Language
Our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning
Fun Facts About Language• How many languages exist in the world today? • 6800• How many languages are spoken by more than 1
million people?• 250 (Chinese, Hindi, English, Spanish, Arabic)• How many languages will likely survive the century?• 600• What % of children throughout the world are raised
bilingual?• 66%• What % of U.S. children are raised bilingual?• 6.3%
Language can be…..
We need 3 building blocks for SPOKEN language:
Phonemes• The smallest units of sound
in language– Ex: Bat= b, a, & t (3)– Ex: Chat= ch, a, t (3)
• English has about 40 phonemes
• Sometimes difficult to learn new language
• Let’s Practice– Love– Pitch– Throat– Platypus
Morphemes• The smallest unit of
meaningful sound• Can be a word or part
of a word• Can also be parts of
words like prefixes or suffixes…”s” means plural
How many morphemes does cats have?
Grammar• Grammar: the rules
that enable us to communicate with & understand others
• Semantics: study of meaning-ex: ”ed” at the end of a word means past tense
• Syntax: the rules for combining words into sentences that make sense
Is this the White House or the House White?
Language DevelopmentStages that we learn language…1.Babbling Stage: 4 months,
baby starts making various sounds
2.Holophrastic Stage (one word stage): around 1 year old-begin to use sounds to communicate meaning -“ball” “dog”
3. Telegraphic Speech Stage (two word stage): around 2 yrs- “big doggy” “hit ball”
How do we learn language?
Operant Learning Theory• B.F.Skinner &
Behaviorism • Imitation &
Reinforcement• Kid may imitate a parent
• Ex: your mom says a curse word and your little sister does
• If they are reinforced they keep saying a word• Ex: your little sister says
curse word and your mom laughs
• If they are punished, they stop saying the word• Ex: your mom spanks
your little sister for says the curse word
Noam Chomsky’s Theory(nativist theory)
• We learn language too quickly for it to be only through reinforcement & punishment– Children acquire language more
quickly than other skills
• Language acquisition device– People have a natural
tendency to acquire language– Enables us to turn ideas into
sentences, etc…• Language is a brain function,
not a social phenomenon– Cognitive Psychology
Linguistic Determinism
• Linguistic Determinism: WHORF HYPOTHESIS that language determines how we think– Different languages create different
concepts of reality & worldviews– Ex: Hopi tribe have no past tense to they
cannot think about the past– Ex: Norwegians have many different
words for snow (meaningless to us in southern ca)
Critical Period
• Many researchers believe that childhood is the critical period for learning language
• After age 7, children gradually lose the ability to master any language– “Genie”