6. Language: our spoken, written, or signed
words and the ways we combine them to
communicate meaning.
Conveys meaning
Arbitrary
Flexible
Allows us to name objects
Enables us to talk about something not present
Generative; we generate, not repeat sentences
Steven Pinker
7. Phoneme – a sound
• B, P, and Th
Morpheme — the smallest unit with meaning
• “-ed”, “-ing”, “anti-”, “pre”
8. Grammar — rules of a language
Syntax — rules for combining words into
grammatically correct sentences
• “The yellow chair is lovely”
• “She skated elegantly”
• “My son has grown another foot”
Semantics — rules of meaning
• “I sawed the chair”
• “That depends on what the meaning of ‘is’ is”
11. Month Stage
4 Babbles all human phonemes
10 Babbling reveals household language
12 One-word stage
24 Two-word, telegraphic speech
Language develops rapidly into
24+
complete sentences
12. Two theories on language acquisition
Noam Chomsky BF Skinner
Nature Nurture
13. Chomsky
• Inborn Universal Grammar
• Children’s errors come from
overgeneralizing a rule
• “I petted the rabbit”
• “Granma holded me tightly”
• Nicaraguan Sign Language
14. Skinner
• Operant Learning
• Association: sights of things with sounds of
words
• Imitation: copying words & syntax
• Reinforcement: success, smiles & hugs when
child is correct
• “Genie”
23. Language: our spoken, written, or signed
words and the ways we combine them to
communicate meaning.
Conveys meaning
Arbitrary
Flexible
Allows us to name objects
Enables us to talk about something not present
Generative; we generate, not repeat sentences
Steven Pinker
