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5.11 Components of Language and Language Acquisition

4 min readnovember 11, 2020

Sadiyya Holsey

Sadiyya Holsey

Dalia Savy

Dalia Savy

Sadiyya Holsey

Sadiyya Holsey

Dalia Savy

Dalia Savy

This whole time we've been talking about memory and bias, but what about ? is the foundation of all thinking and knowledge and it is made by humans. Isn't it crazy to think that we created to communicate?

is a system of spoken🗣️ and written communication✍️ and varies culture to culture.

Components of Language

Syntax 

refers to the ordering of words when making a sentence. Every has their own way of ordering words into a sentence.

For example, in English, we say "my mom's house🏠" or "my sister's pencil✏️" but in Spanish and other romance languages, they say "the house of my mom" or the "pencil of my sister."

Using the proper tense is also an example of .

Grammar 

refers to the rules of a and how words should be combined to communicate meaning🧠

Semantics 

refers to the study of understanding the meanings of words and word combinations.

Lexicon

is the general store of vocabulary for people. For instance, every occupation has “” specific to the field. A chef👨‍🍳 has a different than a surgeon👨‍⚕️

Phonemes

(like phonics) are the basic sound units of .  

The word "chat" has three - ch-a-t.

Morphemes 

are the smallest meaningful units of speech. Remember =meaning. It may be part of a word, like a prefix or suffix, but it could be a full word as well. Most combine 2-3 .

https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/fiveable-92889.appspot.com/o/images%2F-VN3MhA7znGGL.gif?alt=media&token=c0569eb0-80bc-4f80-bd1d-c213a803baf8

Gif Courtesy of Giphy

Language Acquisition

Language Acquisition Device (LAD)

Acquisition Device states that humans are born with the capacity to acquire and produce . It states that we are all born with an understanding of .

LAD is used to explain how children can learn languages so well. Children understand that sentences should have a structure before they are able to speak in full sentences.  

Critical Period

Noam Chomsky says that childhood is the for development and without exposure, it is impossible to learn a .

Babbling stage 

An early stage of speech that occurs around the age of 3-4 months when children produce spontaneous meaningless sounds (ex. ah-goo). It's basically when they use that aren't from your .

At about 10 months old, babbling begins to resemble household 🏘️.

One-word Stage

At about 12 months old, the child will begin to speak in one word statements that communicate meaning. For example, if they see a cat, they might say "Kitty!" in excitement.

Two-word Stage

At about 18 months old, children begin to speak in two-word statements, like "Get ball⚽," "Want food," and "I tired😴."

Telegraphic speech 

The of speech when the child speaks like a telegram. These statements usually consist of one verb and one noun.

At about 24 months old, develops into full sentences very rapidly.

Overgeneralization

Using rules without proper use and exceptions. For example, a young child might say “I goed to the park,” because they think they can add -ed to anything in the past tense; however, that is an of the rule because there are exceptions.  

Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis

Benjamin Whorf's hypothesis is that controls the way an individual thinks about their world. People that speak different languages have different perspectives on life depending on how complex their is. Limitations on vocabulary create limitations in how individuals see the world😲.

In other words, people that are bilingual might describe themselves differently, depending on the they are speaking in. The more languages you speak, the more word power you have. It's very good for your brain and really expands your capabilities.

The Brain

Some believe that there are two main parts responsible for acquiring :

  1. 🗣️ - helps with the production of and expression. It is in the left frontal lobe and if it were to be damaged, we would have trouble speaking.

  2. 🧠 - helps with the understanding of . It is located in the left temporal lobe and if it were to be damaged, we would have trouble understanding.

is the impairment of that occurs when either the () or () is damaged. Depending on which type of one has, one could be able to speak but not understand it and vice versa. Isn't that weird to think about?

🎥Watch: AP Psychology - Cognition + Language

Key Terms to Review (20)

Aphasia

: A condition that robs you of your ability to communicate effectively. It can affect your ability to speak, write and understand language, both verbal and written. Aphasia typically occurs suddenly after a stroke or a head injury.

Babbling Stage

: The babbling stage is a period in a child's development, usually between 6 to 9 months old, where they experiment with uttering articulate sounds but do not yet produce any recognizable words.

Broca's Area

: Broca's Area is a region in the frontal lobe of the brain with functions linked to speech production.

Critical Period

: In psychology, the critical period refers to a specific time during development when an organism is most sensitive to environmental influences or stimuli. During this time, certain behaviors and abilities can be learned more easily than at other times.

Expressive Aphasia

: Expressive aphasia is a type of speech disorder that involves difficulty in conveying thoughts through speech or writing. It's caused by damage to the part of the brain responsible for language production.

Grammar

: Grammar encompasses all the rules related to language structure including word formation (morphology), sentence structure (syntax), and sound patterns (phonetics).

Language

: Language is a complex system of communication that involves the use of words, symbols, or signs to express thoughts, ideas, and emotions.

Language Acquisition Device (LAD)

: Proposed by Noam Chomsky, the Language Acquisition Device is an innate mechanism or process that facilitates the learning of language. According to this theory, all humans are born with an inherent ability to understand grammar rules.

Lexicon

: A lexicon is an individual's personal stockpile of knowledge about words including their meanings, pronunciation, and syntactic roles.

Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis

: Also known as Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, it suggests that the structure of a language affects its speakers' world view or cognition. Basically, the way we think and see the world is shaped by our language.

Morphemes

: Morphemes are the smallest meaningful units of language. They can be words, like "cat" or "run," or prefixes and suffixes, like "un-" in "undo" or "-ed" in "played."

One-word Stage

: The one-word stage is the period in a child's life when they begin to use single words to convey meaning. This typically occurs around 10-18 months old.

Overgeneralization

: Overgeneralization occurs when the rules of grammar are applied too broadly beyond exceptions. Children often make these mistakes when learning language.

Phonemes

: Phonemes are the smallest distinctive sound units in speech that can distinguish one word from another.

Receptive Aphasia

: Receptive aphasia is a type of language disorder where an individual has trouble understanding spoken or written language, usually due to damage in the brain area responsible for language comprehension.

Semantics

: Semantics is the branch of linguistics that deals with the meanings of words and sentences.

Syntax

: Syntax refers to the rules and structure that govern how sentences are formed in a particular language.

Telegraphic speech

: This is a stage in language acquisition where a child, typically around the age of two, speaks using mainly nouns and verbs. Their sentences are often short and lack small connecting words.

Two-word Stage

: The two-word stage is the period in a child's life, usually around 18-24 months old, when they start to use two-word sentences to communicate.

Wernicke's Area

: Wernicke's Area is a region in the brain that plays a key role in language comprehension. It's typically located in Brodmann area 22, which is found in superior temporal gyrus in dominant cerebral hemisphere, which is left hemisphere for about 95% population.

5.11 Components of Language and Language Acquisition

4 min readnovember 11, 2020

Sadiyya Holsey

Sadiyya Holsey

Dalia Savy

Dalia Savy

Sadiyya Holsey

Sadiyya Holsey

Dalia Savy

Dalia Savy

This whole time we've been talking about memory and bias, but what about ? is the foundation of all thinking and knowledge and it is made by humans. Isn't it crazy to think that we created to communicate?

is a system of spoken🗣️ and written communication✍️ and varies culture to culture.

Components of Language

Syntax 

refers to the ordering of words when making a sentence. Every has their own way of ordering words into a sentence.

For example, in English, we say "my mom's house🏠" or "my sister's pencil✏️" but in Spanish and other romance languages, they say "the house of my mom" or the "pencil of my sister."

Using the proper tense is also an example of .

Grammar 

refers to the rules of a and how words should be combined to communicate meaning🧠

Semantics 

refers to the study of understanding the meanings of words and word combinations.

Lexicon

is the general store of vocabulary for people. For instance, every occupation has “” specific to the field. A chef👨‍🍳 has a different than a surgeon👨‍⚕️

Phonemes

(like phonics) are the basic sound units of .  

The word "chat" has three - ch-a-t.

Morphemes 

are the smallest meaningful units of speech. Remember =meaning. It may be part of a word, like a prefix or suffix, but it could be a full word as well. Most combine 2-3 .

https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/fiveable-92889.appspot.com/o/images%2F-VN3MhA7znGGL.gif?alt=media&token=c0569eb0-80bc-4f80-bd1d-c213a803baf8

Gif Courtesy of Giphy

Language Acquisition

Language Acquisition Device (LAD)

Acquisition Device states that humans are born with the capacity to acquire and produce . It states that we are all born with an understanding of .

LAD is used to explain how children can learn languages so well. Children understand that sentences should have a structure before they are able to speak in full sentences.  

Critical Period

Noam Chomsky says that childhood is the for development and without exposure, it is impossible to learn a .

Babbling stage 

An early stage of speech that occurs around the age of 3-4 months when children produce spontaneous meaningless sounds (ex. ah-goo). It's basically when they use that aren't from your .

At about 10 months old, babbling begins to resemble household 🏘️.

One-word Stage

At about 12 months old, the child will begin to speak in one word statements that communicate meaning. For example, if they see a cat, they might say "Kitty!" in excitement.

Two-word Stage

At about 18 months old, children begin to speak in two-word statements, like "Get ball⚽," "Want food," and "I tired😴."

Telegraphic speech 

The of speech when the child speaks like a telegram. These statements usually consist of one verb and one noun.

At about 24 months old, develops into full sentences very rapidly.

Overgeneralization

Using rules without proper use and exceptions. For example, a young child might say “I goed to the park,” because they think they can add -ed to anything in the past tense; however, that is an of the rule because there are exceptions.  

Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis

Benjamin Whorf's hypothesis is that controls the way an individual thinks about their world. People that speak different languages have different perspectives on life depending on how complex their is. Limitations on vocabulary create limitations in how individuals see the world😲.

In other words, people that are bilingual might describe themselves differently, depending on the they are speaking in. The more languages you speak, the more word power you have. It's very good for your brain and really expands your capabilities.

The Brain

Some believe that there are two main parts responsible for acquiring :

  1. 🗣️ - helps with the production of and expression. It is in the left frontal lobe and if it were to be damaged, we would have trouble speaking.

  2. 🧠 - helps with the understanding of . It is located in the left temporal lobe and if it were to be damaged, we would have trouble understanding.

is the impairment of that occurs when either the () or () is damaged. Depending on which type of one has, one could be able to speak but not understand it and vice versa. Isn't that weird to think about?

🎥Watch: AP Psychology - Cognition + Language

Key Terms to Review (20)

Aphasia

: A condition that robs you of your ability to communicate effectively. It can affect your ability to speak, write and understand language, both verbal and written. Aphasia typically occurs suddenly after a stroke or a head injury.

Babbling Stage

: The babbling stage is a period in a child's development, usually between 6 to 9 months old, where they experiment with uttering articulate sounds but do not yet produce any recognizable words.

Broca's Area

: Broca's Area is a region in the frontal lobe of the brain with functions linked to speech production.

Critical Period

: In psychology, the critical period refers to a specific time during development when an organism is most sensitive to environmental influences or stimuli. During this time, certain behaviors and abilities can be learned more easily than at other times.

Expressive Aphasia

: Expressive aphasia is a type of speech disorder that involves difficulty in conveying thoughts through speech or writing. It's caused by damage to the part of the brain responsible for language production.

Grammar

: Grammar encompasses all the rules related to language structure including word formation (morphology), sentence structure (syntax), and sound patterns (phonetics).

Language

: Language is a complex system of communication that involves the use of words, symbols, or signs to express thoughts, ideas, and emotions.

Language Acquisition Device (LAD)

: Proposed by Noam Chomsky, the Language Acquisition Device is an innate mechanism or process that facilitates the learning of language. According to this theory, all humans are born with an inherent ability to understand grammar rules.

Lexicon

: A lexicon is an individual's personal stockpile of knowledge about words including their meanings, pronunciation, and syntactic roles.

Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis

: Also known as Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, it suggests that the structure of a language affects its speakers' world view or cognition. Basically, the way we think and see the world is shaped by our language.

Morphemes

: Morphemes are the smallest meaningful units of language. They can be words, like "cat" or "run," or prefixes and suffixes, like "un-" in "undo" or "-ed" in "played."

One-word Stage

: The one-word stage is the period in a child's life when they begin to use single words to convey meaning. This typically occurs around 10-18 months old.

Overgeneralization

: Overgeneralization occurs when the rules of grammar are applied too broadly beyond exceptions. Children often make these mistakes when learning language.

Phonemes

: Phonemes are the smallest distinctive sound units in speech that can distinguish one word from another.

Receptive Aphasia

: Receptive aphasia is a type of language disorder where an individual has trouble understanding spoken or written language, usually due to damage in the brain area responsible for language comprehension.

Semantics

: Semantics is the branch of linguistics that deals with the meanings of words and sentences.

Syntax

: Syntax refers to the rules and structure that govern how sentences are formed in a particular language.

Telegraphic speech

: This is a stage in language acquisition where a child, typically around the age of two, speaks using mainly nouns and verbs. Their sentences are often short and lack small connecting words.

Two-word Stage

: The two-word stage is the period in a child's life, usually around 18-24 months old, when they start to use two-word sentences to communicate.

Wernicke's Area

: Wernicke's Area is a region in the brain that plays a key role in language comprehension. It's typically located in Brodmann area 22, which is found in superior temporal gyrus in dominant cerebral hemisphere, which is left hemisphere for about 95% population.


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© 2024 Fiveable Inc. All rights reserved.

AP® and SAT® are trademarks registered by the College Board, which is not affiliated with, and does not endorse this website.