First Language Acquisition
How did We
Learn to Speak?
Language Acquisition
Is the study of how human beings acquire a grammar.
The way we acquire the grammar of our first language.
First words that you have learned…?
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Language Acquisition
A set of phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic categories which underlie their ability to speak and understand the language to which they are exposed.
(Example given:)
Language Acquisition
Transformation
Child does not possess a grammar of a particular language
Mental State
Child does possess a grammar of a particular language
OVERVIEW
(1)A child acquiring English might form the plural of foot first as foots, then as feets, then as feetses, and finally as feet.
This illustrates the fact that language is acquired in stages.
(2)A child acquiring English might form an interrogative such as Why can’t I go? As Why can’t I go?
Illustrates the fact that language is not acquired through simple imitation
(3) All normal children acquire a language, but not all children learn to read and write.
Do you agree?
Supports the hypothesis that human beings are genetically programmed to acquire a language.
(4)Many children gain a fairly sophisticated facility with language before they master tasks such as tying their shoes, telling time, or adding numbers.
Language acquisition is not thought to be a function of intelligence or general intellectual abilities.
STAGES
PRELINGUISTIC STAGES
LINGUISTIC STAGES
1. PRELINGUISTIC STAGES
3 STAGES
Crying sounds
Cooing sounds
Babbling sounds
Crying Sounds
By 2 months, types of crying may be identified: crying signifying rage, hunger, pain.
Serves as primitive communication link between parent and child.
Cooing Sounds
These utterances include gurgles, sighs, grunts and little wisps of sounds which may all be referred to as comfort sounds.
Infants earliest vocalizations are cries
2 to 4 months - cooing and babbling.
Babbling
A universal phenomenon found in all human infants. It is characterized by chaining & linking of sounds together on one vocal play usually happens when the child is alone.
It is a way to self- imitation
How about deaf babies?
Since they cannot hear the sounds they produce, they probably lose interest and hence have much less true vocal play than the hearing child.
Human organism goes through as it matures
3 Stages – Crying, Cooing & Babbling
Real-life example
How do birds begin to fly…?
GENETICALLY ENCODED STAGE IN MATURATION
Speech sounds
Infants are able to perceive differences between pairs of stimuli:
[ba] and [pa] ; [ba] and [ga]
There are several methods in testing the perception of infants and 1 of those is----
PACIFIER
The child sucks on a pacifier which is connected by wire to a monitoring device.
The child hears a repeated stimulus for several minutes for [ba]- [ba]- [ba]
Follows [pa]- [pa] -[pa]
The innate ability of infants to perceive at least some auditory sounds as foundation.
2. LINGUISTIC STAGES
In acquiring language, children go through more or less the same stages at more or less the same time.
Example: a child will typically acquire stops (/p,b,t,d,g,k/) before liquids (/l,r/)
True or False?
Every normal child will acquire ALL of the stops, completely and correctly, before any of the liquids.
FALSE. because it is a general pattern of acquiring language.
Which is correct?
John ate before he came home.
Before John came home, he ate.
(This general principle seems to apply to children acquiring any first language.)
Problems of investigators in dealing with immature informants.
- Interpreting the structure underlying a child’s utterance.
ex: “wear shirt no”
-is it a structured sentence or unstructured string of words?
-is wear shirt a verb-object construction or just a memorized phrase?
-is the placement of no at the end of the utterance the result of a rule or simply an after-thought?
2. Investigators cannot question a child like they can an adult speaker.
Remember: They are immature informants
(infants and children)
(infants and children)
Implication:
In studying language acquisition, we should avoid over interpreting a child’s productions.
Conversation between Brenda & Scallon
Brenda: [ka](4 times)
Scollon: What? Oh, bicycle? Is that what you said?
Scollon: What?
Brenda: [na]
Brenda: Go. Go.
Scollon: No?
Scollon: (undecipherable)
Brenda: Not.
Brenda: [baIš]
Scollon: No. I got it wrong.
Acquisition of Phonology
Vowels
Consonants
Syllable Structure
1. Vowels
Children typically acquire /a,i,u/ at an early stage.
/a/- universal (it occurs in all languges)
/i,u/- nearly universal (occurs vast majority of languges.)
Thus, /a,i,u/ will be acquired early, & other immediate vowels will come later.
2. Consonants
Children typically acquire /p,b,m,w/ at an early stage.
Place of articulation
Manner of articulation
Place of Articulation
From the front of the mouth to the back.
Labials are acquired before alveolars, palatals, and velars. (see the consonant table)
Manner of Articulation
From most consonant-like to least consonant-like.
Stops & Nasals before Liquids & Fricatives. (see the consonant table)
EXAMPLES
Room [wum]
Love [w^v]
Dæt [that]
How about /ma/ & /pa/?
/m,p,a/
Are all acquired very early.
Telebision – Television (/b/ & /v/)
b first before v
/b/ & /v/ : same characteristics
[+voice] ; [+labial]
Another example:
/bambi/ /mami/
/titεr/ /sIstər/
3. Syllable Structure
CV Syllables
Where C= Consonant ; V= Vowel
Let’s have an exercise
Spy
Ask
Spry
Asked
Splints
Clustering of Sounds: “Stoves”
[o] or [tho], [thov], [stov], and then [stovz]
3. Syllable Structure
Simplification
Reduplication
Blending
Simplification
Initial consonant clusters
Scramble - /skǽmbəl/
Drink - /dIk/
Which word do we learn first? Tummy or stomach?
Tummy is the correct answer!
Again, the point is that a child’s acquisition of phonology is rule-governed and predictable.
Reduplication
Or syllable repitition
Mama, papa, peepee and so on.
CVCV
Blending
Combines features of two (2) adjacent segments into a single segment. (Turning CVC into CV)
EX: /gud/ - /gu/
/snow/ - /sno/ - /no/
You passed the phonology stage!!
Acquisition of Morphology
Morphology
Study of word formation
Study of the rules governing the internal structure of words.
Grammatical bound morphemes
Gradually begin to appear at the age of 2-3 years.
Grammatical bound morphemes
It includes :
Inflectional morphemes
Grammatical morphemes
Inflectional Morphemes
Which is acquired fairly early?
- {PRES PART} -ing
- {PAST}, {PLU}, {POSS} and {PRES}
1. {PRES PART}
ex: Ping, Ding, Driving
ex: Ping, Ding, Driving
2. {PAST}
shows up variously as /t/ as in walked; /d/ as in hugged; /Əd/ as in added.
3 SIMPLE PRINCIPLES
If a verb ends in a voiceless segment, add the voiceless segment /t/.
walk - walked
If the verb ends in a voiced segment, add the voiced segment /d/
Hug - hugged
If the verb already ends in /t/ or /d/, so {PAST} shows up as /Əd/ .
Hate - hated
SUMMARY
Final Segment Sound Example
[- voice] /t/ walked
[+ voice] /d/ hugged
/t,d/ /Əd/ hated
Let’s have an exercise!
How about irregular past tense forms?
Go - goed
Went - wented
Break - Breaked
Until the child learns that these are the irregular forms of verb.
3. {PLU}
The morpheme {PLU} shows up as /s/ as in ducks; /z/ as in dogs; /Əz/ as in horses.
3 SIMPLE PRINCIPLES
If the noun ends in a voiceless segment, add the voiceless segment /s/.
Duck - ducks
If the noun ends in a voiced segment, add the voiced segment /z/
Dog - dogs
If the noun ends in /s,z,ž,Š,Č,Ĵ/, add /Əz/
Horse - horses
SUMMARY
Final Segment Sound Example
[- voice] /s/ ducks
[+ voice] /z/ dogs
/t,d/ /Əz/ horses
Let’s have an exercise!
How about irregular plural forms of noun?
Feet
Feets
Feetses
Feet
Until the child learns that these are the irregular forms of noun.
4. {POSS} & 5. {PRES}
{PLU} {POSS} {PRES}
/s/ cats Bart’s waits
/z/ cads Bud’s wades
/Əz/ cases Bess’s winces
Order of Morpheme Domain
Acquisition
1 {PLU} N
2 {POSS} NP
3 {PRES} S
(Example given:)
Derivational Affixes
The more productive they are, the earlier they are acquired.
Ex: unhappy à inconsolable
More productive Derivational morphemes
-ly
Quick- quickly
Intelligent- intelligently
Careful- carefully
-er
Love- lover
Farm- farmer
Drive- driver
A less productive affix
-hood
Father- fatherhood
Mother- motherhood
(X) Wrong
Uncle- unclehood
Cousin- cousinhood
Conclusion:
A child’s acquisition of morphology is for the most part systematic and rule governed.
Let’s have Syntax!!!
You passed the morphology stage!!
Acquisition of SYNTAX
SYNTAX
Study of sentence formation.
STAGES
Length of Utterance and Word Order
Questions
Negatives
Length of Utterance and Word Order
STAGES:
One-word or holophrastic stage
Two-word stage
Multiword Stage
One-word or holophrastic stage
This stage lasts between 3 and 9 months
Its usually refers to some concrete object in the child’s environment
EX:
Shoe, milk, eye, ball, mommy, daddy
Two word Stage
Utterance forms like:
Subject-Verb
EX: Doggie run
Verb-modifier
EX: Push bike, sit there
Multiword Stage
Also called as telegraphic stage
Utterances of more than 2 words.
EX:
That Besas chair (That’s Besas’ chair)
Besas sit on chair (Besas is sitting on the chair)
It's in the multiword stage that word order starts to become fixed.
QUESTIONS
What are the 2 types of question?
YES-NO INTERROGATIVE
WH INTERROGATIVE
( Let’s have an activity)
YES-NO INTERROGATIVE
Ex: Has Besas seen J.V?
WH INTERROGATIVE
Ex: Who has Besas seen?
A child exposed to English first signals questions simply by intonation.
Intonation- is the modulation of the speaking voice or the tune of the melodic pattern of what you say.
Let’s have a dialogue.
Utterance: CHILD
Child asks this way:
Daddy going. “Daddy is going.”
Daddy going? “Is Daddy going?”
NEGATIVES
FIRST TO ACQUIRE
Not
No
Can’t
Don’t
won’t
didn’t
2nd to acquire
Wasn't
Couldn't
Wouldn’t
Shouldn’t
Utterance: CHILD
1st stage:
No milk, all gone milk, no eat, wear hat no
2nd stage
Can’t , don’t,
Ex: it’s not hot, I don’t like that
Conclusion:
A child’s acquisition of syntax categories and rules proceeds through orderly, systematic and predictable stages.
Let's have SEMANTICS!!!
You passed the syntax stage!!
• Acquisition
of
SEMANTICS
of
SEMANTICS
What is Semantics?
Semantics is the study of meaning (words or sentence) that is used by humans to express themselves through language.
What is the distinction between Lexical and Sentence semantics ?
Lexical Semantics
(meanings of individual words)
• Two process that children go through in acquiring the meanings of individual words:
ü Overgeneralization
ü Subsequent Narrowing
Example:
a. Cookie
b. Dog
Children tend to acquire the so- called
“basic- level terms”.
• Like house before terms such as building or cabin.
• Bird (basic-level) before animal (too general) or robin (too specific).
Another principle is that children typically acquire the positive member of a pair of opposites before the negative member.
Example:
• When a 3-year-old child is presented with two sticks of different lengths, they give more correct responses to questions like which stick is longer? Than to which stick is shorter?
• If a friend says that he just saw a new movie, you might ask How long was it? than How short was it?
(In this examples, long is the positive term and short is the negative term.)
Sentence Semantics
(the interpretation of the entire sentences)
• Active Sentences
Example:
John pushed Mary .
• Passive Sentences
Example:
John was pushed by Mary.
(Both interpreted as ‘John pushed Mary.’)
The child is responding to the order of the major sentence constituents (John pushed, and Mary) and ignoring the grammatical morphemes (was and by).The child seems to be interpreting the first NP (John) as the agent, the volitional actor, and the second NP (Mary) as the patient, the thing acted upon.
Bare Infinitives
- Is a subordinate clause containing an infinitive verb and no overt subject (thus, the infinitive is said to be “bare”).
Example:
I told you where to sit
(It contains subordinate clause where to sit, w/c has no overt subject NP; thus, where to sit is a bare infinitive clause.)
Minimum Distance Principle (MDP)
- the strategy of interpreting the subject of such bare infinitives.
• It can be stated as follows:
- interpret the subject of a bare infinitive as the closest NP to the left.
Children acquire in systematic stages involves the interpretation of sentences containing temporal connectives before and after.
For example:
- He came home before he ate lunch
- Before he ate lunch, he came home
- He ate lunch after he came home
- After he came home, he ate lunch
• First Stage
- They interpret all the sentences according to the order of mention principle: the event reported in the first clause is interpreted as happening before the event reported in the second clause.
• Second Stage
- Children interpret all sentences containing before correctly; however, they continue to interpret sentences containing after according to the order-of-mention strategy.
• Third Stage
- They interpret both before and after as ‘before’.
• Fourth and Final Stage
– The children interpreted all four sentence types correctly; that is, before as ‘before’ and after as ‘after’.
• Stages
- All sentences interpreted via order of mention (i.e., event in first clause happened first; event in second clause happened second).
- Before interpreted correctly; after interpreted via order of mention.
- Before and after interpreted as ‘before’.
- All sentences interpreted correctly.
---END--- J
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