The Innateness Question: Arguments for Nativism in Language Acquisition - Prof. Escutia Ló, Apuntes de Psicolingüística

¡Descarga The Innateness Question: Arguments for Nativism in Language Acquisition - Prof. Escutia Ló y más Apuntes en PDF de Psicolingüística solo en Docsity! L1 ACQUISITION: THE INNATENESS QUESTION NATIVISM • Language one of most amazing things people know because it is biologically hardwired into the human brain. • Children not born with a particular language, not equipped with rules or sounds of any Language. • Babies come knowing what kind of words we can have, what types of sentences, what sorts of interpretations we’re allowed, principles that define what’s possible and what’s not, which will never be expected (= UG). Arguments for Nativism III • They all pick up words at the same rate and go through same stages regardless of how the L1 works and of being or not exposed to motherese, the L1 having tone or not, or if the V comes at beginning or end of sentence. • All babies start at 10-12 months old and by 18 months they have about 80 words and then they have a vocabulary spurt in the next few months and around 2 ys they have about 500 words. Then faster, about 10 wds a day. Arguments for Nativism IV • No doubt kids make mistakes: I eated, horsie (for deer) but some sorts are never made: is Daddy happy but *drives Daddy fast? Is the cat eating vs *is the cat that eating on the bed? • If one picked up language without a blueprint it should be possible to approximate it with computer modelling. Done for stress with 11 models and run each model for 1000 times paying attention to different factors: only 3 out of 20 thousand trials modelled English and kids do it easily: sth special going on for language. Arguments for Nativism V • All kids get very good at language and so quickly: 2&1/2 years old know what sound combinations are possible for language; OGs (regularities without constraints: zibbing, zibber, it noises (on it buzzes), she unlocked it open (on the basis of she pulled it open); what a possible word sounds like, the WO for their L1, how to make questions, what questions are grammatically correct to ask, they use modifiers.