Chomsky and What is Language and How It is Acquired

Chomsky and what is language and how it is acquired What we will do in this session: • Look at one of the major theorists of language/ father of linguistics – Noam Chomsky. How is language acquired: • Language is an example of intellectual development. There are some theorists who believe language is learned and others who believe that language is innate. • Noam Chomsky is a credible linguist and expert in language development. He started his research into language in the 1960s. He suggests that children are born with an innate ability to learn language. Who is Noam Chomsky? What does his theory say? • Everyone is born with the capacity to develop and learn any language. • Language development is instinctive. • When we are born we are born with the skills to develop language and multiple languages • So our hereditary has the greatest impact on our language learning Vocab word: innate But the notebook is not blank. It is filled with innate capabilitie s The capabilities are there from birth Every child/person has a LAD LAD is a tool in the brain that helps us to develop language quickly But we have so many languages how can this possibly be? How can all these languages have one set of principles that can rule them all? The idea came from Chomsky who called it Universal Grammar - UG UG – Universal Grammar • Before we look at what UG is – let’s see what it is not We are not born with any particular language No baby is born knowing English, isiXhosa, French, Japanese We are not born with the rules, sounds, vocabular of any language. That is stuff we have to learn. What babies do not have to learn is how languages can work. What kinds of words we can build, what types of sentences we can build. These are universal principles that define what is possible and what is not. They are the same for everybody. Evidence to back up Babies – no matter where they are in the world go through the same stages of learning a language Babies learn language way his theory faster than they would if they were a blank slate – there has to be something there to help them Slate was another word for blackboard Arabic and Hidi babbling babies make the same sounds A study done on 15 different languages: English, Hindi, Arabic, Mayan and even Thai, Japanese – all these languages have in common is that they are spoken by people. They found that all these babies prefer consonants made by the lips e.g. m (labial consonants) Any average 8 month old baby can differentiate between any pair of sounds in any language e.g. mom and mop if you are English speaking or tock and talk, rock and block etc. It’s not only sounds. Babies pick up words at the same rate, stage too Babies also preferred stop consonants such as b and p where the air flow through the mouth is blocked. They preferred a and oo – and it did not matter if these languages made use of these sounds Universal grammar He said grammar similarities in all languages • Children have inherited skill to pick up language • The role of the LAD is to encode the major skills involved in language learning, but with a focus on the encoding of grammar. • Grammar is a vital skill needed for children to learn language. • Chomsky disregarded the role of imitation alone – especially if the adult is using a structure that the child themselves has not started to use yet. • Children pick up nouns, verbs which are imprinted onto their brains. Then the UG helps them to develop the grammar rules. • He suggested that language is like learning to walk. It does not matter how clear you are – except if you have a disability you learn to walk. The same thing with talking The same thing seen in a different picture Just exposing children to language is enough they will develop the grammar themselves Dialogue: Parent and child who is 3 yrs old • Parent: What did you do today? • Child: Me drawed a cat. (applies – ed suffix rule but gets it wrong) • Parent: You drew a cat? • Child: Yea. (understands correction) • Parent: Who did you play with at breaktime? • Child: Me played with Sarah and Helen (wrong pronounnot learnt passively) • Parent: That sounds fun. Now what do you want for supper? Dialogue continued There are some grammar mistakes that children make but there are millions that they don’t • Child: Dunno. What you having? • Parent: Daddy and I are having fish. • Child: You having fishes? (incorrect use of plural noun but shows child is applying rules) • Parent: Yes. I’ll do you some fish fingers and if you are a good girl and eat them all you can have a sweetie • Child: Me want two sweeties (applying plural noun rule) • Parent: Go watch some tv • Child: When daddy coming home (gets SVO correct all the time) • Parent: He will be here soon 75% of the worlds language structure is SVO Criticisms of Chomsky’s Model: • There is a lack of evidence to support the theory. • The theory offers a hypothetical explanation and we do not know where the LAD is located. – no scientific evidence that it is a part of the brain. • The model ignores the importance of social interaction. – you will learn a lot about Vygotsky in your B.ED course. • The model cannot explain why individuals with certain learning disabilities such as Down’s Syndrome have delayed language. Criticism of Chomsky’s theory 2 • You cannot deny that children need adults/another person to help them learn language and helping them to work out the regularities for the language – we need parents/teachers. • In evolutionary anthropology it shows that humans have gradually adapted the use of language, it did not suddenly appear. • His theory is only concerned with syntax – the grammar • But as you will see linguistics has other aspects like semantics (meaning in language), pragmatics (you have a speaker, a listener and a context) • HOWEVER CHOMSKY’S THEORY HAS STOOD THE TEST OF TIME AND IS STILL USED TODAY Revision: What did Chomsky believe? Revision: What is a lad? How to people get LAD? Revision: Main criticism: