Week 22 - Language Acquisition Tuesday, March 19, 2019 4:46 PM - Most language change originates from transmission across generation: the children Poverty of Stimulus, AKA Plato's Problem - Children always acquire adult level system around the age of 8 - For children to figure out how grammar works, there must be an inbuilt system on wh pay attention to There is no genetic disposition to certain languages. Children are able to learn and pick up language despite adults around them not speaking pe Errors made in speech around babies may be a factor for language change Children have a reliable timeline for language acquisition: - 1 month: can distinguish sounds that contrast human languages - 6 months: babbling - 10-12 months: loss of ability to hear non-L1 contrasts Order of acquisition in production: Manner: - Vowels -> stops -> other consonants Place - Labials -> alveolar -> velar -> alveopalatal -> labiodentals Position - Onset -> coda Cluster simplification - Taking consonant - clusters and simplifying them into a single consonant or simpler cluster of consonant Typical inventory at age 2
Typical inventory at age 2 - P, b, m, w, f, t, d, n, s, k, g, Age 4 - V, l, r, z, tf, d3, esh, j, ng Adult inventory - 3, theta, eth Babbling - Babbling is about language development - Babies acquiring ASL babble with their hands, making an extra gesture that spoken language babies do not make. This gesture was in front of their bodies, in the space that is used for ASL - These gestures are like a hearing baby having a part of the sounds required to make a word Acquisition vs learning - Acquisition is more like the acquisition of theory of mind or walking. Children do it without being taught. - Learning is conscious and has explicit teaching Perception and comprehension precede production. They can hear and perceive [k] for example, but cannot produce it immediately Strategies for kids when they cannot produce a word form yet: - Stressed syllable retention: only saying the stressed syllable - Syllable simplification: simplifying consonant clusters in the syllable. - Substitution: substituting a sound with an easier sound, or a sound that the child has. Example, rain -> wain. Syllables easiest to pronounce are 1 consonant followed by one vowel. Syllable simplification is usually getting rid of consonants. Lexical Development - 18mo - 50 words, +10 per day - 6yo - 14000 words, +20 per day