First Language Acquisition other areas of linguistics Language

First Language Acquisition & other areas of linguistics Language Universals (Meike Bauer ) Language Pathology (Silvia Mincheva & Meike Strohn) Speech errors (Eva Ortmann & Lena Löbbert) Acquisition of Meaning (Vanessa Mosel & Sabine Staiger) Language and the Mind Summer term 2006 Group 7

Language Universals A short introduction (Meike Bauer GS, LN) Language and the Mind Summer term 2006 Group 7

Language Universals • Def. Language: a system of communication by written or spoken words, which is used by the people of a particular country or area • Def. Universal: involving or understood by everyone in the world Def. Language Universals: Basic patterns or principles that are shared by all languages Language and the Mind Summer term 2006 Group 7

Semantic universals • Semantic categories that are shared by all cultures and referred to by all languages • E. g. : our notion of colour - black, white, red, green, blue, yellow, brown, purple, pink, orange and grey • E. g. : the case of pronouns - “I”, “you”, “we” - singular & plural in the 1 st, 2 nd, 3 rd Language and the Mind Summer term 2006 Group 7

Phonological universals • E. g. : universal rules which govern the distribution of vowels - languages with few vowels always have the same set of vowel types - it is always the same type of vowel that is added to the set - they may not always sound the same, but they are always created at the same location in our vocal apparatus Language and the Mind Summer term 2006 Group 7

Syntactic universals • Two different sets of basic orders - SVO, VSO, SOV - VOS, OVS, OSV • First set appears more often among the languages of the world • Overwhelming tendency for the subject of a sentence to precede the direct object among the languages of the world Language and the Mind Summer term 2006 Group 7

Absolute universals • Rules that appear without exception in the languages which have been studied so far - all languages have vowels - all languages have pronoun systems distinguishing at least three persons and two numbers • Universal tendencies or relative universals are expressions that are used when there are minor exceptions to the rule Language and the Mind Summer Term 2006 Group 7

Implicational universals • Universals that hold only if a particular condition of the language structure is fulfilled - if a language has voiced stops, it has the corresponding voiceless stops - e. g. : no language has b/d/g without p/t/k • In opposite to implicational universals, nonimplicational universals can be stated without a condition Language and the Mind Summer Term 2006 Group 7

Criticism on the term “universals“ • Hansjakob Seiler: - empirical observation results in generalizations but will not give us “the universals“ - universality cannot be reached by generalization alone - generalizations can be checked and, eventually, falsified - universals in our sense are not directly, but only indirectly, reflected in the observable data Language and the Mind Summer Term 2006 Group 7

References • Hawkins, John A. Explaining Language Universals. Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd, 1988 • Langenscheidt-Longman. Dictionary of Contemporary English. Harlow: Longman Group Ltd, 1995 • Seiler, Hansjakob. Language Universals Research: A Synthesis. Tübingen: Narr, 2000 • http: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Linguistic_universal (25 th June) • http: //www. hku. hk/linguist/program/Typology 2. html (25 th June) • http: //www. uni-kassel. de/fb 8/misc/lfb/html/text/2 frame. html (21 st June) Language and the Mind Summer Term 2006 Group 7

Language Pathology - Disorders of the Written Language -Dyslexia (Silvia Mincheva, LN, HS) - Dysgraphia (Meike Strohn, GS, TN) Language and the Mind Summer term 2006 Group 7

DEFINITION OF DYSLEXIA v. Disorders of the reading system referring to: ØChildren who have particular difficulties learning to read ØThese children when they become adults ØPeople who have already acquired reading and become brain-damaged - ALEXIA Language and the Mind Summer term 2006 Group 7

CHILDHOOD DYSLEXIA I v Four-stage reading acquisition (Frith, 1985) I. Logographic Skills II. Alphabetic Skills III. Orthographic Skills IV. Ability to read written language becomes entirely independent of spoken language Language and the Mind Summer term 2006 Group 7

CHILDHOOD DYSLEXIA II v. Two main categories of dyslexics ØChildren having difficulties with identifying whole words – Dyseidetics ØChildren having difficulties with decoding the sounds associated with letters – Disphonetics Language and the Mind Summer term 2006 Group 7

CHILDHOOD DYSLEXIA III v. Child dyslexics usually do not have history of neurological problems v. Children with recurrent ear infections in early childhood may develop dyslexia v. Common theory - there is an additional brain basis for the various forms of childhood dyslexia ØHigher proportion of left-handers among dyslexics ØDyslexia has been developed markedly more often among boys than among girls Language and the Mind Summer term 2006 Group 7

ALEXIA I v. People who have already acquired reading and become brain-damaged which has affected their reading abilities v. Sometimes reading problems are secondary to other sorts of language problems v“Pure alexics”- reading problem is the only language problem that is seen Language and the Mind Summer term 2006 Group 7

ALEXIA II - Traditional classification system I. “Letter by letter reading”- patients cannot recognize words or higher units but can recognize individual letters ü II. Input problem-problems with written but not auditory input of letter strings. Ability to read small parts of words but not whole words. Literal alexia – patients unable to read letters but relatively able to read whole words ü Grammatical functors and nonsense words more poorly read than substantives Language and the Mind Summer term 2006 Group 7

ALEXIA III - New classification system v. Surface alexia – patients are able to decode words phonologically but unable to recognize whole words v. Deep alexia – patients are unable to decode words phonologically but perform some sort of whole-word or “gestalt” reading of words Language and the Mind Summer term 2006 Group 7

Language Pathology - Disorders of the Written Language - Dysgraphia (Meike Strohn, GS, TN) Language and the Mind Summer term 2006 Group 7

Introduction • Definition of the Term • Example • Reasons for Dysgraphia • Different Kinds of Dysgraphia • Remedial Treatment • Conclusion • References Language and the Mind Summer term 2006 Group 7

Definition of the Term Dysgraphia: A disorder characterized by writing disabilities, irrespective of level of education, after damage to the brain. Due to varying degrees, it is difficult to determine, when it is pathological. The equivalent to dyslexia in writing. Language and the Mind Summer term 2006 Group 7

Example First draft of a creative story as typed by a 12 -year-old student: “the way I descride a bumby ride is like wothgan mowtsarts mowsek. eshe bumby rowd is like a song. Eshe bumb is the a note eche uncon at the sam time ste is. that was the mewstere to mowts mowsuk it was vare metereus and unperdekdable. So the next time you drive down a bumby theak of mowtsart. “ Language and the Mind Summer term 2006 Group 7

Reasons for Dysgraphia • may be caused by the same triggers as dyslexia, but not necessarily • visual processing weakness • impaired graphic motor capacity Language and the Mind Summer term 2006 Group 7

Reasons for Dysgraphia • Aphasia (acquired language disorder) focal brain damage mostly left hemisphere e. g. because of an accident, tumor or stroke Language and the Mind Summer term 2006 Group 7

Reasons for Dysgraphia • Alzheimer’s disease (shrinkage of the brain, a sort of dementia) • symptoms: - anomia - spelling errors - irregular or non-words - inappropriate repetition - illegibility • 1) lexical, 2) phonological & 3) grapho-motor impairments Language and the Mind Summer term 2006 Group 7

Different Kinds of Dysgraphia • Surface dysgraphic problems: - incorrect phoneme-to-grapheme correspondence patients can no longer sound out words they have to spell Language and the Mind Summer term 2006 Group 7

Different Kinds of Dysgraphia • Deep dysgraphic problems: - lexico-semantic disturbances instead of the correct word, a semantically related one is used e. g. “scissors” “stapler” Language and the Mind Summer term 2006 Group 7

Remedial Treatment • for motor disorders to help control writing movements • for impaired memory or other neurological problems • teaching to write more slowly • usage of computers to avoid the problems of handwriting Language and the Mind Summer term 2006 Group 7

Conclusion • reading and writing require all the skills of oral language + those of decoding and encoding orthographic information • that is why there are so many vulnerable spots and a number of different reasons for reading and writing impairments (dyslexia and dysgraphia). Language and the Mind Summer term 2006 Group 7

References • Crystal, David. A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. Oxford: Blackwell, 1997 • Crystal, David. Introduction to language pathology. London: Arnold, 1980 • Crystal, David. The Cambridge encyclopedia of the English language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996 • Grodzinsky, Yosef and Lewis P. Shapiro; David Swinney (ed. ) Language and the brain. Representation and processing. London: Academic Press, 2000 • Hickey, Raymond. Linguistics Surveyor. 2005 • Strazny, Philipp. Encyclopedia of Linguistics. New York [u. a. ]: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2005 • http: //www. ncbi. nlm. nih. gov/entrez/query. fcgi? cmd=Retrieve&db=Pub. Med&list_uids= 8107977&dopt=Abstract • http: //www. ninds. nih. gov/disorders/dysgraphia. htm • http: //www. as. wvu. edu/~scidis/dysgraphia. html • http: //www. margaretkay. com/Dysgraphia. htm Language and the Mind Summer term 2006 Group 7

Speech Errors A general introduction into the topic: speech errors Eva Ortmann: LN (Grundstudium) Language and the Mind Summer term 2006 Group 7

Speech Errors • The first linguistic analysis was published in 1895 in Vienna by Meringer and Meyer. • 6 years later Freud published “ the classic psychological treatment of speech errors”. • it is important to mention these two because they had a deep influence on following researches although their attitudes towards speech errors were different. Language and the Mind Summer term 2006 Group 7

Speech Errors What do we mean by speech errors? Example: T: She is marked with a big scarlet A. A: She is marked with a big scarlet R eh A. Explication: the prespoken scarlet triggered which because it begins with the letter R competed in this situation with the intended A. ( substitution) Language and the Mind Summer term 2006 Group 7

Speech Errors Which words are likely to be substituted by others? • in general, semantically or phonologically similar items increase the possibility of speech errors • the example of the scarlet A showed that errors where there is no obvious phonological similarity do also occur • researches show that there are often substitutions in which the error and the target word are in an antonymous relation, or they are cohyponyms co-hyponyms red instead of black antonyms late instead of early Language and the Mind Summer term 2006 Group 7

Speech Errors Analysis of spontaneously produced errors show that: • 60% of the words result in non words example: it is said: “Can I morrow your dotes? ” instead of “Can I borrow your notes? ” • 40% of the words result in actual words example: it is said: “Did you forget to dock the lore? ” instead of “Did you forget to lock the door? ” Language and the Mind Summer term 2006 Group 7

Speech Errors There also some linguists who are concerned with the correction of speech errors. Noteboom & Lavers Laver thinks that there are so few errors made by us because of an active internal motoring of covert errors. Language and the Mind Summer term 2006 Group 7

Speech Errors Conclusion: speech errors is a very complex field of research speech errors occur to all people there is no linguistic unit that seems to be immune the number of speech errors also depends on the emotional situation of the subject (nervousness and anxiety trigger speech errors) words are more likely to be substituted by words that are phonologically or/ and semantically similar to the target word Language and the Mind Summer term 2006 Group 7

Speech Errors Slips of the tongue in normal and pathological speech Language and the Mind Summer term 2006 Group 7

1. Introduction • In 1901 Siegmund Freud suggested that slips of the tongue might tell us something about the “probable laws of the formation of speech“ • Spoonerisms are analysed by linguists who want to learn about the organization of language in the brain • In literature there are many references to pathological speech pointing out the similarities between normal and pathological speech errors

• Study by Ewa Söderpalm Talo comparing errors in normal speech and pathological speech errors in aphasia • Definition: slip of the tongue = a deviation from what the speaker had in mind to say • Adults with a damage of the brain can have articulatory disturbances of various kinds

2. Sampling Many linguists pointed out that there are various kinds of difficulties in collecting speech errors: - they occur in spontaneous speech, are seldom recorded - many errors are noticed In Ewa Söderpalm Talo‘s study the corpus of normal errors consists of about 200 slips of the tongue of adults. There about 100 examples of pathological speech errors which were collected in therapy sessions in conversation with aphasic patients. Most of them had suffered cerebral vascular accidents causing aphasia.

3. Classification The phonological errors were analysed by a classification system: 1. Syntagmatic errors a) Metathesis of Phoneme (morpheme, word) e. g. kontamination kontanimation Kanada vann Vanada kann b) Anticipation e. g. insiktslöshet insliktlöshet e. g. brittiske biträdande ministern bittiske biträdande…

c) Dublication e. g. det tror jag är hiskeligt viktigt …hiskeligt visk 2. Paradigmatic Errors - Substitution of phoneme (morpheme, word) e. g. nu ljuger jag nu ljuter jag • • Metathesis errors are very rare among the pathological errors The example of a paradigmatic error represents the most common type of error in the pathological corpus

4. Conclusions • All kinds of errors occur in the normal and in the pathological corpus, but there is a difference in quantity • Syntagmatic errors are more common in normal speech, whereas paradigmatic errors prevail in the pathological corpus • 60 % of the errors in pathological speech are paradigmatic substitution errors, less than 20 % are paradigmatic in normal speech • The occurrence of errors in aphasic speech is bigger than in normal speech, but there seem to be less types of errors

• Normal speakers are often aware of their mistakes, they correct them or indicate by pausing that they noticed it • Aphasic speakers seldom correct their mistakes because they do notice them • During language rehabilitation the awareness of errors increases, so it could be used as an indicator for therapeutic progress Quelle: Fromkin, Victoria A. : Errors in Linguistic Performance: Slips of the Tongue, Ear, Pen and Hand, 1980, Academic Press

Acquisition of Meaning Language and the Mind Summer Term 2006 Group 7

Acquisition of Meaning Part I Sabine Staiger 1. Lexical Development 2. Bootstrapping 3. Under & Overextensions 4. Comprehension – Production Gap 5. Vocabulary Burst 6. Fast-Mapping 7. Semantic Contrast Language and the Mind Summer Term 2006 Group 7

Acquisition of Meaning Lexical development: Which string of sounds corresponds to which meaning? ! Learning the semantics of words: Spoken word + certain attributes / characteristic properties No fully viable theories of word-learning, but a few principles which are thought to guide the child’s word-learning process… Language and the Mind Summer Term 2006 Group 7

Acquisition of Meaning Principle of Reference Words refer to objects, actions, states, and attributes in the environment Whole Object Principle Word refers to the whole object not just part of it Principle of Categorical Scope Word extended to other members of the same category rather than to items thematically related to it Principle of Lexical Contrast/ Mutual Exclusivity Assumption Children assume that each object has ONLY one label Language and the Mind Summer Term 2006 Group 7

Acquisition of Meaning Bootstrapping From: ‘to lift oneself up by one’s bootstraps’ Computers: simple system activates a complicated system Use combination of semantics & syntactic knowledge to learn new words Divide words into grammatical subclasses very early (common vs. proper nouns) will get children started on their way to acquiring parts of speech (which can later be supplemented by other linguistic information) Language and the Mind Summer Term 2006 Group 7

Acquisition of Meaning Bootstrapping Vocabulary production: End of the first year= first words 15 month= producing 10 words Vocabulary of around 50 = combine words 6 years= 10, 000 - 14, 000 words Language and the Mind Summer Term 2006 Group 7

Acquisition of Meaning Under & Overextensions (I) Under extensions: Mapping of a word onto a very narrow, situation specific referent eg. ‘shoe’ only refers to a specific pair of shoes ‘ dog’ only refers to the family dog Principle of Reference not fully matured but Whole Object Principle is already in place! Language and the Mind Summer Term 2006 Group 7

Acquisition of Meaning Under & Overextensions (II) Overextensions: to generalize the meaning of words eg. ‘apple’ other round this as well ‘ daddy’ refers to all men shape/ color/ function/ material/ sound as well Principle of Categorial Scope Children have very limited vocabularies & simply do not know the words they need at that moment Language and the Mind Summer Term 2006 Group 7

Acquisition of Meaning Comprehension – Production Gap State in which the child already comprehend words but they can not produce them on demand Show a C-P gap in knowledge of vocabulary for a long time (adults: 2 nd Language Acquisition) Even a child (12 -14 month) who hasn’t produced any word, comprehend many words even before they speak for the first time IN SHORT: Children know more than they say! Language and the Mind Summer Term 2006 Group 7

Acquisition of Meaning Vocabulary Burst Sudden, large increase in vocabulary Takes place after an initial production of about 50 words - most of them are nouns - also referred to as ‘the naming explosion’ - related to word retrieval abilities First-born children are more likely to show this ‘burst’ than the following children of the same family! Language and the Mind Summer Term 2006 Group 7

Acquisition of Meaning Fast-Mapping how rapid & accurate the process of word-learning takes place 9 -12 words a day Mostly takes place without explicit instruction Definition of words change over time Language and the Mind Summer Term 2006 Group 7

Acquisition of Meaning Semantic Contrast Different words have different meaning Principle of Mutual Exclusivity Hierarchy of concepts are used to interpret new words Ellen Markman (1994) - how children assign meanings to words by introducing the word biff to different groups of preschoolers Assists children in their task of learning thousands of words in a short time! Language and the Mind Summer Term 2006 Group 7

Acquisition of Meaning Vanessa Mosel Matr. Nr. : ES 0221173400 Hauptstudium, TN Language and the Mind Summer Term 2006 Group 7

Acquisition of Meaning Content I. Semantic/Thematic Roles and Relations II. Interpretation of Pronouns III. Presupposition: Understanding the Common Ground IV. Children’s knowledge of the Count/Mass Distinction and Telicity V. Conclusion Language and the Mind Summer Term 2006 Group 7

Acquisition of Meaning I. Semantic/Thematic Roles and Relations • The one-word speech of children expresses the basic set of thematic roles a) object – milk said when reaching for milk b) action – go spoken when Daddy was going out the door c) instrument – knife spoken when mother cutting meat Language and the Mind Summer Term 2006 Group 7

Acquisition of Meaning I. Semantic/Thematic Roles and Relations • First word combinations can also express the basic set of thematic relations a) action/object – Bite finger b) object/location – Car garage c) action/location – Sit bed Language and the Mind Summer Term 2006 Group 7

Acquisition of Meaning II. Interpretation of Pronouns Ernie hit him. • Adults know (Principle P) that Ernie could not also be him Principle P > pragmatic principle • Children will point to a picture in which Ernie is hitting himself Language and the Mind Summer Term 2006 Group 7

Acquisition of Meaning II. Interpretation of Pronouns Explanation: Is it the case that children do not have the Principle P as part of their linguistic competence? • The interpretation of pronouns have to do with their knowledge of pragmatics, how to use language effectively in context, and not with their knowledge of grammar Some aspects of syntax are available very early, while certain aspects of pragmatic knowledge develop later Language and the Mind Summer Term 2006 Group 7

Acquisition of Meaning III. Presupposition: Understanding the Common Ground 1. Factive/ non factive verbs • factive verbs: such as know, remember > carry presupposition • Non-factive verbs: such as think, guess > do not carry presupposition Example a) Romeo knew that Juliet was dead b) Romeo thought Juliet was dead Language and the Mind Summer Term 2006 Group 7

Acquisition of Meaning III. Presupposition: Understanding the Common Ground 2. definite/ indefinite determiner • A definite determiner presuppose the existence of the object, existence is known by speaker and hearer • An indefinite determiner is used when the speaker does not wish to refer to a specific character, or wants to introduce a character first Language and the Mind Summer Term 2006 Group 7

Acquisition of Meaning III. Presupposition: Understanding the Common Ground 3. Experimental studies (a versus the) Language and the Mind Summer Term 2006 Group 7

Acquisition of Meaning IV. Children’s knowledge of the Count/Mass Distinction and Telicity 1. Mass nouns (atelic event: consume ale) • if we take some water and add more water to it, it is still water, need a measure to quantize them (e. g. a glass of water) 2. Count nouns (telic events: consume a beer) • Inherently quantized, have an endpoint which delimits them Language and the Mind Summer Term 2006 Group 7

Acquisition of Meaning IV. Children’s knowledge of the Count/Mass Distinction and Telicity Example a) John consumed ale for an hour b) John consumed a beer for an hour Ø Telicity is compositionally determined, which means that it is dependent on linguistic structure and grammatical principles Language and the Mind Summer Term 2006 Group 7

Acquisition of Meaning IV. Children’s knowledge of the Count/Mass Distinction and Telicity In English: • Children use past tense -ed on verbs describing telic events • Adults show the opposite tendency, they use -ed more often with atelic verbs How can we explain this? • The aspect-before-tense hypothesis Language and the Mind Summer Term 2006 Group 7

Acquisition of Meaning V. Conclusion “ Thus even though all children must learn every word of their target language, certain aspects of linguistics may not have to be learned and are good candidates to be part of unlearned properties of the human mind” Statement from: Language and the Mind Summer Term 2006 Group 7