Language Acquisition: Crash Course Linguistics #12
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Date: 2022-04-04
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Comments and reviews: 10
Oskar
Although informative and mostly truthful, this video (too) demonstrates a concerning lack of understanding that early language acquisition is centred around (and should be understood through the lens of) speech acts, not syntax and semantics. This video leans on a classical paradigm in linguistics which is by no means flawless.
Children learn to participate in practices and direct others by learning speech acts, and it is when they put these speech acts to use that they acquire the words needed to carry them out. A limiting factor in early speech acquisition lies in the lack of social cognition and the period it takes to observe and learn the social practices around them and the speech acts by which those practices are carried out. Words aren't learned in isolation of practical context, and are actually secondary to the speech acts in which they are deployed.
A child begins by learning simple directives--e. g. ordering and requesting, which you briefly touched on when highlighting how one word sentences may in fact carry multiple signifiers spread out over multiple modalities--before learning more complex ones such as apologies, corrections, bets, promises, explanations, interrogations, affirmations, and so on. Each involve a set of give-and-take from the participants which require the development of social cognition, -without which any account of early language acquisition will remain incomplete-.
Contemporary literature already acknowledges this, and it is the syntax&semantics obsessed linguistics of the 20th century which doesn't.
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Although informative and mostly truthful, this video (too) demonstrates a concerning lack of understanding that early language acquisition is centred around (and should be understood through the lens of) speech acts, not syntax and semantics. This video leans on a classical paradigm in linguistics which is by no means flawless.
Children learn to participate in practices and direct others by learning speech acts, and it is when they put these speech acts to use that they acquire the words needed to carry them out. A limiting factor in early speech acquisition lies in the lack of social cognition and the period it takes to observe and learn the social practices around them and the speech acts by which those practices are carried out. Words aren't learned in isolation of practical context, and are actually secondary to the speech acts in which they are deployed.
A child begins by learning simple directives--e. g. ordering and requesting, which you briefly touched on when highlighting how one word sentences may in fact carry multiple signifiers spread out over multiple modalities--before learning more complex ones such as apologies, corrections, bets, promises, explanations, interrogations, affirmations, and so on. Each involve a set of give-and-take from the participants which require the development of social cognition, -without which any account of early language acquisition will remain incomplete-.
Contemporary literature already acknowledges this, and it is the syntax&semantics obsessed linguistics of the 20th century which doesn't.
reply
silver
I wonder if dogs raised or trained by signers learn to understand signs instead of spoken language. And, yes, I know many dogs raised or trained by people who speak aloud are also taught signs to go with commands, like a downward moving fist for -sit- - but I'm unsure if they would obey from the gesture alone without the spoken command. But what I'm really curious about is the way dogs learn to understand words you didn't mean to teach them. Like dogs that run to the door if you even mention walking to another person without even facing the dog. Or if they respond to the signed version of -who's a good boy? - with the same enthusiasm.
I know this is off-topic, but I was reminded of it by mentioning sign acquisition in children.
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I wonder if dogs raised or trained by signers learn to understand signs instead of spoken language. And, yes, I know many dogs raised or trained by people who speak aloud are also taught signs to go with commands, like a downward moving fist for -sit- - but I'm unsure if they would obey from the gesture alone without the spoken command. But what I'm really curious about is the way dogs learn to understand words you didn't mean to teach them. Like dogs that run to the door if you even mention walking to another person without even facing the dog. Or if they respond to the signed version of -who's a good boy? - with the same enthusiasm.
I know this is off-topic, but I was reminded of it by mentioning sign acquisition in children.
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education
Hi -crashCourse Thank you for making the knowledge of linguistics accessible to everyone. I got my M. A in theoretical linguistics and looking forward to apply for a doctoral program. I have always been trying my best to explain what linguistics is and how it is different from -learning new languages-, often with no success. Hopefully people would put more respect on linguistics degree, as it is a very versatile, very impactful and will always be on demand.
PS. It would be great if you can also include popular linguistics subjects such as natural language processing, rhetoric and manipulation, language and thoughts, corpus data analysis and others.
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Hi -crashCourse Thank you for making the knowledge of linguistics accessible to everyone. I got my M. A in theoretical linguistics and looking forward to apply for a doctoral program. I have always been trying my best to explain what linguistics is and how it is different from -learning new languages-, often with no success. Hopefully people would put more respect on linguistics degree, as it is a very versatile, very impactful and will always be on demand.
PS. It would be great if you can also include popular linguistics subjects such as natural language processing, rhetoric and manipulation, language and thoughts, corpus data analysis and others.
reply
Nomadicmonkey
BEHOLD THE MIGHTY HORDE OF WUGS
Seriously tho, wugs are like de facto official mascots of linguistics aren't they.
Edit: as a native speaker of Japanese I highly appreciate what I assume to be you guys' conscious effort not to just throw in some utterly unpleasant (to put it mildly) and vaguely Mincho-looking Japanese font that I have seen way too often used by Western content creators in their failed attempts at feigning their understanding of the language.
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BEHOLD THE MIGHTY HORDE OF WUGS
Seriously tho, wugs are like de facto official mascots of linguistics aren't they.
Edit: as a native speaker of Japanese I highly appreciate what I assume to be you guys' conscious effort not to just throw in some utterly unpleasant (to put it mildly) and vaguely Mincho-looking Japanese font that I have seen way too often used by Western content creators in their failed attempts at feigning their understanding of the language.
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Coco
It-s really interesting how people can already be beyond childhood while still acquire a language without intentionally learning it. I love anime and watched tons of them when I was in middle school, and after some years I can automatically understand Japanese tho the only thing I did following a textbook was to remember the alphabet - (my native language is Chinese so I don-t need to struggle learning kanji)
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It-s really interesting how people can already be beyond childhood while still acquire a language without intentionally learning it. I love anime and watched tons of them when I was in middle school, and after some years I can automatically understand Japanese tho the only thing I did following a textbook was to remember the alphabet - (my native language is Chinese so I don-t need to struggle learning kanji)
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Akanksha
As a baby I'm offended by what you said at 8: 15. No, babies don't get to lie around all day. We have to scream, break things, hit other babies, learn to crawl, cry exactly when mom is starting to drift into sleep and a lot more. Try consulting sources before you make videos. I am disappointed in you, crash course
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As a baby I'm offended by what you said at 8: 15. No, babies don't get to lie around all day. We have to scream, break things, hit other babies, learn to crawl, cry exactly when mom is starting to drift into sleep and a lot more. Try consulting sources before you make videos. I am disappointed in you, crash course
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Simba
Learning so much from this course! I speak Shona, a language not as well documented as other mainstream languages, and this course has been helpful in helping me think about the pieces that go into speech - and therefore, how to teach friends how to say words in my language.
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Learning so much from this course! I speak Shona, a language not as well documented as other mainstream languages, and this course has been helpful in helping me think about the pieces that go into speech - and therefore, how to teach friends how to say words in my language.
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Vigilant
2: 46 This might actually explain why when I started learning English I thought that th sounded like f, v, or d, depending on the context. The voiced and unvoiced non-sibilant alveolar fricatives aren't phonemes in Polish, which is my first language
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2: 46 This might actually explain why when I started learning English I thought that th sounded like f, v, or d, depending on the context. The voiced and unvoiced non-sibilant alveolar fricatives aren't phonemes in Polish, which is my first language
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MaksRoss
I don't remember (of course) my first word, and my parents also can't help me in this matter. But the first word in enlish that I remeber is a -helicopter-. There was a cool toy helicopter in the english classes for small children that I attended.
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I don't remember (of course) my first word, and my parents also can't help me in this matter. But the first word in enlish that I remeber is a -helicopter-. There was a cool toy helicopter in the english classes for small children that I attended.
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Eli
Great explanation. I have a three month all baby and a five years old boy, and he constantly asks me when her sister will speak. I told him that it will take her time. I think, this videos help him understand better. Thank you
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Great explanation. I have a three month all baby and a five years old boy, and he constantly asks me when her sister will speak. I told him that it will take her time. I think, this videos help him understand better. Thank you
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