Language

Language & Communication:

• Human language - Properties, structure and

linguistic hierarchy,
• Language acquisition-predisposition, critical
period hypothesis;
• Theories of language development - Skinner
and Chomsky; Process and types of
communication - effective communication
training
 • What are the different rules of language?
Critically analyze critical period hypothesis.
(2020)
• Evaluate critical period hypothesis in
Let’s visit some language acquisition. (2019)
• How can language be analyzed for its
previous year’s similarities across cultures? Explain Explain
with scientific evidences. (2019)

questions! • Describe the structures and features of

language focusing on what makes human
language unique in comparison to
communication in animals. (2018)
• Critically evaluate Noam Chomsky’s theory
of transformational grammar. (2017)
 • Explain the importance of critical periods in
language development .In what ways are
bilingualism and cognitive development
related? (2017)
• Discuss the components of language
acquisition citing the average age at which
Let’s visit some these are demonstrated by a child. (2016)
• How does Chomsky’s theory differ from

previous year’s that of Skinner in language development

discuss. (2015)
• What are the processes of language
questions! production. (2013)
• Discuss modifications of Chomsky’s
transformational generative grammar.
(2012)
• Compare Chomsky’s innate mechanism
view with Skkiner’s view of language
development. (2010)
 • Describe the phase of language acquisition
and show how critical period hypothesis
explains the process of language
acquisition. (2008)

Let’s visit some • The mand and tact functions of language

development proposed by Skinner are not
powerful enough to explain why particular
previous year’s utterances are produced at a particular
time. Discuss in the context of Chomsky’s
rebuttal of Skinnerian theory of language
questions! development .(2006)
• Discuss in detail the critical periods in
human development. Give suggestions to
handle these critical periods effectively in
Indian settings.(2004)
• Explain the role of language in
communication. Give a brief theoretical
account of language development.(2004)
 • Sapir, “a purely human and non - instinctive
method of communicating ideals emotions
and desires by means of voluntary produced
symbols.”

Human Language : • Hall, “the institution whereby humans

communicate interact with each other by
means of habitually used oral -auditory
definition arbitrary symbols.”
• A system combining symbols such as words
so that an infinite number of meaningful
statements can be made for the purpose of
communication with others. Language
allows people not only to communicate with
one another but also to present their own
internal mental activity.
 “A set (finite or infinite)of sentences, each
finite in length and constructed out of a finite
Noam Chomsky set of elements.” Chomsky’s Syntactic
Structures, 1957
– definition of
language
“Language is a natural object, a component of
the human mind, physically represented in
the brain and part of biological endowment of
the species.” 2002
 DIRECTIVE

Functions of EXPRESSIVE
Language

INFORMATIVE
 • The Design Features of Language was a
phrase coined in the 1960s by the
American linguist Charles Hockett.
• Hockett believed that there existed 16
features of human language meaning all
human languages have it.

Properties of • Charles Hockett also articulated that even

the most basic human languages contained
all 16 features.
Human Language • While the list initially contained 13
features, in a subsequent article Hockett
expanded his list with three more features,
for a total of sixteen.
• While he concluded that six features are
unique to human language.
 Properties unique
to human language

Duality of
Discreteness
patterning

Uniqueness of
Human Language Displacement Productivity

Cultural
Arbitrariness
transmission
 1. Duality of patterning- the property of
human language that enables a
combinatorial structure on two distinct
levels: meaningless sounds can be
combined into meaningful morphemes
and words ,which themselves could be
combined further.

Unique Properties Example: Word “dog” is meaningful while

individual sound units /d/ /o/ /g/ don’t
have any meaning.
of Human Language 2. Arbitrariness-there is no logical or
intrinsic relationship between signifier
(sound pattern)or
signified(concept/referent).
i.e., no natural link between word and
object it represents. There is a small group
of onomatopoeic words in any language.
 3. Displacement- the capability of language
to communicate about things that are not
immediately present(spatially or
temporally)
i.e. things that are not here and not here
now.
4. Discreteness-The property of language
when each sound is treated as discrete.
For e.g. individual sounds /t/,/i/,/p/ can be

Unique Properties combined to form ‘tip’ and ‘pit’ and both

would mean different.
Sound units can be ordered and
of Human Language reordered, combined and split apart.
5. Cultural transmission-the ability to pass
knowledge from one generation to the
next.
6. Productivity/creativity- Human beings
can produce and understand an infinite
number of sentences using a finite
number of rules
 2.Broadcast
1.Vocal auditory
transmission in 3.Transitoriness
channel
direct reception

4.Interchangeability 5.Total feedback 6.Specialization

Hockett’s Design
Features 7.Semanticity 8.Arbitrariness 9.Discretness

What sets apart human 12.Cultural

10.Displacement 11.Productivity
communication? transmission

13.Duality of
14.Learnability 15.Reflexiveness
patterning

16.Prevarication
 • Which is the process whereby children learn to
learn their native language .It consists of
abstracting structural information from language
there around them and internalising this
information for later use. (Owens 2012)
• There are four theories that explain most of
speech and language development behavioural :
nativistic, semantic cognitive and social
pragmatic .

Language • Language acquisition usually refers to the first

language acquisition which studies the infant
acquisition of the native language whether that
Acquisition can be spoken language or signed language.
• It can also refer to bilingual first language
acquisition which refers to the infant simultaneous
acquisition of two native languages. This is
distinguished from second language acquisition
which deals with acquisition in both children and
adults of additional languages
• It involves structures, rules and representation

Hierarchy of
Language
Elements at one level are combined to
construct elements at the next level, lower
levels allow for upper levels but upper levels
rule lower levels…
Six levels in language hierarchy :
1. Phonology - elementary sounds .Basic units of
sounds in a language eg ‘a’ in ‘car’ and ‘day’.
2. Morphology -elementary letters sound
combinations. The smallest units of meaning in a
sentence eg.singing=sing+ing
3.
4.
Lexical- individual words
Syntax-System combining words and phrases to form
5.
grammatically correct sentences.
Semantics – rules determining meaning of words and
sentences. Eg Tom bought oranges, Oranges were
bought by Tom(same meaning different syntax)
6. Pragmatics- behavioural constraints on language use,
practical aspects of communicating with others or
social niceties of language.
What is
Phoneme?
Phonemes
What is
Phoneme?
Semantics
- Study of meaning of words
or phrases in a language
Pragmatics
- How context contributes to
meaning in language
Developmental
Milestone :
Language
 • Phonological Development-ability to
produce recognizable sounds.
infant crying to 6 years.

Components of • Semantic development-understanding the

meaning of spoken or written word.
About 5-6years.

Language • Grammar-rules within a given language

indicating how words can be combined into

Development meaningful sentences.

2 years telegraphic to 6 years fairly good grasp of
grammar
 There is an ideal window to acquire language
in a linguistically rich environment ,after
which further language acquisition becomes
more difficult and effortful.

A new study performed at MIT suggests that

Critical Period children remain very skilled at learning the
grammar of a new language much longer than

Hypothesis expected –up to the age of 17 or 18 .Study by

Hartshorne,Tennebaum and Pinker(2018).
However, the study also found that is nearly
impossible for people to achieve proficiency
similar to that of a native speaker unless they
start learning a language by age of 10.
 • Genie case-Dig deeper
• Cook news( 1996) found that there is a
critical period during which the human
mind is able to learn language naturally
Critical Period than before or after this. Language cannot
be acquired in a natural fashion thereafter.

Hypothesis • The critical period for second language

acquisition is less widely accepted .
 • The first theory regarding critical period for language was
suggested by Montreal neurologist Penfield and
Roberts,1959.Later developed by Lenneberg.
• Critical period hypothesis as proposed by Lenneberg,
1967,Biological Foundations of language, holds that
primary language acquisition must occur during a critical
period which ends at about the age of puberty with
establishment of cerebral lateralization of function.
• It appears that there is a critical period for language
acquisition such that this proficiency at acquiring
Critical Period languages is maximum early in life, generally, as people
age the ease with which they acquire in master new
language diminishes.(Johnson and Newport 1989,
Hypothesis Lenneberg 1967, Singleton 1995 )
• Influences of animal experiments to suggest that like
many other biological systems and functions ,language
must be acquired before a certain age or it will be
severely impaired .
• Hubel and Weisel 1951,had demonstrated that cats have
a 3- month window to develop vision when adequately
exposed to environmental stimuli in this case light.
 • All the rare cases of feral children who have been
deprived first language in early childhood seems to
support the idea of critical period but it is not
known for definite if deprivation is the only reason
for their language learning difficulties .
• Unethical to deprive a child from first language
acquisition.
• The case of Genie LA -13 year old-child abuse-tied
Critical Period to chair –for over a decade-no social interaction-
picked vocabulary yes-but not the grammatical
Hypothesis aspects of language.
• Also,pronunciation might have a critical period that
ends before I year old(Kuhl et al 2014)
• Language acquisition more implicit subconcious
effort,Learning more explicit concious
effort.(Krashen)
 • Behaviourist
• Idea John Locke ‘tabular rasa’ or blank slate
• Skinner-Language is acquired through operant
conditioning and associative learning.
• The role of reinforcement and shaping in language
Theories of development and acquisition .
• Skinner 19 57, in his book verbal behaviour
Language describes describes the controlling elements of
verbal behaviour –echoics,mands,tacts,auto
Development clitics,audience and others
• Verbal response contingent on-
Reinforcement,stimulus control,deprivation and
adverse stimulation.
 • Mands(motivating operations)Functional control satiation
or deprivation
• Echoic-Functional control of verbal stimulus formal
similarity the speaker repeats what are said stimulus is
auditory responses vocal early shaping behaviour
• Tacts- to make contact with the world. Functional control
of non -verbal stimulus and generalized condition
Theories of reinforcement in linguistic terms expressive liebling Most
important verbal behaviour to listeners(contact with

Language environment ) as well as speakers ( tangible

reinforcement )

Development • Auto clitics -modifies the function of other forms of verbal

behaviour. For example. I think I’s late.
• Intra verbal -Under the control of other verbal
• Audience control that is probability that certain responses
will occur in the presence of certain audiences .
• Watson -voice box
 Behaviourists-
Skinner, Watson, Operant conditioning
Bandura

Associative learning

Motivating operations
Language Discriminative stimuli
Acquisition
Response

Reinforcing stimuli
 “Language is a process of free
creation; its laws and
principles are fixed, but the
manner in which the
principles of generation are
used is free and infinitely
varied. Even the interpretation
and use of words involves a
process of free creation.”

Noam Chomsky
 Biologically innate, neural wiring, intricate
unconscious mechanism.

Instinctive –if not taught will develop other

means of communication

Early age of language manifestation

Nativists
Same type of language errors
/Generativists : Noam
Chomsky’s propositions
Universal grammar

Criticism-does not identify areas of brain or a

genetic basis
The LAD
 • Neurologically wired-rudimentary form of
language is stored in human brain
• Language Acquisition Device(LAD)
• Critical Period
• Universal Grammar-Generative Grammar
• Poverty of Stimulus (children not exposed to rich
Nativistic enough data to learn the complexity of
language)-controversial
perspective : • Virtuous errors
• language acquisition
• Highly abstract generative phenomena
• Infinite number of sentences-can’t be learned
• The speed and precision of vocabulary
Noam Chomsky- acquisition leaves no real alternative to the
“To study language is to study nature conclusion that child somehow has the concepts
available before they experience with language
manifested in human mind.” and is basically learning labels for concepts that
are already part of his or her conceptual
apparatus
 Piaget-Assimilation and Accommodation
• Cognitive Development preceded language.
• Formation of mental structures underlying feelings
of logical necessity requires social interaction using
conventional sign system.

Lev Vygotsky-Zone of Proximal Development all

functions and activities with the assistance,
Instructional Scaffolding
• Social interaction, Role of instructor.
Piaget and • Central concern was the relationship between
language and thought.
Vygotsky • How different language impacts the way one
thinks.
• Language is critical for cognitive development.
• Views language for social communication,
promoting both language itself and cognition.
• Language in form of private speech guides
cognitive development.
 Assimilation-changing environment already
existing schema

Accommodation-changing schema to adapt

to new environment

Piaget
Cognitive development before acquisition

Assimilation &
Accommodation
First mental structure within mind i.e.
schema
 Zone of proximal development-child’s
potential to learn and actual learning.

Language develops from social interactions

and according to him cognitive development
was heavily dependent on language since
language affects and shapes culture for
Vygotsky communication purposes.
Language provides framework for thinking.
 • Naom Chomsky
• 1957, book “Synatctic Structure”
• Father of Modern linguistics
• Before belief in syntactic structure –
structural

Theory of • Chomsky – syntactically and

semantically
Transformational • Eg.The wood dance ( grammatically
correct but without meaning).
Generative • Zelling Harris- phrase structure
Grammar grammar
• Chomsky ,Language -grammar and
meaning both
 The grammar which has only phrase
structure rules to describe the order of
words and phrases in a language is called
phrase structure grammar.
Structuralist grammars were phrase
structure grammar.

Deep structure-semantic interpretation

Syntactic Rule-
1957
Surface structure-phonetic interpretation
 • According to Chomsky his grammar is
generative since it can generate
infinite number of sentences. It can
change or transform a basic or simple
sentence and hence is called
transformational.
Transformation • The grammar that can generate and

Generative transform sentences is called

transformative grammar.
Grammar(TGG) • Generative grammar creates or
generates sentences through certain
rules these are called phrase structure
rules. eg in English an SVO language.
 • S→NP+VP kernel or basic sentence,
simple
• S →NP +VP+AUX
• NP →Art+N
Transformation • VP →Aux+V+NP
Generative • Aux →(can,may,will,must etc) The
Grammar(TGG) helping verb
• V →(read,hit,eat etc.)
 S

NP VP

Art N Aux V NP

Tree Diagram: Art N

Transformation Grammar The Girl Will Read The Book

S- Sentence
NP – Noun phrase,
VP- Verb phrase
Aux- Auxiliary Verb
Art- a,an,the
 • Deep structure- abstract, meaning, inside the
mind, kernel sentence and basic, NP+VP,
active, formed by phrase structure rule.
• Surface structure- obvious, transforms,
passive, after application of T-Rules.

T-Rules

Transforming Deep Deep structure Surface structures

(kernel sentences) (surface sentences
to Structure
• T –rules-eg. past, interrogative, negation,
passive etc.
• generative grammar → transformational
grammar
 PS Rules Lexicon

DEEP STRUCTURE

Transformative T-Rules
generative grammar
model SURFACE STRUCTURE
Semantic Phonological
Component Component
 • Transformative generative grammar
explains the formation of grammatical
sentences and explains the structure
of each sentence.
• Generative-Applied to all the
languages and infinite number of
sentences from specific rules.
Linguistic • It also separates linguistic
Knowledge & knowledge/competence with
language skills/performance.
Competence
 • Tom opened the door DEEP

Linguistic • Did Tom open the door?

Knowledge & • Tom did not open the door.

• Did not Tom open the door
Competence • The door was opened by Tom
SURFACE
• The door was not opened by Tom
• Was the door opened by Tom?
(Example)
• Was not the door opened by Tom?
 • It proposes that our language determines the content of
our thought .according to Whorfian linguistic determinism
our concepts are determined by language and we can
think only through the use of concepts.
• People who speak different languages have different
world views.Experts have rejected this hypothesis though
they accept that language is one of the tools used for
thinking.
Language and • Canonical studies -Inuits (Eskimos) many colors for snow

Thought and believed to have different perception.

• Hopi –’rephi’(flash occurred) Actor /noun and action
merged here but the same as English ‘a light flashed’ has
subject -predicate relation.
• Culture may be defined as a set of total system of beliefs
Sapir- Whorf Hypothesis and practices in a society.
• Whorf was an insurance agent and Sapir’s student. He
believed we see the world around us as our language
dictates us.

Whorf’s Version
“The world is presented in
kaleidoscope flux of impressions
which has to be organized by
linguistic system in our minds.”
• According to Whorf (1956),’’We dissect nature along lines
laid down by our native languages …
• ‘’We cut nature up ,organize into concepts ,and ascribe
significances as we do ,largely because we are parties to
an agreement to organize it in this way –an agreement
that holds throughout our speech community and is
codified in patterns of our language …’’
• (Language,thought and reality)
• Linguistic relativity:People’s perception of the world is
relative to the structures of language they speak.
• Time concept.
• Linguistic Determinism :thinking cannot take place
independent of language .
• Linguistic relativity is more acceptable than linguistic
determinism.
• The Gavagai Problem.
• Eg.Janaeyu-cultural rootedness
 • Uses one language and the other is active at
the same time.
• Strengthens the control mechanisms and
associated brain regions.Relies on executive
function –attention and inhibition.
• Active and competing functions
Bilingualism and simultaneously.Better at confict
management,inhibitory control and switching
Cognitive tasks.
• Changes in neurological processing and
Development structure-fMRI studies
• Language and education –Mohanty et al
• Bilinguals better at metacognitive and
metalinguistic tasks.
Thank you

Niharika Chhabi
• h