Developing individual in society Lecture 4 : 5/11/2020 Language development Lecturer: Fenja Ziegler ‘Language' in bees - 'Waggle dance' : von Frisch - Bees are capable of communicating the location of food in relation to the hive. - Food that is close, they do a circular flight pattern. - Food that is far away, they do a 'waggle' dance. - However, von Frisch found that bees could not communicate the location of food that was placed high above the hive. Bees may be able to communicate but it is debatable if bees (and other animals) have language. Communication systems in humans - We have a vocabulary, which we can use to form sentences. - E.g. 'The cat chased the dog', 'the dog chased the cat'. - Through this vocabulary, we have infinite generativity. We can form a near limitless number of sentences through the use of our vocabulary in combination with grammar. A large complication is that we cannot recall how we learnt a language as a child. It has been found that learning a language before the age of 5 is much easier for the child, there are no formal instructions, the child just 'picks up' the language and learns how it works. The question is, how? Is it innate or learned? There is a 'vocabulary explosion' in children between the age of 12 to 24 months, going from less than 50, to over 300 words at 24 months. Children gradually get better at speech as they get more exposed to it. Holophrases: Word + gesture. 'Up!' Telegraphic speech, grammatical & non-grammatical. 'Doggie drink water'. Over-regularization, where the child applies grammar rules to words that this rule does not apply to. 'I runned, I winned'. Shows children learn the principles of grammar, but do not learn a passive voice until the age of 8 or 9. B.F Skinner
- Claimed language is learned. - Through operant conditioning, reward, punishment and reinforcers. - Child says 'goggie', in reference to a dog. - The parents are happy as a result of this, which fades over time as the child continues to say 'goggie'. Reinforcing this behaviour. - However, the parents no longer react to it, or correct the child. Punishing this behaviour. - Then, when the child says 'doggie' the parents react happily again. Reinforcing this behaviour. Skinner claimed the only reason other animals did not communicate with language, is that they did not have the correct vocal physiology. However, children are not like rats. Learning is not the whole story of learning. - What explains the sudden vocabular explosion? As the time taken to correct words, such as described above, would take far longer. The time taken to reinforce this language does not reflect the time taken to master it. - Grammar is not just rewarded, but the content of the language also. - 'poverty of stimulus'. Very few people correctly speak most of the time. Children are raised in these environments. Despite reinforcement clearly playing a strong role in