RASA
SKINNER

15. SKINNER

16. SKINNER

17. https://youtu.be/ZpSxJw0BFZs

18. SKINNER

19. CHOMSKY
X
COMPETENCE
INATE
KNOWLEDGE

20. What do you mean by
INATE KNOWLEDGE ?

21. INATE KNOWLEDGE
Something common among all
languages that, somehow, is
moldable into an specific
language.
CHOMSKY

22. Common Similarities among
languages.
Moldable Differences among
languages.
CHOMSKY

23. Common
UNIVERSAL
GRAMMAR
(UG)
Moldable
CHOMSKY
+

24. UNIVERSAL
GRAMMAR
INNATENESS HYPOTHESIS
BIOLOGICAL BASIS
COGNITIVE BASIS

25. UNIVERSAL
GRAMMAR
INNATENESS HYPOTHESIS
We are born with a capacity to develop
language.
We are genetically programmed to
develop language.
Arguments:
- The Poverty of Stimulus Hypothesis
- Linguistic Creativity

26. The linguistic information that children
are exposed to during language
acquisition period, alone, are not enough
to built a highly complex system as
human language is.
The stimuli are not that informative
when it comes to Language properties.
Mommy will take a nap know.

27. The linguistic information that children
are exposed to during language
acquisition period, alone, are not enough
to built a highly complex system as
human language is.
The stimuli are not that informative
when it comes to Language properties.
[CP [TP [DP Mommy] will [VP take [DP a nap]] [AdvP now]]].

28. Concerning to Linguistic Creativity,
kids can create novel sentences
that they never heard from an
adult (or anyone).
https://youtu.be/jBVDiz-LY7w

29. THEORY CENTRAL IDEA SCIENTIST
Behaviorism
Tabula Rasa; learning from
positive and negative
reinforcement.
Skinner
Cognitive Development
Language is just an aspect of a
global cognitive development.
Piaget
Innateness
Language is an innate capacity,
independent from other
cognitions (Modularity’s
Theory)
Chomsky
Interactive or Instruction
Theory
Language is built through
interaction
Bruner

30. UNIVERSAL
GRAMMAR
BIOLOGICAL BASIS
Physical and Genetic apparatuses

31. UNIVERSAL
GRAMMAR
MIND: the speaker knows its own
language; language intuition
COGNITIVE BASIS
(1) John won’t buy the tickets to his vacation
trip anymore.

32. UNIVERSAL
GRAMMAR
MIND: the speaker knows its own
language; language intuition
COGNITIVE BASIS
(1) John won’t buy the tickets to his vacation
trip anymore.

33. UNIVERSAL
GRAMMAR
MIND: the speaker knows its own
language; language intuition
COGNITIVE BASIS
(1) John won’t buy the tickets to his vacation
trip anymore.
(2) To his vacation trip, John won’t buy
tickets anymore.

34. (1) John won’t buy the tickets to his vacation
trip anymore.
(2) To his vacation trip, John won’t buy
tickets anymore.UNIVERSAL
GRAMMAR
COGNITIVE BASIS
MIND: the speaker knows its own
language; language intuition

35. (1) John won’t buy the tickets to his vacation
trip anymore.
(2) To his vacation trip, John won’t buy
tickets anymore.
(3) Won’t buy, to his vacation trip, John the
tickets.
UNIVERSAL
GRAMMAR
COGNITIVE BASIS
MIND: the speaker knows its own
language; language intuition

36. (1) John won’t buy the tickets to his vacation
trip anymore.
(2) To his vacation trip, John won’t buy
tickets anymore.
(3) Won’t buy, to his vacation trip, John the
tickets.
UNIVERSAL
GRAMMAR
COGNITIVE BASIS
MIND: the speaker knows its own
language; language intuition

37. (1) John won’t buy the tickets to his vacation
trip anymore.
(2) To his vacation trip, John won’t buy
tickets anymore.
(3) Won’t buy, to his vacation trip, John the
tickets anymore.
(4)His vacation to won’t trip buy tickets John
anymore.
UNIVERSAL
GRAMMAR
COGNITIVE BASIS
MIND: the speaker knows its own
language; language intuition

38. (1) John won’t buy the tickets to his vacation
trip anymore.
(2) To his vacation trip, John won’t buy
tickets anymore.
(3) Won’t buy, to his vacation trip, John the
tickets anymore.
(4)His vacation to won’t trip buy tickets
John anymore.
UNIVERSAL
GRAMMAR
COGNITIVE BASIS
MIND: the speaker knows its own
language; language intuition

39. COMPETENCE VS. PERFORMANCE
COMPETENCE: knowledge that a
speaker has about his/ her own
language.
PERFORMANCE: use of the inner
knowledge on a language.
UNIVERSAL
GRAMMAR
COGNITIVE BASIS

40. Universal Grammar?
How to explain the various language
across the world if we are basing our
model in a innate capacity coded in
human genes?
Biologic Perspective to
Language

41. Universal Grammar?
What is universal?
What is particular?
We need a model that can deal with
both aspects (Common and Moldable).

42. UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR: Faculty of Language;
Innate language specific information that
determine how language can work.
Principals: Universal; Rigid; Invariable; Postulates
followed by all languages.
Parameters: Variable; Flexible; Open; Postulates
that varies from one language to the other; They
are originally unmarked at UG; Their fixation is
done during Language Acquisition.

43. UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR: Faculty of Language;
Innate language specific information that
determine how language can work.
Principals: Universal; Rigid; Invariable; Postulates
followed by all languages.
Parameters: Variable; Flexible; Open; Postulates
that varies from one language to the other; They
are originally unmarked at UG; Their fixation is
done during Language Acquisition.
Principals and Parameters Theory (P&P)

44. Universal
Grammar
INPUT OUTPUT
Primary Data
Exposure to Language
Experience
Grammar of a Language
Linguistic Competence
P&P – Language Acquisition
Fixation of Parameters

45. ?

46. PIAGET
Although he is a great name on child development research, his
degrees were in Biology and Philosophy.
His major research was about the stages of a child cognitive
development
Criticism: biased research; counter argument: biologist procedure.
Piagetian Conservation Tasks

47. PIAGET
One of his great claims was that children develop (language) not
because of a previous knowledge, either inner or empirical, but
because of successive passages through developmental stages in a
constructive way.
To him, there’s no scape from the sequence of those stages, and in
order to reach certain level, a child must go through the previous
stages.
Example: a child must learn how to sit, then how to crawl, then to
stand up, to then be able to walk.
With language, there’s no difference as they built they’re new
knowledge upon previous knowledge.

48. PIAGET
Dependable learning (construtivism)
Mind = Single Intelligence
Piagetian Cognitive Theory
DOMAIN GENERAL

50. FODOR
“The mind cannot be generic. (…) Actually, it is a set of
specialized intelligences that are controlled by their own
internal rules.”
Modularity Theory
DOMAIN SPECIFIC

51. FODOR
The mind is composed by encapsulated modules that are independent from each
other but that keep intercommunication.
The domain specificity has to do with the variety of questions to which a module
answers.
The encapsulation has to do with the variety of information that a module consult
(from other modules) to decide what answer it will offer.

53. ?
What about
Language?

54. Girl with half of her brain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2fCY_M7Vms

55. Bipolarity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpE-oaix5kA

56. Down Syndrome
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAPmGW-GDHA

57. Alzheimer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WysoapqcXVs

58. Disorders and Language
Some disorders, though, affect language:
- Autism
- Asperger Syndrome
- Schizophrenia
- Specific Language Impairment

59. CHOMSKY
X √

60. CHOMSKY
= MIND
= LANGUAGE

61. CHOMSKY

63. Summing up
ü We have an innate capacity to develop language coded in the
DNA;
ü This capacity is a pre set cognition called Universal Grammar;
ü The Universal Grammar is composed by Principals and unmarked
Parameters;
ü The Parameters are marked during Language Acquisition Critical
Period in order to built the grammar of a specific language;
ü Once a number of parameters is set (when children are about 2.5-
3 yo), the children have linguistic competence;
ü The competence and the UG are stages of the Faculty of
Language;
ü The Faculty of Language Narrow and Broad are Modules of the
mind.
ü The Modules are independent, though they intercommunicate.

64. LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT STAGES
Stage Typical Age Description
In utero stage Pre-birth Prosody
Preproduction stage 0-6 months Phonemic discrimination and
differentiation; Syllable
discrimination;
Babbling stage 6-8 months CV patterns, with a plosive
consonant and a middle to low
vowel
One-word or holographic stage 8-18 months Single open-class words or word
stems
Two-word stage 18-24 months “Mini-sentences” with simple
semantic relations
Telegraphic or early multiword stage 24-30 months “Telegraphic” sentence structure
filled with lexical words rather then
functional words.
Later multiword stage 30+ months Full sentences with functional
words.