Different types of language

1. Instrumental: Language used to satisfy material needs.
2. Regulatory: Language used to control others.
3. Interactional: Language with no actual meaning as such - e.g, fillers during awkward silences.
4. Personal: Emotional language which releases stress, involuntary responses to pain, fear, beauty, etc. As well as expressing 'the self'.
5. Heuristic: Language seeking information.
6. Imaginative: Language of creative writing, etc.
7. Language which communicates information or ideas.
8. Performative: Language used to control others.

Development milestones

1. Firstly, kids all over the world learn language at roughly the same speed regardless of sex, race, culture or mother tongue (and there are some pretty major differences in attitudes towards teaching children across the globe).
2. Logical mistakes
3. Exceptions: one of the most convincing arguments against the imitation theory is that children who can't speak, but can hear, acquire normal understanding of speech. Eric Lennenburg (1962) researched the case of a boy like this who, for neuromuscular reasons was unable to speak.
4.Critical period - Chomskyis right in that we are born with LAD; Skinneris right in that your caregivers must reinforce and stimulate it - and Lennenburgis also right in saying this must be before a certain age.

The three stages of CLA (learn this as a guideline in the exam)

Stage one - holophrastic (one word):
Age: 12-18 months
What happens: The child utters their first word. She/he then builds a vocabulary of holophrases (single words used to convey meaning). They convey all the meaning of a phrase/sentence through body language, inotation and volume.

Stage two - Two words a.k.a - the emergence of grammar. This supports Chomsky's LAD. Two word phrases like "all gone!". It is the beginning of structure.

Stage three - Telegraphic:
Age: 2-2 and a half years
What happens: The child begins to use sentences of up to four words in length.
-Sentences with gaps in them where the non-lexical words (those without a 'dictionary meaning') like 'but', 'and', 'if' (conjunctions) 'the', 'a' (articles), 'is', 'has' (auxiliary verbs), as well as endings such as 'ing' are often omitted.
-Children combine 3-4 words in a variety of grammatical constructions: declarative syntax, interrogative syntax (for adjacency pairs - to teach chaining), and imperative syntax (because they lack politeness strategies).
-After age three, children's language advances in leaps and bounds.
-Although massive developments happen simultaneously and are linked together.
-Grammar: The structure of the language (word order, sentence types, word endings, tenses, using negatives, passives and conjunctions).
-Semantics: The meaning of words (the usage, growth and comprehension of vocabulary).
-Phonology: The sounds of the language (inotation, stress, pitch, tone, pronunciation). -Pragmatics: Everything else. Or, the ability to use language that is appropriate to the situation, the rule of conversation (turn-taking, politeness, terms of address), initiate a conversation, how to keep it going, how to keep someone's attention, how to get someone to do what you want and make them feel like it was their idea, and so on.

Article on fox-p-2 being inserted into mice: what they found

Click here - Recently German scientists have successfully implanted a 'humanized' version of the fox-p-2 gene into mice. Remarkably, they discovered that it actually helped them learn faster.

Emma Watson UN speech on gender equality

Click here for Emma Watson's compelling speech recently made at the United Nations. Six months ago Watson was appointed as goodwill ambassador and is now leading a movement called 'heforshe', which aims to put a stop to gender inequality once and for all. In this speech she talks about commonly used gender-specific terms and labels (i.e, 'bossy'), and discusses different ways in which some language can advocate sexist attitudes.

Notes on documentary 'The hardest thing you'll ever do'

-We talk to babies as if they can understand
-Sense of sight VITAL in CLA
-At 18 months - 50 words in the lexicon, mostly nouns; few politeness strategies
-Girls get positive reinforcement ("clever girl") but boys get none: sexist presumption that boys should do well but girls need help
-Use of onomatopoeia - reinforced through play
-At two and a half years old, children begin to get to grips with adjacency pairs, turn taking and chaining
-They only use simple syntax - NOT complex. They're getting used to conversation but they don't initiate it - only respond to it
-Nursery rhymes & children's books are used teaching them complex syntax
-At three years old children know possessive pronouns
-At three/four they can tell a story with the past tense, but still make virtuous errors.
-Remarkably they will never use the simple past with nouns (e.g, yesterday we 'beached', etc) - Evidence for fox-p-2
-After simple syntax comes compound syntax (joining two simple sentences with a connective)
-At five years old children are more aware or external influences
-100,000 words as an adult - mainly context driven though.

Transcript of conversation between Lou and Ruby (from class)

Lou: shall we take your jacket off Pronoun 'we' shows collaboration
Ruby: it's not a jacket it's a coat
Lou: oh (.) sorry (.) shall we take your COAT off then 'COAT' - Convergence
Ruby: mmm
Lou: are you going to be a bossy boots all morning 'Bossy boots' typically for females - pre-modified noun
Ruby: [nods & laughs] (3.0) what's up wiv Felma Use of longer pauses to reflect on what to say/Struggles with CC'th'
Lou: Thelma [questioning inotation] (1.0) oh (.) she's been a silly girl (1.0) she's been fighting 'Thelma'-Correcting Ruby
Ruby: what did it (.) what what was it (.) em Simba bitted by a dog 'Bitted'-Applied regular simple past to an irregular past
Lou: Simba got bitten by a do::g [questioning inotation] oh no is he all right 'Bitten' - Repeats correctly
Ruby: yeh
Lou: yes
Ruby: he's better now
Lou: is he better now (.) the vet looked after him [questioning inotation](2.0)
Ruby: no we took him to the bets two times but he's better 'Bets' - Error-means 'vets'
Lou: he's better [questioning inotation] oh that's good (.) Thelma's getting better
Ruby:Interruption shows excitement Sim (.) Simba slept on my (2.0) Fergal and Simba slept on my bed
Lou: oh (.) last night [questioning inotation]
Ruby: yeh
Lou: is there room on your bed for two pussy cats and you
Ruby: yes
Lou: is there (.) do they not get (.) do you not get pushed out of bed every night by two big pussy cats
Ruby: no
Lou: they're almost as big as you your cats (1.0) shall we have some jam on toast Sidetracked here
Ruby: yes
Lou: would you like some apple juice as well
Ruby: yes
Lou: what would you like first
Ruby: apple juice
Lou: apple juice (.) a little glass [questioning inotation]
Ruby: yes
Lou yes (1.0)
Ruby: big girls have glass don't they Ruby has missed out an indefinite article/'Big girls' - Pre-modified noun
Lou: yes (.) big girls have glasses (.) it's all I've got (.) glasses (2.0)
Ruby: grandma has glass and cups
Lou: grandma has glass and cups does she (.) and what do you have at grandma's (1.0)
Ruby: apple juice and orange Highlights importance of conversation and they're both interested
Lou: apple juice and orange (.) there we go (.) where are you going to sit to have this (.) do you want to sit at the table
Ruby: I'll sit (.) I want to sit in the room No awareness of please and thank you/'I'll sit'-Can do future simple
Lou: oo:: no (.) not with your apple juice
Ruby: only wiz my toast (2.0) Again struggles with the consonant cluster 'th'
Lou: sit here and I'll move my things out of the way
Ruby: only in (.) only wiz my toast
Lou: okay (.) there you go (1.0) can you manage
Ruby: Mummy got (3.0) Mummy's moved a bed
Lou: Mummy's moved her bed or your bed [questioning inotation] (2.0)
Ruby: her bed (.)
Lou: right (.) where's she moved it to
Ruby: (3.0) that (.) bit [pointing left]
Lou: that bit [laughs]
Ruby: then the baby's mattress is (.) on that bit [pointing right]
Lou: a::h I see:: (1.0) so Mummy's moved her bed so she can fit the bed in for the baby (.)you excited about the baby [questioning inotation] Repition of the word 'mummy' - Convergence
Ruby: (2.0) it's coming after Christmas
Lou: (.) after Christmas (.) is Father Christmas going to bring it
Ruby: no (.) Mummy's made it
Lou: [laughs] Mummy's made it has she (.) she's clever your Mummy isn't she
Ruby: we don't know how she made it cos the books shows us (.) how's it (.) she made it
Lou: oh right (.) has she read the book with you (1.0) ir are you getting a book
Ruby: (2.0) we haven't got a book about the baby we getting a book
Lou: are you looking forward to the baby (.) di you want a baby brother or a baby sister
Ruby: (3.0) I want a girl
Lou: a girl (2.0)
Ruby: I want to call it Dora 'I want to call it Dora' - Context
Lou: [laughs] Dora (.) after Dora the Explorer
Ruby: and when she gets bigger (.) she (.) she can explorer [laughs] 'Explorer' - Error
Lou: [laughs] when she gets bigger she can be an explorer
Ruby: no (.) Mum said when we at Sun (.) Sunday dinner (.) she'll be adorable [laughs]
Lou: adorable (.) that's clever isn't it

Two main theories on language aquisition

1957- Behaviourism - B.F Skinner wrote a book called 'Verbal behaviour'. He decided that children aquire language based on positive reinforcement. He said that we are all born as 'tabula rasa' (meaning blank slate), and that children learn language by receiving positive reinforcement when they communicate with words correctly. Skinner called this the 'Operant conditioning theory'. Children (according to Skinner) learn language through a simple process of imitation and reinforcement, and he claimed that no complicated internal mechanisms were needed for language and that a child learning language was no different from a rat learning to press levers (he enjoyed experimenting with rodents).

1965 - Cognitivism/Universal grammer - Chomsky opposed Skinner's idea with the theory of Universal grammer: the innate biological properties of the human brain which are responsible for children's rapid and overwhelmingly successful aquisition of a native language - without any obvious effort during the first few years of life.

Click here for an article with further information on the topic.

Notes from Stephen Fry documentary

-Children speak from the age of two years old. They begin with consonant vowel construction ("ta, da, ba").
-They have a heightened semantic awareness but a lessened phonological awareness.

-Animals are unable to make complex sounds - their vocal abilities aren't flexible enough. Some animals however have been taught sign language, (to some extent) successfully.
-The University of Columbia conducted an experiment with a Chimp called 'Nimchimpsky': they raised him as a child and attempted to teach him sign language. To their amazement they discovered Nimchimpsky was able to construct simple sentences but not to initiate conversations - no linguistic creativity, only able to build imperative requests.
-There are only TWO differences between the amino acids in Fox-P-2 (language gene) between humans and chimps.

But where did language originally come from?

-It is thought that as language developed in the early ages it was biologically the woman's job to ensure social cohesion and to keep the tribe/village together (maternal instincts).
-Something in a woman's DNA which makes them more cooperative (dating back 1000s of years).

-VICTOR, a child found had been living alone and as an animal for some years (a ferile child). He was essentially a 'blank slate', and the doctor who took him had to teach him everything. Victor was NEVER able to talk - evidence that there is a critical aquisition period. We must be stimulated linguistically.

-Children associate lexis with context (e.g, water)
-The WUGtest supports Chomsky's LAD - we are born with the apparatus to use language and grammar. Even with nonsense made-up words, children apply grammatical laws that they've somehow absorbed.
-The amount of language that parents provide kids before school is crucial.
-Never negate the importance of visuals in CLA - children sometimes need to look at who they're talking to.

Language and power

Instrumental power - Commanding speech: 'Sit down'
Influential power - Persuasive speech: 'Could you sit down please' Both exert power in speech in two different ways.
-Parents have instrumental power by setting the agenda in the conversation, HOWEVER depending on the context they may use influential power.
-Instrumental power has a declarative syntax structure whereas influential has imperative syntax structure.
-Norman Fairclough talks about synthetic personalisation.

Notes on language and gender

-Emotive language is more common with females
-Men interrupt woman a lot - a trait of male language is that they appear to be less polite compared to women
-As a result males often dominate the coversation

-Language is partiarchal:
-Political correctness dictates that we should not change the gender of language for women (HIStory, etc)
-The 'S' is the suffix which denotes the gender - 'headmistreSS', 'lioneSS', etc
-Women's language is defficient compared to men's - it's less assertive; less powerful.
-Women CO-OPERATE whereas men COMPETE
-'Handsome' VS 'Pretty' - why do we use specific words for each gender?

-Men are more likely to use coloquial language (slang)
-Men also seem to converge more (adopt language for its audience)

Top ten 'sweariest' places in Britain

Here you will find a list of the 'sweariest' towns in Britain. This research carried out by scientists at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (Casa) at UCL lists the ten 'sweariest' towns in Britain - and also the five least sweary, including higher class places like Oxford and Westminster. Could this be a direct result of better education in the richer areas of Britain in contrast with that of the North? Or is it just down to culture?

Notes on 'Horizons'

Unfortunately couldn't find a link to the BBC documentary 'Horizons'.

-Named 'the speech home project', in this documentary you can see that babies begin with gibberish, then progress into single words which in turn develop into requests. Gradually an infant learns to speak.
-The experiment also illustrates how you need positive reinforcement (what some might call a 'baby voice') when communicating with your child so that they are encouraged when talking - this suggests that we all have the innate ability to use language but it must be stimulated at a young age.
-It also appears that parents simplify their speech subconsciously by elonging their pauses - they simplify their lexis and their syntax. This is called CONVERGENCE (adopting language for the audience).
-Furthermore, children will listen to the phonological features - at first, a child's phonological awareness outweighs their semantic awareness. They listen to the SOUNDS first.
-As the child's own speech develops, parents will use longer sentences - mirroring their development. By the time a child is 5, they know 5000 words - mostly nouns and verbs. At certain stages they don't have the nouns so instead they use determiners ("this one, that one, this one!")
-As they grow up they will learn 3000 new words each year.
-This documentary also answers some more fundamental questions by demonstrating how we have a laryx deep in our throat which causes our vocal tracts to be longer - whereas animals have high ones disabling them from making complex speech sounds.
-The left part of the brain is for language, the front is for speaking and the back is for understanding. After studying a man with severe brain damage, doctors noticed that nouns appeared to come before actions (for example, he could name the cat in the picture but not what it was doing).

Ted talks: Dr. Deb Roy discusses the experiment he conducted with his son (placing surveillance all around his home in order to capture the 'birth of a word')

Click here!

Youtube - Debate on the use of drugs for learning languages in the future (consider the ethical implications).

Click here!

Guardian article on nature Vs nurture

Click here! - Link to a Guardian article illustrating how learning a language is more about nurture than nature. It discusses the importance of bilinguality in employment today and investigates how achievable it actually is - concluding with the idea that motivation from employers will strengthen the incentive of the learner. (Employers need to take a more "active role")

Article on duolingo (language learning app)

Click here! -Link to Guardian article on Duolingo (mobile app for learning languages based on repition, listening, reading and writing phrases). Duolingo is clear support for the notion that we 'pick up' a language.

Click here! - Link to AQA resources