Language acquisition device

Language Acquisition Device

chomsky languages syntax aspects lad set structure knowledge

The Language Acquisition Device (LAD) is a hypothetical brain mechanism that Noam Chomsky
postulated to explain human acquisition of the syntactic structure of language. This mechanism endows
children with the capacity to derive the syntactic structure and rules of their native language rapidly and
accurately from the impoverished input provided by adult language users. The device is comprised of a
finite set of dimensions along which languages vary, which are set at different levels for different languages
on the basis of language exposure. The LAD reflects Chomsky's underlying assumption that many aspects
of language are universal (common to all languages and cultures) and constrained by innate core
knowledge about language called Universal Grammar. This theoretical account of syntax acquisition
contrasts sharply with the views of B. F. Skinner, Jean Piaget, and other cognitive and social-learning
theorists who emphasize the role of experience and general knowledge and abilities in language acquisition.

Read more: Language Acquisition Device - Chomsky, Languages, Syntax, Aspects, Lad, and Set
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http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/course/85-211b/language_acq.html
Language Acquisition

Children learn to speak language in an extraordinarily short period of time after

they are born.

How is it that language is acquired this quickly?

Stages of language acquisition

There are five basic stages of language acquisition:

 1. Cooing: Appears at about 6 months or so. All infants coo using all the
phonemes from every language. Even congenitally deaf children coo.
2. Babbling: Appears at around 9 months. Infants are starting to selectively
use the phonemes from their native language.
3. One-word utterances: At around 12 months, children start using words.
4. Telegraphic speech: Children start making multi-word utterances that
lack function words. (about 2 years old)
5. Normal speech: By about 5-6 years of age, children have almost normal
speech

The Nature-nurture debate

Is the ability to learn language innate, or is it the result of children being

exposed to lots of language early on?

Nature:

o Perception for speech sounds is better than perception for other

sounds

o Congenitally deaf children will learn sign language at about the

rate that normal children learn spoken language, and will progress
through roughly the same stages.

o Children are not exposed to as rich a variety of speech as they are

able to develop.

o Parts of the brain seem to be specialized for language processing

o Parts of our physiology (larynx, highly manipulable tongue) seem

to have no purpose except to facilitate the use of speech.

Chomskyís Language Acquisition Device

Chomsky hypothesized that children have a built-in system to aid in the

acquisition of language called a language acquisition device.
The LAD can be thought of as a system containing a large number of switches
that determine the features of the native language.

For example, there would be a switch for describing whether the language is
SVO (English), SOV (Japanese), or some other combination.

Nurture arguments

Critical period:

There appears to be a critical period for language acquisition, that corresponds

roughly to the time before puberty. After puberty hits, people will never learn a
language like a native speaker will.

In other words, if youíre not exposed to language as a child, you wonít acquire
it all that well, no matter how predisposed your cognitive system may be to
learn it.

Models of language acquisition

Hypothesis testing:

An attempt to integrate nature and nurture.

As kids are exposed to language, they form "hypotheses," which are kind of
like tentative rules for the language. As these hypotheses are confirmed or
disconfirmed, they are modified appropriately.

The nature side of the equation provides the biases that guide what features of
language kids pay attention to.

Imitation: Pretty self-explanatory.

Modeling: Children sound like the adults around them, such as by sharing
accents and idioms. Adults use child-directed speech to make themselves easier
for children to understand.