Unit 5

Language

• Our spoken written or gestured words and the way we combining them in communication

Phonemes

• In a spoken language, the smallest distinctive sound unit.

Morphemes

• In a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning

Grammar

• A system of rules in a language that enables us to communicate and understand others

Semantics

• The set of rules by which we derive meaning in a language

Syntax

• The rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences.

Language development:
Babbling stage

•  starting at 3-4 months, the infant makes spontaneous sounds. Not limited to the phonemes of the infant’s household language.

One word stage

• 1-2 years old, uses one word to communicate big meanings

Two word stage 

• at age 2, uses two words to communicate meanings- called telegraphic speech

Skinner
• Skinner thought that we can explain language development through social learning theory.

Chomsky
• In born universal grammar
• We acquire language too quickly for it to be learned.
• We have this “learning box” inside our heads that enable us to learn any human language.
Whorf’s linguistic relativity

• The idea that Language determines the way we think