语言学概论第十章Language Acquisition.ppt

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1、,Chapter 10 Language acquisition,名字。,Definition:,Language acquisition-refers to the childs acquisition of his mother tongue,i.e.how the child comes to understand and speak the language of his community.,it refers to first language not second language acquision,Children all over the world learn to sp

2、eak at about the same time unless they suffer from extreme external deficiency.How do children accomplish this?What enable children to learn words and string them together into meaningful sentence?What facilitate children to develop the grammatical system of their language?What help them to achieve

3、the communicative competence using the language to express their various needs?,Discussion!,differences between the term of acquisition and learning,语言习得：通常指在自然的语言环境中，通过旨在沟通意义的言语交际活动，不自觉地，自然地掌握或获得第一语言。典型的例子是儿童习得第一语言。语言学习：通常指在学校环境下，有专门的教师指导，严格按照教学大纲和课本，通过讲解，练习，记忆等活动，有计划，有系统，有意识地对语言规则的掌握。典型的例子是成人在学校学习

4、第二语言。example:Mathematics？the subject Mathematics is learned,not acquired.,Three main theories of child language acquisition,the behaviorist view 行为主义理论the innatist view 语法积极天生主义理论the interactionist view 互动主义理论,the focus of their debate is whether the innate ability or the language environment plays

5、a crucial role in the process of a childs language acquisition.,Three main different theories concerning how language is learned,Behaviorist view,Innatist view,Interactionist view,the behaviorist（行为主义论）,proposed by B.F.Skinners(斯金纳)Traditional behaviorists view language as behavior and believe that

6、language learning is simply a matter of imitation and habit formation.Imitation Recognition Reinforcement(gradually,habit-forming),A behaviorist view of language acquisition,Children do not imitate adults speech in much the same way as parrots do,they imitate words selectively and according to their

7、 own understanding of the words or patterns,which is based on what the children have already known instead of what is“available”in the environment.Sometimes children are very much in charge of the conversation and activities with adults,children seem to pick out patterns and generalize them to new c

8、ontexts.They create new forms or new uses of words,until they finally figure out how the forms are used by adults.,advantages,although the behaviorist view is under challenge and criticism because of its inadequacy,but it seems to be reasonable in some degree.for example,childrens learning of a lang

9、uage needs immitation and reinforcememt;its necessary to form certain habit in order to master a language.,disadvantages,it fails to explain how children acquire more complex grammatical structures of the language.Examples:a.Johnis mother loves himi,j.b.*Hei loves Johnis mother.c.Hisi,mother loves J

10、ohni.The inadequacy of behaviorist view lies in the fact that children do not imitate adults language in much the same way as parrots do.,the innatist view（语法天生主义论）,proposed by Chomsky According to the innatist view of language acquisition,human beings are biologically programmed for language.,An in

11、natist view of language acquisition,1st:All children virtually learn their native language which is so complicated at almost the same time.2nd:Children successfully master the basic structure of their language or dialect in various conditions.3rd:The language children exposed to may not contain exam

12、ples of all the information which they eventually know.,According to the innatist view of language acquisition,human beings are biologically programmed for language and that the language develops in the child just as other biological functions such as walking.,LAD-language acquisition deviceLAD 语言习得

13、机制,Chomsky referred to the innate language ability as language acquisition device(LAD).The Language Acquisition Device(LAD)is a postulated“organ”of the brain that is supposed to function as a inborn device for language acquisition.,Language Acquisition Device(LAD),According to Chomsky,there are aspe

14、cts of linguistic organization that are basic to the human brain and that make it possible for children to acquire linguistic competence in all its complexity with little instruction from family or friends.He argues that LAD probably consists of three elements:a hypothesis-maker,linguistic universal

15、,and an evaluation procedure.,UG普遍语法,Later Chomsky refers to this innate endowment天资 as Universal Grammar.Universal Grammar includes a set of principles which can be used to explain child language acquisition.UG is an endowment that all children are born with.If children are pre-equipped with UG,the

16、n what they have to learn is the way in which their own language makes use of these principles.,An innatist view of language acquisition,TG(Transformational-Generative)grammar sees language as a system of innate rules.A native speaker possesses a linguistic competence,or a language acquisition devic

17、e.Although Chomsky does not intend to make his model a representation of performance,i.e.,the language actually used in communication,applied linguistics find TG grammar useful in certain aspects.This view serves as an answer to the logical problem of language acquisition that the behaviorist view f

18、ails to recognize.,Logical Problem of Language Acquisition逻辑问题,The logical problem refers to the fact that children come to know more about their language than what they could reasonably be expected to learn from their living environment.so,when exposed to confsing information or when guidance or co

19、rrection is not avalable,children can discover for themselves the ultimate rules of the language system.,examplesJohn saw himself.Himself saw John.(the reflexive pronoun must follow the noun it refers to)looking at himself bores John.John said that Fred liked himself.John said that Fred lke himself.

20、(the closest noun phrase uaually be the antecedent)John promised Bill to wash himself.,Merit&Deficiency,Merit:in a way serves as an answer to the logical problem of language acquisition that the behaviorist view fails to recognize.Deficiency:no evidence about what the UG(universal grammar)is and how

21、 does it work.,interactionist view互动主义理论,The interactionist view holds that language develops as a result of the complex interplay between the human characteristics of the child（儿童身上的人类特点）and the environment in which the child develops.The interactionist theory emphasizes the importance of the inter

22、action between biological and social(nature and nurture)aspects of language acquisition.,An inter-actionist view of language acquisition,Adults speak differently when talking to little children:(i.e.,motherese,or child-directed-speech(CDS),or caretaker talk,to make themselves understood by children.

23、)Characteristics:1.Slow rate of speech 2.High pitch 3.Rich intonation 4.Shorter and simpler sentence structures 5.Frequent repetition 6.Paraphrasing and limited vocabulary In addition,topics closely related to“here and now”environment.The comprehensible language samples exposed to children are impor

24、tant,only when conversation provide the right level of language that children are capable of processing can they facilitate childrens language acquisition,otherwise,it is insufficient for children to learn the languages structure.,conclusion,It is important for children to be exposed to comprehensib

25、le language.The interactionist view calls for the quality of the language samples available in the linguistic environment,only when the language is modified and adjusted to the level of childrens comprehension,do they process and internalize the language items.,Summary of these three theories,The be

26、haviorist view sounds reasonable in explaining the routine aspectsthe innatist accounts most plausible in explaining childrens acquiring complex systemthe interactionist description is convincing in understanding how children learn and use the language appropriately from their environment,Cognitive

27、factors in child language development,1)Language development is dependent on both the concepts(children form)about the world and what they feel stimulated to communicate at the early and later stages of their language development.,Cognitive factors in child language development,2.The cognitive facto

28、rs determine how the child makes sense of the linguistic system himself instead of what meanings the child perceives and expresses.,Cognitive factors in child language development,Many careful studies of childrens acquisition sequences and errors in various languages have revealed that:Children have

29、 some“operating principles”for making sense of language data.,The acquisition of negative form,1.At first,the negative element is not part of the structure of the sentence,its simply attached to the beginning or end，as in:No singing song.No the sun shining.,The acquisition of negative form,2.The neg

30、ative element is inserted into the sentence,instead of no or not,children may use dont or cant,but they do not yet inflect these for different persons or tenses:I no want envelope.he no bite you.He dons want it.,The acquisition of negative form,3.Children begin to produce the appropriate part of do,

31、be or the model verbs,to suit the person or tense:you dont want some supper.Paul didnt laugh.I am not a doctor.,The acquisition of negative form,It demonstrates that in the course of acquiring the native language:1st:children seem to look initially for a system which is rule-governed in a consistent

32、 way.2ed:then a system in which the clues to meaning are clearly displayed.3rd:finally the one in which each item or distinction has a definite function in communicative meaning.,Language environment,Two important factors in language acquisition theories:the linguistic environment children are expos

33、ed to and the age they start to learn the language.they bear remarkable relevance to their language development.In behaviorist approach,language environment plays a major role in providing both language models to be imitated and necessary feedbacks.(the positive reinforcement or reward encourages ch

34、ildrens efforts and facilitates the correct learning while the negative feedback discourages children to repeat the“mistakes”),The innatist view emphasizes more on childrens internal processing of the language items to be learnt.The environment functions as a stimulus that triggers and activates the

35、 pre-equipped UG to process the materials provided by the linguistic environment around the children.The interactionist view calls for the quality of the language samples available in the linguistic environment,only when the language is modified and adjusted to the level of childrens comprehension,d

36、o they process and internalize the language items.,Language Environment,Childrens ability to develop normal behaviors and knowledge in environment doesnt continue indefinitely and that children who have never learnt language for various reasons cannot return to normal if these deprivations go on for

37、 too long.,Eric Lenneberg,a biologist,argues that the LAD,like other biological functions,works successfully only when it is stimulated at the right time-a specific and limited time period for language acquisition.,Critical period Hypothesis(CPH),Critical Period Hypothesis(CPH),The strong version of

38、 CPH suggests that children must acquire their first language by puberty or they will never be able to learn from subsequent exposure.The weak version holds that language learning will be more difficult and incomplete after puberty.(Supported in Victors and Genies cases),There are two versions of th

39、e CPH.,Despite the above mentioned differences,there are consensus that have been reached that there is a critical period for first language acquisition.This is proved by the recent natural experiments conducted by Elissa Newport and her colleagues(1990)on 3 groups of deaf sign users;Their research

40、results showed that the native signers outperform both the early signers and the later signers and were highly consistent in their use of grammatical forms.,Critical period Hypothesis(CPH),10.5 Stages in child language development,1st:Phonological development Children are born with an ability to dis

41、criminate and produce sounds and the acquisition of sounds is universal across all culture and languages,the sequence in which the sounds are acquired works like a system of pre-requisites,i.e.,the child must pass each stage before he can proceed to the next one.,2nd:Vocabulary development,Children

42、do not learn the meaning of a word“all at once”,when a child learns a new word,he may well under-extend or over-extend it.1)Under-extension(birds are not animals)2)Over-extension(the extension of categories or analogies,of family resemblances)3)Lexical Contrast(children have conventional words for t

43、hings,they use conventional words for something else when a proper word is available,then they contrast it with other words.)4)Prototype theory(children may begin a word with a prototype and extend its features later.),3rd:Grammatical development,1)Telegraphic speech(content words,lacking of functio

44、n element,no syntactic or morphological markers,i.e.no use of inflections for number,person or tense,etc,around the age of 2.their noun+noun can be equal to a number of different grammatical relations which will be expressed later by other syntactic devices.e.g.,Mommy sock)2)Sentences of three main

45、elements(the grasp of principles for sentence formation,e.g.,daddy kick ball.),Grammatical development,As children learn vocabulary they are also learning morpho-syntax rules or grammar.Children acquire their first morphemes in a predictable order,which is to a large extent determined by the linguis

46、tic complexity rather than the frequency of input.Childrens learning of question construction:1.using a question intonation:a rising pitch at the end of the sentence.2.children merely“take on”a question word in front of the sentence without changing the word order or inserting do.3.until they have a

47、cquired the auxiliary word that they can use questions correctly.,Grammatical development,While children are increasing their mastery of grammatical morphemes,they are also increasing their ability to carry out transformation of the basic sentence structure so as to produce more complex utterances.T

48、his grammatical development is partly a matter of growing competence(in the sense of underlying knowledge)and partly a matter of increasing performance capacity.Some subtle grammatical distinctions may not be mastered much before the age of ten.,4th:Pragmatic development,Gender is an important aspec

49、t of speech,to imitate certain roles,it can also be found in the topics and quantity of children talk.Politeness is one of the few aspects of speech that are explicitly taught by adults:the appropriate use of language.The magic words of“please and thank you”gradually children learn the intention ben

50、eath the linguistic form.,Atypical development,Atypical or abnormal language development occurs due to trauma or injury.Atypical language development includes:Hearing impairment(slight or severe,lead to minor loss or total lack of language)Mental retardation(cause a delay in language acquisition)Aut