Language

Structure of Language• Phonemes

- Consonants, vowels, th, sh, ch,….• Morphemes

- Dog, van, ing, ed,…How many phonemes (sounds) are in these words?Thing Psychology Hopes Sun Quickly Wish Weigh Laughed Nation

How many morphemes in the following words?People Swimming Orange Literally Reddish Radish Waited George’s Misspell Antidisestablishmentarianism

Structure of Language• Words = 1 or more morphemes• Syntax = set of rules to

combine words

• Semantics govern meaning

“the girl the boy saw” – violates syntax

“the rapid freedom ran around the curious emptiness” – obeys syntax, but makes no sense due to meaning of the words

Language Development• Receptive Language - ability

to comprehend speech

• Productive Language – ability to produce words

• Surface structure v. deep structure– “Joey was swinging too high,

and the rope broke and he fell on his head.”

– “Joey hurt his head when he fell off the swing.”

Language Development• Babbling stage (4 months)• One-word stage (1 year)• Two-word stage (2 years)• Telegraphic speech • Overgeneralization

(overregularization)

Thinking in Images• Implicit memory – mental picture of

how you do a task• Watching an activity will activate

brain’s internal stimulation of it

Explaining Language Development• Skinner & Behaviorism– Association for seeing & hearing words– Imitation– Reinforcement or

punishment

Thinking & Language• Linguistic

determinism (Whorff)– Language determines

way we think– Culturally influenced

Thinking & Language• Bilingual advantage

(Lambert)– Bilingual children who

learn to inhibit one language while learning another, are also better able to inhibit their attention to irrelevant info

Explaining Language Development• Chomsky & Inborn Universal

Grammar– Language acquisition device– Universal grammar

Explaining Language Development• Critical Periods

Do animals use language?