It seems my linguistic knowledge is lacking and letting me down after scoring only a low B grade for my mock exam. More linguistic features required and much more theory, so here goes a blog containing my revision notes for substratum, random fluctuation and cultural transmission, lexical gaps, determinism/reflectionism, functional theory and s-curve and wave models.
Substratum
The theory that focuses on the influences of different language forms that can come into contact with English, and this is mainly through the the languages of non-native speakers or regional dialects. 'Like' is an example of this as it has made its way into British English through American television and films and is now common in British dialects, especially amongst the younger generations who are possibly more heavily influenced by these media forms.
There is also the idea that immigration has this effect on English, with non-native speakers bringing words from their native tongue into their adopted one, this can also be reversed as conquerors have brought new words into language, specifically with English, the Norman invasion of 1066, brought French into Middle English and was adopted by the ruling classes and adapted into the higher social classes and linked to education and religion. However, it can also be said that the British had this effect during the time of the British Empire and so English words were adopted into Hindi, but also words such as 'juggernaut' were 'borrowed' into English.
It is also notable that 2nd generation speakers of these new adaptations that will find their way into the foundations of the language may have a tendency to over pronounce certain sounds. This could be an example of 'youth culture' finding its own identity away from that of their parents. Evidence of this was cited in Jean Aitchison's Language Change Progress or Decay, with 2nd generation Jewish and Italian immigrants, hypercorrecting their language, which went on to form the distinctive New York accent. This information is based on William Labov's study of Jewish communities in New York.
Hypercorrection- is a phonological change within language, through the adoption of an incorrect emphasis or pattern of pronunciation due to the speaker believing they are using the 'high-presitge' form of the word.
Random fluctuation and cultural transmission
"fashions in language are as unpredictable as fashions in clothes"
Charles Hocket (1958) devised a theory that put significance on random errors and events as having a influence on language change. Suggesting that language change occurs due to the unstable nature of language itself. The theory suggests that changes that occur within language do so to the constant changing context of the language itself and its users.
An example of this as mentioned in the AQA English Language A textbook, is that the word 'book' became a replacement for the word 'cool' due to mobile phone predictive text corrections, which is a random way for a word to have changed usage!
Lexical Gaps
This theory suggests that there is a logical reason for words to be created to 'fill a gap', and can be viewed as a way of viewing possible directions that language change may take in the future. 'Gaps' referred to here are words or phrases that are currently not occupied in English language usage , but fit the current patterns within the language.
Reflectionism and Determinism
The Sapir-Whorf theory. Reflectionism in language is based on the theory that a person's language reflects their way of thinking, so someone who uses derogatory slurs such as 'Paki', could be said to be using language that reflects their prejudice towards immigrants. Conversely, Determinism is based on the idea that if people can be persuaded not to use such terms, but ones that are seen as more acceptable, i.e. exchanging 'Paki' for 'Asian', can determine a new way of thinking, and this forms the basis on which political correctness is formed. Words such as 'nigger' and 'pikey' seen as slurs are exchanged for words with more positive connotations such as 'African-American' or 'Gypsy/Romany' and are therefore perceived as being less offensive in ttheir usage, and to those ethnic minorities they are being used to represent.
Functional Theory
The theory suggest that language always changes and adapts to the needs of its users. Changes in technology and industry often fuel the need for new words. Words fall out of usage, such as 'vinyl' for records and are replaced by initialisms such as M.P.3 Colloquialisms and slang also manifests changes, creating new words or new usages and then discarding them as they strive for social identity and/or personal/group expression.
S-Curve Model
S-curve is the model based on the idea that language change can occur at a slow pace creating the initial curve of the 'S' and then increases speed as it becomes more common and accepted in the language. This can then slow down again once it has fully integrated in the language and is widely used. This model is based on Chen (1968/1972) who asserted that a language change would be picked up a certain rate by users before spreading into wider language usage, then slowing, this change can be be measured on a chart and will produce a curve resembling the letter 'S'.
Wave Model
Baliey (1973) suggested a model that geographical distance can have an effect on language change. Just as someone close to the epicentre of an earthquake will feel the tremors, a person or group close to the epicentre of a language change will pick it up, whereas a person or group further away from the centre of the change is less likely to adopt it. i.e. a word adapted or adopted by multicultural youths in London is unlikely to affect white middle class speakers in Edinburgh, as they are removed from the epicentre both culturally and socially.
Monday 6 June 2011
Thursday 31 March 2011
Regional Accents and Dialects
A copy of my A2 intervention task, there is reference to a photograph and picture of a graph omitted as I could not get the formatting to work properly.
By some sort of ‘divine intervention’ I found an interesting article in The Telegraph. Apparently the BBC researched the popularity of regional dialects and accents in their programming. ‘Auntie’ then discovered a high proportion of viewers who dislike presenters with regional accents, as they apparently find them difficult to understand. WHAT!?! Some of this debate centres round Professor Brian Cox (the chap in the picture), who presents the BBC2 Science programme ‘Wonders of the Universe’. The good professor is a Lancashire boy and proud of his accent and he has been tweeting his defiance at those who think his accent detracts from his ability to present the show. “decided t'tweet in mi real accent, like. think it'll mek mi easier t'understand for all't blokes who comment on't telegraph website”. As a result of the study there are a few who believe the Beeb should return to Received Pronunciation for the presentation of factual programmes. Oh please!! Why not hand over all programming to the B.N.P. while you’re at it!!
Well I very much doubt anyone actually reads my blog, it must seem dull to those who do not have an interest in the English language, but I shall continue undaunted. I know now that dialects refer to grammatical and syntactic variations away from Standard English and that our accents are how words are pronounced and vary against Received Pronunciation and I think that this may be a good starting point for this particular blog.
There have been many studies into the effects of accents and dialects and how they are perceived. Well as I am writing this blog to help me study English language I think I should put in some cold hard facts. Dull? Not really. Many of these studies have found that accents can be linked not only with the area in which we spent our formative years, but also define something about us culturally and socially. A study by Jenny Cheshire conducted in Reading found that groups of youngsters used their language to set them apart from others, but it also enabled them to fit into particular social groups. The peer group’s culture and values were key in certain language patterns, if an individual’s language did not fit in then neither did they. This is reflected in many dialects created by youths, using slang and non-standard grammar ‘innit’, but it is not just the younger generations that do this. In William Labov’s study of the accent variables in Martha’s Vineyard in the States, he found that the older generations adapted their dialect and accents to ‘fit in’ with those of the local fishermen. By doing this they created a dialect that symbolised their ‘belonging’ to the Vineyard as opposed to the thousands of visitors who descend on the island each year. This need for social identity can be seen as part of the ‘match concept and theory’, as changes can occur rapidly, perhaps due to an environmental factor, as seen on Martha’s Vineyard where the influx of visitors fuelled the local 
population’s desire to present themselves as belonging to that location. This functional theory, meaning that the change occurs due to the needs of the users, as mentioned regarding the Martha’s Vineyard study by Labov, leads to the ‘s-curve’ being created. This refers to the pace at which the change occurs, at first quite slowly, then picking up speed and the slowing, but this can then repeat itself, as per Chen’s theory (1968). Another theory, the ‘wave model’ is based on Bailey’s idea (1973) that if there is a particular grammatical, lexical or semantic change that occurs within a language, accent or dialect, this can spread out from this area and into general language, much like the shock waves from the epicentre of an earthquake. This theory states that the further away from the ‘centre’ of these changes either socially or geographically an individual is, the less likelihood there is of a significant impact on their language. Again much like an earthquake, the further away you are from the epicentre the less vibration you feel. This is why the multicultural youth dialects of London have little effect on the middle class dialects of Edinburgh, they are separated not only by distance but by social boundaries as well.
population’s desire to present themselves as belonging to that location. This functional theory, meaning that the change occurs due to the needs of the users, as mentioned regarding the Martha’s Vineyard study by Labov, leads to the ‘s-curve’ being created. This refers to the pace at which the change occurs, at first quite slowly, then picking up speed and the slowing, but this can then repeat itself, as per Chen’s theory (1968). Another theory, the ‘wave model’ is based on Bailey’s idea (1973) that if there is a particular grammatical, lexical or semantic change that occurs within a language, accent or dialect, this can spread out from this area and into general language, much like the shock waves from the epicentre of an earthquake. This theory states that the further away from the ‘centre’ of these changes either socially or geographically an individual is, the less likelihood there is of a significant impact on their language. Again much like an earthquake, the further away you are from the epicentre the less vibration you feel. This is why the multicultural youth dialects of London have little effect on the middle class dialects of Edinburgh, they are separated not only by distance but by social boundaries as well.By some sort of ‘divine intervention’ I found an interesting article in The Telegraph. Apparently the BBC researched the popularity of regional dialects and accents in their programming. ‘Auntie’ then discovered a high proportion of viewers who dislike presenters with regional accents, as they apparently find them difficult to understand. WHAT!?! Some of this debate centres round Professor Brian Cox (the chap in the picture), who presents the BBC2 Science programme ‘Wonders of the Universe’. The good professor is a Lancashire boy and proud of his accent and he has been tweeting his defiance at those who think his accent detracts from his ability to present the show. “decided t'tweet in mi real accent, like. think it'll mek mi easier t'understand for all't blokes who comment on't telegraph website”. As a result of the study there are a few who believe the Beeb should return to Received Pronunciation for the presentation of factual programmes. Oh please!! Why not hand over all programming to the B.N.P. while you’re at it!! Britain is a multicultural society and we need to acknowledge that there are language variations in different parts of the country. Generally the accents and dialects used on British television is not representative of the diversity that exists within our society, there are very few presenters from ethnic minorities as it is, so the use of regional accents at least presents a broader view than R.P. The debate about regional accents and dialects in television programming has been rumbling along for more than thirty years now, since news readers started to be more representative of the areas in which regional broadcasting occurs, and then moved across to the mainstream BBC News. It would naturally be expected that BBC North West employs presenters with Cumbrian and Lancashire accents, just as BBC South has presenters with Home Counties and Estuary accents. The same is true of the independent broadcasters too for regional programming, so why all the fuss with national television. Millions watch the three main soap operas, Coronation Street, Eastenders and Emmerdale, and these all feature regional dialects and accents, yet there are few complaints, except perhaps about the acting!! We cannot really believe that a return to R.P. in programming would serve any useful purpose and the likelihood of hearing Becky MacDonald sounding like a Jane Austen heroine would detract from the ‘realism’ that these soaps claim to portray.
So if we can accept the regional dialects in soap operas, why is it that presenters of factual programmes are deemed almost inferior if they have retained the accent they grew up with? Ant and Dec have been ‘poster boys’ for regional accents over the last decade and now it seems that we no longer notice the ‘Geordie’ accents, which have now been softened, presumably for the benefit of us southerners! It seems that we can be snobs about certain accents and dialects within this country. Depending on where you have grown up you are likely to have preconceived ideas about people with particular accents. If you are from the south, people with strong Yorkshire or Lancashire accents are perceived to be a little slow, perhaps uneducated. Professor Cox is testament that this is not the case. People in the north might perceive people from the south with a strong Sussex or Surrey accent as being stuck up and ignorant due to the close links these accents have to Received Pronunciation. Simon Cowell would fit into this stereotype nicely; however, Jo Brand would not and both are from Sussex.
So what can I conclude? Well it seems to me that a need for cultural identity is being expressed by those who think that the regional accents of television presenters are detrimental to programming. However, I do not believe that it is prejudice or racism that guides these views, just the need to feel included, in that the programme can appeal to anyone of any social, ethnic or class background if they have an interest in the subject matter. But where does that leave the Professor? (Well he is the first to admit that he has a proper job, working in Cern, Switzerland with the Large Hadron Collider trying to make black holes!) Brian Cox is a wonderful example of how your accent and dialect do not have to define who you are, or your place in society. It is the inclusion of presenters with regional accents and using dialects that shows that we live in a diverse society, where anything is possible. Therefore, we should not let the Beeb return to the old days of Received Pronunciation, we must move forward and celebrate our diversity of language, and for those who do not like it, please turn down the sound and switch on the subtitles.
Sunday 9 January 2011
Mode
Looking at mode there are three forms, written, blended, and spoken. There are many aspects of mode that need to be recalled for exams, so I am just blogging my notes ready for tomorrow.
SPOKEN MODE
Accommodation: the process, according to H. Giles of adaptation of language when speaking to another person. This process can move speech either closer to the other participant(s) or further away from.
Face: when speaking we give off a persona, 'acting out' a role within the conversation. A theory developed by Goffman and extended by Brown and Levinson states that there are two faces used in conversation:
Positive face: where the person has a need to be liked and accepted.
Negative face: where the speaker needs to be independent and not imposed upon.
The positive and negative faces can lead to a face-threatening act (FTA) which can either challenge someone's face directly, such as 'you don't know what you are talking about', or threatens their positive/negative face needs, or both. This lead to the idea of positive and negative politeness, whereby in strategies are employed to off-set FTA and other variables such as social gaps.
Face work: allows people to work in co-operation to support the 'face needs' of the other participants in the conversation. A positive face need is the need to be liked and accepted as part of the social group. A negative face need is the requirement to feel independent and be free to be an individual.
Positive politeness: is the strategy used to emphasise a social closeness.
Negative politeness: is the strategy used to recognise the independence or social status of the person to whom you are speaking.
Pragmatics plays a part here, as it is often the real meaning of a text or message, the concept behind 'reading between the lines.
Although Received Pronunciation is not as common as it once was, it is still possible to hear individuals using Standard English, and this particular dialect continues to carry with it a certain amount of prestige. This is where divergence and convergence, both upwards and downwards comes into spoken mode.
Divergence: the process where an individuals speech pattern becomes particularly individualised, marking them as being further away from the other person(s) in the conversation.
Convergence: a process of adapting speech patterns, so that they are more in line with the other participant(s) in the conversation.
Both of these can go upwards or downwards. Upwards when applied here means to bring the speech pattern up towards Standard English. Downwards means that the speech moves away from S.E.
There are many lexical features within speech too:
Idioms and collocations are more frequent in spoken language, an idiom, or cliche such as 'at the end of the day' and collocation (pairs or triplets) e.g. hook. line and sinker are popular expressions from the media and are used in everyday speech.
In spoken language fillers are often involuntarily , it is generally a part of an individual's idiolect that causes them to use 'like' or 'OK' to fill a pause or a hesitant moment. Discourse markers are used to indicate a change of topic, or even the return to a previous topic 'well', 'so', 'anyway, getting back to' are all examples of a discourse marker. Hedges are also commonly used in spoken language and they are often used to soften something, this has lead to the idea that women use hedges more frequently than men, it is a part of Tannen's 'diversity' theory, phrase such as 'sort of', words such as 'maybe' and politeness strategy such as 'could you possibly' are all hedges. The use of hedges is seen as important in speech as they prevent things from seemingly being too blunt.
WRITTEN MODE
Verbs have different variants, there are stative, dynamic and modal auxiliaries. It is also important that the tense and aspect of a verb is recognised. The tense allows us to see the verb's action in relation to time e.g. present, past. An aspect relates to the verb's duration, as the verb can be in a perfective aspect suggesting that the action is complete or has been completed in the past tense, or is current or continuing in a progressive tense. A dynamic verb is used when describing a physical action or movement e.g. run, jump, fly. A stative verb is used to describe a state of being e.g. be, know, understand. Modal auxiliary verbs, support or aide others and have the purpose to give permission, possibility, probability, necessity, ability, desire and obligation. Modal auxiliary verbs are words such as; can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will, and would.
Ellipsis: the missing out of word(s) in a sentence. This is relevant when analysing text or spoken language, is there a reason why this word(s) has been omitted? Very common in newspaper headlines and articles. As are tag questions, when a phrase is 'tagged' onto a statement that can turn it into a question e.g. it is a lovely day, isn't it?
Comparatives: adjectives combined with -er or used with 'more' to created a comparison e.g. she is bigger
Superlatives: adjective combined with -est or most (definite article 'the' is usually added too) e.g. she is the biggest
Nominalisation: the process where an action or event that is normally expressed with a verb is turned into a noun, and is often used as the head of a noun phrase. e.g. Mayor's outburst provokes outrage. This process is often used by journalists as a form of compressed syntax.
The passive voice The active voice retains the subject of the clause as the agent e.g. X slammed the door.
BLENDED MODE
This is texts such as SMS, e-mails and instant messages. These have different communication forms, whilst instant messages are synchronous communication, as the participants are present, e-mails and sms are an asynchronous form as the participants do not all need to be present.
Right then, I have had enough now, if I don't know it there is little I can do now, just have to wait now, fingers are crossed with 18 hours to go, eeeeekkkk!
SPOKEN MODE
Accommodation: the process, according to H. Giles of adaptation of language when speaking to another person. This process can move speech either closer to the other participant(s) or further away from.
Face: when speaking we give off a persona, 'acting out' a role within the conversation. A theory developed by Goffman and extended by Brown and Levinson states that there are two faces used in conversation:
Positive face: where the person has a need to be liked and accepted.
Negative face: where the speaker needs to be independent and not imposed upon.
The positive and negative faces can lead to a face-threatening act (FTA) which can either challenge someone's face directly, such as 'you don't know what you are talking about', or threatens their positive/negative face needs, or both. This lead to the idea of positive and negative politeness, whereby in strategies are employed to off-set FTA and other variables such as social gaps.
Face work: allows people to work in co-operation to support the 'face needs' of the other participants in the conversation. A positive face need is the need to be liked and accepted as part of the social group. A negative face need is the requirement to feel independent and be free to be an individual.
Positive politeness: is the strategy used to emphasise a social closeness.
Negative politeness: is the strategy used to recognise the independence or social status of the person to whom you are speaking.
Pragmatics plays a part here, as it is often the real meaning of a text or message, the concept behind 'reading between the lines.
Although Received Pronunciation is not as common as it once was, it is still possible to hear individuals using Standard English, and this particular dialect continues to carry with it a certain amount of prestige. This is where divergence and convergence, both upwards and downwards comes into spoken mode.
Divergence: the process where an individuals speech pattern becomes particularly individualised, marking them as being further away from the other person(s) in the conversation.
Convergence: a process of adapting speech patterns, so that they are more in line with the other participant(s) in the conversation.
Both of these can go upwards or downwards. Upwards when applied here means to bring the speech pattern up towards Standard English. Downwards means that the speech moves away from S.E.
There are many lexical features within speech too:
Idioms and collocations are more frequent in spoken language, an idiom, or cliche such as 'at the end of the day' and collocation (pairs or triplets) e.g. hook. line and sinker are popular expressions from the media and are used in everyday speech.
In spoken language fillers are often involuntarily , it is generally a part of an individual's idiolect that causes them to use 'like' or 'OK' to fill a pause or a hesitant moment. Discourse markers are used to indicate a change of topic, or even the return to a previous topic 'well', 'so', 'anyway, getting back to' are all examples of a discourse marker. Hedges are also commonly used in spoken language and they are often used to soften something, this has lead to the idea that women use hedges more frequently than men, it is a part of Tannen's 'diversity' theory, phrase such as 'sort of', words such as 'maybe' and politeness strategy such as 'could you possibly' are all hedges. The use of hedges is seen as important in speech as they prevent things from seemingly being too blunt.
WRITTEN MODE
Verbs have different variants, there are stative, dynamic and modal auxiliaries. It is also important that the tense and aspect of a verb is recognised. The tense allows us to see the verb's action in relation to time e.g. present, past. An aspect relates to the verb's duration, as the verb can be in a perfective aspect suggesting that the action is complete or has been completed in the past tense, or is current or continuing in a progressive tense. A dynamic verb is used when describing a physical action or movement e.g. run, jump, fly. A stative verb is used to describe a state of being e.g. be, know, understand. Modal auxiliary verbs, support or aide others and have the purpose to give permission, possibility, probability, necessity, ability, desire and obligation. Modal auxiliary verbs are words such as; can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will, and would.
Ellipsis: the missing out of word(s) in a sentence. This is relevant when analysing text or spoken language, is there a reason why this word(s) has been omitted? Very common in newspaper headlines and articles. As are tag questions, when a phrase is 'tagged' onto a statement that can turn it into a question e.g. it is a lovely day, isn't it?
Comparatives: adjectives combined with -er or used with 'more' to created a comparison e.g. she is bigger
Superlatives: adjective combined with -est or most (definite article 'the' is usually added too) e.g. she is the biggest
Nominalisation: the process where an action or event that is normally expressed with a verb is turned into a noun, and is often used as the head of a noun phrase. e.g. Mayor's outburst provokes outrage. This process is often used by journalists as a form of compressed syntax.
The passive voice The active voice retains the subject of the clause as the agent e.g. X slammed the door.
BLENDED MODE
This is texts such as SMS, e-mails and instant messages. These have different communication forms, whilst instant messages are synchronous communication, as the participants are present, e-mails and sms are an asynchronous form as the participants do not all need to be present.
Right then, I have had enough now, if I don't know it there is little I can do now, just have to wait now, fingers are crossed with 18 hours to go, eeeeekkkk!
Saturday 8 January 2011
Note
All the information about Child Language Acquisition has come from English for Beginners by Michelle Lowe and Ben Graham. AQA English Language A AS level course textbook by Dan Clayton and Beth Kemp, plus information found on Wikipedia.
Child Language - The theories and theorists
There are many theories and theorists who have researched the acquisition of language by children, a good understanding of all of them is necessary for anyone taking A-levels.
Nativist theories - These theories suggest that all humans have an inbuilt or innate capacity for language acquisition.
Social Interaction theories - These theories suggest that to acquire and develop language skills a child must have social and verbal interaction.
Cognitive theorists - The cognitive theorist believes that language is acquired as part of a wider development of understanding and cognitive ability.
BF Skinner (1957) having performed experiments using rats and pigeons discovered that they could perform a variety of tasks, as long as they were broken into stages, and received rewards for 'correct' actions. From this Skinner formed his 'Operant Conditioning Theory'. This was then applied to human learning, claiming that children learn language through the simple process of imitation and reinforcement. Skinner also claimed that no complicated internal mechanisms were needed for language acquisition and that children learning language was virtually the same as lab rats learning to complete tasks.
Kit's opinion - "Children are most certainly not the same as lab rats. Yes I think perhaps they do learn by copying their parents. Some of the language I have heard from young children is terrible, but could have only come from them hearing their parents say it, which in my mind is disgraceful. Believing that animals performing 'tricks' is the equivalent of a human child learning how to talk seems utter nonsense to me, but he was a scientist so perhaps I should not argue."
Clearly there are objections to this theory. If this is truly how children acquire language, how does Skinner account for virtuous errors, and the fact that all children despite their race, gender, culture or native language all acquire language at the same speed, despite cultural variations in child rearing. The hypothesis put forward by Skinner suggests that according to these variables, children should learn language at different rates due to these environmental factors. There is no allowance for a child to make virtuous errors in Skinner's theory. Children make logical errors based on rules that they have learnt through interaction, not because they are simply repeating and imitating adults, as no adult would have made this error.
Interactional theorists, such as Jerome Brunner believe that the CDS (Child Directed Speech) used by parents 'scaffolds' a child's language acquisition and supports its development, and gave this system the title of LASS (language Acquisition Support System), which actually links to Chomsky's nativist theory of the LAD. The social interaction theorists such as Skinner, Brunner and Snow believe that the collaborative and almost ritualised exchanges that occur during the pre-verbal stages of language development, aid the child to develop an understanding of the rules and learn concepts such as turn taking. However, there are areas of the world where CDS is not used by care givers, yet the children still acquire language at the same rate as children who are exposed to CDS.
Eric Lenneburg (1962) argued against Skinner's theory, in that children who are unable to speak due to illness are able to gain a normal comprehension of language without the ability to imitate adults, or by having their utterances reinforced. Hart and Risley (1995) argued that differences in social classes in the USA and the verbal interaction received by children in these classes can have an influence on their social and economic development in their later life.
Noam Chomsky - is a linguist and nativist theorist. He argued against Skinner's interactional theory and suggested that children acquire language because all humans have an innate ability to speak. Essentially he stated that the human brain is 'hard-wired' for language. The LAD (Language Acquisition Device) enables a child to hear and extrapolate the rules of their own language and understand the words and structures. Chomsky suggested that all languages have a Universal Grammar, stating that under the surface of all languages a similar grammatical structure is present. Looking at features of child language acquisition, such as virtuous errors and overgeneralisation, Chomsky noted that all children created these features without having heard adults use the same language and he concluded that there must be more than interaction and imitation at work to explain this phenomenon.
Theorist Steven Pinker, looked at Chomsky's work and further developed the LAD idea and created his own PPT ( Principles and Parameter Theory). This theory essentially states that by hearing the principles and parameters of the individuals native language, the rules become fixed. In a sense Pinker is saying that the PPT is the software used by the LAD hardware to create language. Once the parameters are defined through hearing speech, the principles become defined and are retained. In the light of cognitive theories about child language acquisition, Chomsky has reflected on his own work and moved towards the ideas put forward by cognitive theorists.
Lenneburg, who worked as Chomsky's colleague added to the LAD theory stating that there must also be a 'critical period' when the LAD needs to be 'activated' with a sufficient amount of input, or the child's language development may be impaired. This relates to 'feral - children', such as 'Genie'. A child who was 'found' in 1970 and who had never had any positive interaction to develop language acquisition. Forced to keep quiet, she never developed the ability to vocalise langauge properly, suggesting as per Lenneburg's idea, that she had passed the 'critical period' of activation and input; however, it should be noted that she did acquire the ability to communicate through sign language. ASL (American Sign Language) does have grammatical rules, not the same as English, but still as Genie was able to acquire this ability and communicate with those around her, the interactional theory by Skinner is given more weight, as she would have learnt ASL through imitation and positive reinforcement by her care givers.
Jean Piaget - a cognitive theorist suggested that language development is due to a wider development in cognitive ability and that a child cannot articulate ides or concepts that they are uanble to understand. Piaget argued that if a child needs to understand a concept such as the past, to be able to use language terms to refer to it. Also the concept of seriation ( the ability to place items in a series, such as ascending or decending orders) needs to be understood before a child could learn to use superlatives and comparatives. Object permenance features in this idea too. The idea that the object still exists even if it is not visible needs to be understood too, so that the child comprehends that everything has it's own separate identity and will still exist even when the child cannot see it.
Lee Vygotsky - a Russian pyschologist had similar views to Piaget. He stated that langauge has two roles, one for communication and the other as a tool for further developing understanding, as he believed that language and thought become related in a relatively short period of time. He also believed that collaborative play has an influence and essential part in a child's early development. In instances where the emphasis is put more on play than teaching a child is required to stretch their cognitive abilities in and understanding new concepts or ideas without even realising they are being taught. Vygotsky said "What a child can do in co-operation today, he can do alone tomorrow".
The theories of Piaget and Vygotsky have been highly influential, but do however have some exceptions. Children with impaired cognitive ability sometimes are able to use language beyond their apparent cognitive ability; whereas children with apparently high cognitive abilities sometimes struggle with language.
In conclusion all of the theories, social interaction, nativist and cognitive have clearly been researched, but all of them have exceptions to the rules. Feral children can still acquire some form of language even though they may have missed the critical input period for their LAD. Children with cognitive impairment can still acquire a good level of language. While children do learn through imitation and reinforcement they are still capable of making errors based on their own understanding of their own language's grammatical rules. To truly understand the nature of child language acquisition it is necessary to keep an open mind and see that each theory can be justified and rationalised, but the fact that each type of theory also has loop holes suggests that language acquisition is only truly understood each individual child, who finds their own way to communicating by trial and error. "There are more things in heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your philiosphy, Horatio" (Hamlet Act 1 Scene 5)
Nativist theories - These theories suggest that all humans have an inbuilt or innate capacity for language acquisition.
Social Interaction theories - These theories suggest that to acquire and develop language skills a child must have social and verbal interaction.
Cognitive theorists - The cognitive theorist believes that language is acquired as part of a wider development of understanding and cognitive ability.
BF Skinner (1957) having performed experiments using rats and pigeons discovered that they could perform a variety of tasks, as long as they were broken into stages, and received rewards for 'correct' actions. From this Skinner formed his 'Operant Conditioning Theory'. This was then applied to human learning, claiming that children learn language through the simple process of imitation and reinforcement. Skinner also claimed that no complicated internal mechanisms were needed for language acquisition and that children learning language was virtually the same as lab rats learning to complete tasks.
Kit's opinion - "Children are most certainly not the same as lab rats. Yes I think perhaps they do learn by copying their parents. Some of the language I have heard from young children is terrible, but could have only come from them hearing their parents say it, which in my mind is disgraceful. Believing that animals performing 'tricks' is the equivalent of a human child learning how to talk seems utter nonsense to me, but he was a scientist so perhaps I should not argue."
Clearly there are objections to this theory. If this is truly how children acquire language, how does Skinner account for virtuous errors, and the fact that all children despite their race, gender, culture or native language all acquire language at the same speed, despite cultural variations in child rearing. The hypothesis put forward by Skinner suggests that according to these variables, children should learn language at different rates due to these environmental factors. There is no allowance for a child to make virtuous errors in Skinner's theory. Children make logical errors based on rules that they have learnt through interaction, not because they are simply repeating and imitating adults, as no adult would have made this error.
Interactional theorists, such as Jerome Brunner believe that the CDS (Child Directed Speech) used by parents 'scaffolds' a child's language acquisition and supports its development, and gave this system the title of LASS (language Acquisition Support System), which actually links to Chomsky's nativist theory of the LAD. The social interaction theorists such as Skinner, Brunner and Snow believe that the collaborative and almost ritualised exchanges that occur during the pre-verbal stages of language development, aid the child to develop an understanding of the rules and learn concepts such as turn taking. However, there are areas of the world where CDS is not used by care givers, yet the children still acquire language at the same rate as children who are exposed to CDS.
Eric Lenneburg (1962) argued against Skinner's theory, in that children who are unable to speak due to illness are able to gain a normal comprehension of language without the ability to imitate adults, or by having their utterances reinforced. Hart and Risley (1995) argued that differences in social classes in the USA and the verbal interaction received by children in these classes can have an influence on their social and economic development in their later life.
Noam Chomsky - is a linguist and nativist theorist. He argued against Skinner's interactional theory and suggested that children acquire language because all humans have an innate ability to speak. Essentially he stated that the human brain is 'hard-wired' for language. The LAD (Language Acquisition Device) enables a child to hear and extrapolate the rules of their own language and understand the words and structures. Chomsky suggested that all languages have a Universal Grammar, stating that under the surface of all languages a similar grammatical structure is present. Looking at features of child language acquisition, such as virtuous errors and overgeneralisation, Chomsky noted that all children created these features without having heard adults use the same language and he concluded that there must be more than interaction and imitation at work to explain this phenomenon.
Theorist Steven Pinker, looked at Chomsky's work and further developed the LAD idea and created his own PPT ( Principles and Parameter Theory). This theory essentially states that by hearing the principles and parameters of the individuals native language, the rules become fixed. In a sense Pinker is saying that the PPT is the software used by the LAD hardware to create language. Once the parameters are defined through hearing speech, the principles become defined and are retained. In the light of cognitive theories about child language acquisition, Chomsky has reflected on his own work and moved towards the ideas put forward by cognitive theorists.
Lenneburg, who worked as Chomsky's colleague added to the LAD theory stating that there must also be a 'critical period' when the LAD needs to be 'activated' with a sufficient amount of input, or the child's language development may be impaired. This relates to 'feral - children', such as 'Genie'. A child who was 'found' in 1970 and who had never had any positive interaction to develop language acquisition. Forced to keep quiet, she never developed the ability to vocalise langauge properly, suggesting as per Lenneburg's idea, that she had passed the 'critical period' of activation and input; however, it should be noted that she did acquire the ability to communicate through sign language. ASL (American Sign Language) does have grammatical rules, not the same as English, but still as Genie was able to acquire this ability and communicate with those around her, the interactional theory by Skinner is given more weight, as she would have learnt ASL through imitation and positive reinforcement by her care givers.
Jean Piaget - a cognitive theorist suggested that language development is due to a wider development in cognitive ability and that a child cannot articulate ides or concepts that they are uanble to understand. Piaget argued that if a child needs to understand a concept such as the past, to be able to use language terms to refer to it. Also the concept of seriation ( the ability to place items in a series, such as ascending or decending orders) needs to be understood before a child could learn to use superlatives and comparatives. Object permenance features in this idea too. The idea that the object still exists even if it is not visible needs to be understood too, so that the child comprehends that everything has it's own separate identity and will still exist even when the child cannot see it.
Lee Vygotsky - a Russian pyschologist had similar views to Piaget. He stated that langauge has two roles, one for communication and the other as a tool for further developing understanding, as he believed that language and thought become related in a relatively short period of time. He also believed that collaborative play has an influence and essential part in a child's early development. In instances where the emphasis is put more on play than teaching a child is required to stretch their cognitive abilities in and understanding new concepts or ideas without even realising they are being taught. Vygotsky said "What a child can do in co-operation today, he can do alone tomorrow".
The theories of Piaget and Vygotsky have been highly influential, but do however have some exceptions. Children with impaired cognitive ability sometimes are able to use language beyond their apparent cognitive ability; whereas children with apparently high cognitive abilities sometimes struggle with language.
In conclusion all of the theories, social interaction, nativist and cognitive have clearly been researched, but all of them have exceptions to the rules. Feral children can still acquire some form of language even though they may have missed the critical input period for their LAD. Children with cognitive impairment can still acquire a good level of language. While children do learn through imitation and reinforcement they are still capable of making errors based on their own understanding of their own language's grammatical rules. To truly understand the nature of child language acquisition it is necessary to keep an open mind and see that each theory can be justified and rationalised, but the fact that each type of theory also has loop holes suggests that language acquisition is only truly understood each individual child, who finds their own way to communicating by trial and error. "There are more things in heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your philiosphy, Horatio" (Hamlet Act 1 Scene 5)
Friday 7 January 2011
Child Language Acquisition Part 2
This section covers questions and negatives, morphology with overgeneralisation, phonology,pragmatic development and the wonderful WUGS!
Research by Bellugi and McNeill is summarised by David Crystal, and suggests that there are 3 stages of question development:
David Crystal states that using negatives has 6 stages:
MORPHOLOGY
MEAN LENGTH OF UTTERANCE (MLU): is a calculation based on the average number of morphemes used across a number of utterances.
This aspect of grammar becomes increasingly more important as the child's language develops:
Word endings create distinctions between:
FREE MORPHEME is a morpheme that can stand on its own as a meaningful unit e.g. eat.
BOUND MORPHEME is a morpheme that can only have meaning when joined with a free morpheme e.g. ing.
Example: the word eating consists of 2 morphemes (1 free and 1 bound) eat = free ing = bound
Inflectional Morphology - studies how morphemes are used to create different functions grammatically
Derviational Morphology - studies how morphemes can be used to create new words
3 patterns in derivational morphology:
Conversion - using one word as a different class of word e.g. I jammed the bread (the noun jam is used here as a verb).
Affixation - when endings are applied to words to create new ones e.g. Its crowdy in here
Compounding - when two existing words are joined together to form new combinations e.g. horsey-man
OVERGENERALISATION
Is the over application of a grammatical rule; a form of 'virtuous error' (see below for definition) If children have not heard these combinations or rule applications how do they create them? One idea suggests that these rules are heard in adult or other people's language and then the children start to apply it to their own language. It is common for children to apply the regular verb ending for the past simple tense (-ed) to irregular verbs. Therefore, they are not creating nonsense, but making a logical error, as they rigidly, but logically apply an incorrect ending. This is an overgeneralisation of a grammatical rule.
Virtuous error - is a mistake that is made for logical reasons and helps to shed light on the progress and processes of a child's language development e.g. I runned, I eating - the tenses are incorrect but the errors have been made logically.
Children can also regress in their language development - as per ROGER BROWN's research. A child at three may correctly use a verb ending, but at a later stage, perhaps five, regress to an incorrect form. Brown suggests that this is caused by the child's own deductive and cognative powers are increasing and where previoulsy they may have copied an adult, purely an incident of repetiton, now they are actively applying known rules and then 'virtuous errors' appear.
PHONOLOGY
This looks at the sounds and not spelling.There are 7 phonological features that are common in child language acquistion.
Addition - The addition of an extra vowel sound to create a vowel, consonant, vowel consonant strucure e.g. horsey
Deletion - Leaving out the final consonant of a word, so mouse would be come simply mou
Reduplication - The repetition of partiular soundsand structures such as choochoo
Substitution - Where one sound is replaced or swapped for another e.g. rabbit becomes wabbit
Consonant Cluster Reduction - Children can find the production of consonant cluster difficult, so they have a tendancy to reduce them to smaller units e.g. dry becomes dai
Deletion of unstressed syllables - The removal of an entire unstressed syllable from a word e.g. banana simply becomes nana
Assimilation - The process where substiution occurs but sounds change due to other sounds around it, so the sound produced is closer to the other sounds around it e.g. doggie becomes goggie.
PRAGMATIC DEVELOPMENT
Michael Halliday created a 'taxonomy of language.' Halliday a grammarian in 1975 identified 7 functions of language that children have in their early years. Suggesting that children are motivated to learn language as it serves functions or purposes for them.
Instrumental - Child uses language to express their needs.
Regulatory - Language is used to tell others what to do.
Interactional - Here language is used to make contact and build relationships with others.
Personal - Where language is used to express emotion, feelins, opinions and a sense of individual identity.
The following aid children to come to terms with their personal environment:
Heuristic - Language is used to gain knowledge about the environment.
Imaginative - This language is used to create stories, imaginary environments, tell jokes.
Representaional - This conveys facts and information
WUGS
In 1958 pyscholinguist Jean Berko Gleason created an experiment to test the use of the -s plural. She created an imaginary creature called a WUG. Then using a simple statement children were tested to see if they could complete the following statement:
"This is a wug. Now there is another one. There are two of them. There are two..."
Upwards of 75% of the children tested correctly answering 'wugs'. Berko used other nonsense words to test this experiment with broadly similar results.
This is a bit dull I know, but necessary to hammer these details back into my mind ahead of my exam. I love the wugs test, I always imagine them to be a bit like the Gruffalo, a creature made up of parts of other animals, with shaggy fur and claws, but a friendly smile. The next post will look at theories and theorists who have ideas about how children acquire language whether it is innate or interactional. Personally I feel it needs to be a combination of both, but I think I might let Kit work that one out!
Research by Bellugi and McNeill is summarised by David Crystal, and suggests that there are 3 stages of question development:
- Use of intonation to signal a question. 'Dada' in rising intonation might suggest the child is asking the location of a parent.
- The use of questioning words e.g. what, where, when and why
- Manipulating syntax (word-order) to create longer more detailed questions eg where doggie going?
David Crystal states that using negatives has 6 stages:
- Use of a negative word on its own e.g. no, not
- Combining with other words in two word and telegraphic stages, most common at the start of an utterance e.g. no bed
- Using a negative in the middle of an utterance. e.g. me not like
- The increased accuracy of negative words within utterances, often in form of a contraction used with an auxiliary verb e.g. she isn't going
- Increased complexity and range of negative words e.g. I haven't got any
- Saying no without actually saying no - a trick that is used by adults that children can then pick up
MORPHOLOGY
MEAN LENGTH OF UTTERANCE (MLU): is a calculation based on the average number of morphemes used across a number of utterances.
This aspect of grammar becomes increasingly more important as the child's language develops:
Word endings create distinctions between:
- Singular and plural
- Present and past tense
- Comparative and superlative
FREE MORPHEME is a morpheme that can stand on its own as a meaningful unit e.g. eat.
BOUND MORPHEME is a morpheme that can only have meaning when joined with a free morpheme e.g. ing.
Example: the word eating consists of 2 morphemes (1 free and 1 bound) eat = free ing = bound
Inflectional Morphology - studies how morphemes are used to create different functions grammatically
Derviational Morphology - studies how morphemes can be used to create new words
3 patterns in derivational morphology:
Conversion - using one word as a different class of word e.g. I jammed the bread (the noun jam is used here as a verb).
Affixation - when endings are applied to words to create new ones e.g. Its crowdy in here
Compounding - when two existing words are joined together to form new combinations e.g. horsey-man
OVERGENERALISATION
Is the over application of a grammatical rule; a form of 'virtuous error' (see below for definition) If children have not heard these combinations or rule applications how do they create them? One idea suggests that these rules are heard in adult or other people's language and then the children start to apply it to their own language. It is common for children to apply the regular verb ending for the past simple tense (-ed) to irregular verbs. Therefore, they are not creating nonsense, but making a logical error, as they rigidly, but logically apply an incorrect ending. This is an overgeneralisation of a grammatical rule.
Virtuous error - is a mistake that is made for logical reasons and helps to shed light on the progress and processes of a child's language development e.g. I runned, I eating - the tenses are incorrect but the errors have been made logically.
Children can also regress in their language development - as per ROGER BROWN's research. A child at three may correctly use a verb ending, but at a later stage, perhaps five, regress to an incorrect form. Brown suggests that this is caused by the child's own deductive and cognative powers are increasing and where previoulsy they may have copied an adult, purely an incident of repetiton, now they are actively applying known rules and then 'virtuous errors' appear.
PHONOLOGY
This looks at the sounds and not spelling.There are 7 phonological features that are common in child language acquistion.
Addition - The addition of an extra vowel sound to create a vowel, consonant, vowel consonant strucure e.g. horsey
Deletion - Leaving out the final consonant of a word, so mouse would be come simply mou
Reduplication - The repetition of partiular soundsand structures such as choochoo
Substitution - Where one sound is replaced or swapped for another e.g. rabbit becomes wabbit
Consonant Cluster Reduction - Children can find the production of consonant cluster difficult, so they have a tendancy to reduce them to smaller units e.g. dry becomes dai
Deletion of unstressed syllables - The removal of an entire unstressed syllable from a word e.g. banana simply becomes nana
Assimilation - The process where substiution occurs but sounds change due to other sounds around it, so the sound produced is closer to the other sounds around it e.g. doggie becomes goggie.
PRAGMATIC DEVELOPMENT
Michael Halliday created a 'taxonomy of language.' Halliday a grammarian in 1975 identified 7 functions of language that children have in their early years. Suggesting that children are motivated to learn language as it serves functions or purposes for them.
Instrumental - Child uses language to express their needs.
Regulatory - Language is used to tell others what to do.
Interactional - Here language is used to make contact and build relationships with others.
Personal - Where language is used to express emotion, feelins, opinions and a sense of individual identity.
The following aid children to come to terms with their personal environment:
Heuristic - Language is used to gain knowledge about the environment.
Imaginative - This language is used to create stories, imaginary environments, tell jokes.
Representaional - This conveys facts and information
WUGS
In 1958 pyscholinguist Jean Berko Gleason created an experiment to test the use of the -s plural. She created an imaginary creature called a WUG. Then using a simple statement children were tested to see if they could complete the following statement:
"This is a wug. Now there is another one. There are two of them. There are two..."
Upwards of 75% of the children tested correctly answering 'wugs'. Berko used other nonsense words to test this experiment with broadly similar results.
This is a bit dull I know, but necessary to hammer these details back into my mind ahead of my exam. I love the wugs test, I always imagine them to be a bit like the Gruffalo, a creature made up of parts of other animals, with shaggy fur and claws, but a friendly smile. The next post will look at theories and theorists who have ideas about how children acquire language whether it is innate or interactional. Personally I feel it needs to be a combination of both, but I think I might let Kit work that one out!
Thursday 6 January 2011
Books recently read!!
Deborah Cameron - The Myth of Mars and Venus - very insightful look into the stereotypes that have become an accepted norm when considering language and gender, due to popular ideas such as John Gray - Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus.
Lynne Truss - Eats, Shoots and Leaves - very enjoyable, written with just enough self-deprecation to make it fun, and I now know how to use the apostrophe, and the Oxford comma.
Emagazine - Sept 2010 issue. - nice piece on texting and the effect on language use.
Jean Aitchison - Language Change: progress or decay - good overall presentation of the changes in English overtime and an insight into other languages, patios, pidgins and creoles.
David Crystal - Texting: the gr8 db8 - not sure I spelt that right and too lazy to check! Sloppy, and could be said to be the 'damp spoon' effect! Well OK I checked and that is correct. I enjoyed this book, not sure all the research made sense, but I did enjoy the humour.
I am looking forward now to John Humphrys - Lost in words. I am curious about his prescriptivist views and think it might make an interesting read and a nice addition to my little collection of linguistic/language books. Would have loved to have put my paws on Bernard Lamb's Queen's English too, but Waterstones here is not chucking it out cheap....yet!!
Lynne Truss - Eats, Shoots and Leaves - very enjoyable, written with just enough self-deprecation to make it fun, and I now know how to use the apostrophe, and the Oxford comma.
Emagazine - Sept 2010 issue. - nice piece on texting and the effect on language use.
Jean Aitchison - Language Change: progress or decay - good overall presentation of the changes in English overtime and an insight into other languages, patios, pidgins and creoles.
David Crystal - Texting: the gr8 db8 - not sure I spelt that right and too lazy to check! Sloppy, and could be said to be the 'damp spoon' effect! Well OK I checked and that is correct. I enjoyed this book, not sure all the research made sense, but I did enjoy the humour.
I am looking forward now to John Humphrys - Lost in words. I am curious about his prescriptivist views and think it might make an interesting read and a nice addition to my little collection of linguistic/language books. Would have loved to have put my paws on Bernard Lamb's Queen's English too, but Waterstones here is not chucking it out cheap....yet!!
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