PSY 369 Psycholinguistics Language Acquisition Acquiring language Dr

PSY 369: Psycholinguistics Language Acquisition

Acquiring language Dr. Cutting, language sure is complicated. How do you expect us to learn all this stuff? n Student in my psycholinguistics course

Acquiring language Whadda’ ya mean, mommy. I can talk. I can understand what you say. What’s so hard? n Student in my psycholinguistics course n 2 year old

Acquiring language n n How do we (humans) do it? How do we learn to use this complex behavior? Student in my psycholinguistics course n 2 year old

Overview n Some of the major issues n Imitation vs Innateness n n Born to walk Born to talk? n n How much explicit teaching do we get? Commonalities across languages and cultures n Language is complex everywhere n n n Sounds, words, syntax, and more No primitive (simple) languages Language development is similar everywhere n Similar stages

Typical language development 6 Months n n n Responds to his name Responds to human voices without visual cues by turning his head and eyes Responds appropriately to friendly and angry tones

Typical language development 12 Months n n Uses one or more words with meaning (this may be a fragment of a word) Understands simple instructions, especially if vocal or physical cues are given Practices inflection Is aware of the social value of speech

Typical language development 18 Months n n Has vocabulary of approximately 5 -20 words Vocabulary made up chiefly of nouns Some echolalia (repeating a word or phrase over and over) Is able to follow simple commands

Typical language development 24 Months n n n Can name a number of objects common to his surroundings Is able to use at least two prepositions Combines words into a short sentence Vocabulary of approximately 150 -300 words Volume and pitch of voice not yet well-controlled

Typical language development 36 Months n n n n Use pronouns I, you, me correctly Is using some plurals and past tenses Knows at least three prepositions Handles three word sentences easily Has in the neighborhood of 900 -1000 words About 90% of what child says should be intelligible Verbs begin to predominate

In the beginning… and the womb n Prelinguistic communication n What was that? You’re mumbling. We experience language before we’re even born n n Normal human language uses sounds between 100 and 4000 Hz Sound travels through skin and fluids too n In the womb, sounds up to 1000 Hz n Can’t hear individual words n But can hear: n Intonation, durations, rhythm, stress

In the beginning… and the womb n Prelinguistic communication n We experience language before we’re even born n n n Mahler (mid 80’s, in France) 4 day old babies Nonnutritive sucking method Played French or Russian Sucking pattern changed if language was switched Sucking pattern didn’t change if language wasn’t switched Babies knew (something about) the languages

In the beginning… and the womb n Prelinguistic communication n We experience language before we’re even born Fetal heart monitor n De. Casper, et al (1994)

In the beginning… and the womb n Prelinguistic communication n We experience language before we’re even born Fetal heart monitor n n n De. Casper, et al (1994) Had mothers read stories everyday to fetuses during 34 -38 weeks of pregnancy After 38 th week, two stories were played to the fetuses (but mom couldn’t hear it) n n Same story Different story

In the beginning… and the womb n Prelinguistic communication n We experience language before we’re even born Fetal heart monitor n n n De. Casper, et al (1994) Had mothers read stories everyday to fetuses during 34 -38 weeks of pregnancy After 38 th week, two stories were played to the fetuses (but mom couldn’t hear it) n n Same story Different story

In the beginning… and the womb n Prelinguistic communication n We experience language before we’re even born Fetal heart monitor De. Casper, et al (1994) Had mothers read stories everyday to fetuses during 34 -38 weeks of pregnancy After 38 th week, two stories were played to the fetuses (but mom couldn’t hear it) n n n Decreased fetal heart-rate n n n Same story Different story Baby learned something about the story

The early days n Prelinguistic communication n After birth n Child-directed speech (motherese) n n n Phonological differences are key n Higher in pitch n More variable in pitch n More exaggerated intonation All may help to orient and maintain attention of infant May help “bootstrap” later learning

The early days n Prelinguistic communication n After birth n Early “conversations” n n Turn taking behaviors n From the movie - breast feeding “conversations” Parents interpret infant’s vocalizations as having meaning (also from the movie, Snow’s work)

The early days: phonology n Eimas et al, (1971) n Categorical perception in infants (1 month olds) 100 Sharp phoneme boundary Young infants can distinguish different phonemes % /ba/ 0 1. . . 3 … 5 … 7

The early days: phonology n Categorical perception in infants n A number of studies suggest that very young infants can perceive between a number of phonemic distinctions (e. g. , Kuhl & Meltzhoff, 1997) n n n Not limited to their language context However, as they age/experience their context language the ability to perceive some of these distinctions are lost (~10 to 12 months) Nature/nurture debate: n Are humans “pre-programmed” to distinguish speech sounds?

We’re listening The early days: phonology n Eimas et al, (1971) n Categorical perception in infants (1 month olds) 100 Sharp phoneme boundary Chinchillas do it too! % /ba/ Kuhl and Miller (1975) 0 1. . . 3 … 5 … 7 Are they “preprogrammed to perceive human speech?

Prelinguistic communication n Prelinguistic gestures (around 8 months) n Demonstration that the infant is trying to communicate in some way n n e. g. , pointing behaviors Criteria n n n Waiting Persistence Development of alternative plans

Early speech production n Vocal track differences Infant n n Adult Infants vocal tracts are smaller, and initially shaped differently The infant’s tongue fills the entire mouth, reducing the range of movement As the facial skeleton grows, the range for movement increases (which probably contributes to the increased variety of sounds infants start to produce) May be (in part) why production lags behind comprehension

Early speech production n The progression of cooing and babbling follows a universal pattern. n Role of both nature and nurture n n Nature/Biology plays an important role in the emergence of cooing & babbling. The form of the child’s vocalization is also affected by the linguistic environment.

Early speech production n The progression of cooing and babbling follows a universal pattern. n Babies, until around 6 months old, can produce sounds/phonemes that their parents cannot produce or distinguish n 6 - 8 weeks: cooing n 4 - 6 months: babbling n Clear consonants and vowels are produced n “da”, “gi”

Early speech production n The progression of cooing and babbling follows a universal pattern. n Babies, until around 6 months old, can produce sounds/phonemes that their parents cannot produce or distinguish n 6 - 8 weeks: cooing n 4 - 6 months: babbling n 6 - 7 months: Reduplicated babbling n “dada”, “gigi”

Early speech production n The progression of cooing and babbling follows a universal pattern. n Babies, until around 6 months old, can produce sounds/phonemes that their parents cannot produce or distinguish n 6 - 8 weeks: cooing n 4 - 6 months: babbling n 6 - 7 months: Reduplicated babbling n 8 - 9 months: CVC clusters may appear n “bod”, “tat”

Early speech production n The progression of cooing and babbling follows a universal pattern. n Babies, until around 6 months old, can produce sounds/phonemes that their parents cannot produce or distinguish n 10 or 11 months: Variegated babbling n Combining “incomprehensible words” n n Intonation patterns n n “dab gogotah” May reflect phonological rules of spoken language context By 12 to 14 months some evidence of language specific phonological rules

Early speech production Of course he said “arf. ” What else did you expect his first word to be?

Language Sponges Learning words n 12 ms 2 yrs 3 yrs 6 yrs n n n first words 200 words 1, 000 words 15, 000 words About 3, 000 new words per year, especially in the primary grades As many as 8 new words per day Production typically lags behind comprehension

Language Sponges n n Lots of individual differences But there is also a consistent pattern

Vocabulary growth n Methods used to study this n Observational data (60 s to present) n Diary studies n n Taped language samples (Roger Brown) n n Parents record their kids language development Small numbers of children (Eve, Adam, Sarah) Went to home every month made tape recordings Extensive study needed n Hard to kids to “say all the words you know” or “say a question” n Early phonological production isn’t like adult production, often need to take great care deciding what the child meant Large database CHILDES n Many kids, many languages, including children with language difficulties

Early speech production n Transition to speech This Your is your fis? Oh, your fish. No. …My my fis! fis. Yes, my fis.

Early speech production n Transition to speech n Can’t hear the difference? n n Your fis. Oh, your fish. Can’t produce the correct sounds? n n Rejects adult saying fis This is your fis? No, … my fis. Sometimes, but evidence suggests not always the case More general process of simplification n “frees up” resources for concentrating on other aspects of language learning No, my fis. Yes, my fis.

Early speech production n Transition to speech n Early words n Common Phonological processes n n Reduction n Delete sounds from words Coalescence n Combine different syllables into one syllable Assimilation n Change one sound into a similar sound within the word Reduplication n One syllable from a multi-syllabic word is repeated

Early speech production n First words n n Around 10 -15 months (lots of individual differences) Emergence of systematic, repeated productions of phonologically consistent forms n Idiomorphs - personalized words n n Developed in systematic ways n Sometimes simplifications of adult speech n Or relate to sounds of the objects Demonstrate n Creative, not simply imitation n Learned importance of consistency of names