Chapter 2 - Origins of Human Language

Question 1

Nativist view

Answer 1

The view that not only humans are genetically programmed to have a general capacity for language, particular aspects of language ability are also genetically specified

Question 2

Anti-nativist view

Answer 2

The view that the ability of humans to learn language is not the result of a genetically programmed “language template” but is an aspect (or by-product) of our extensive cognitive abilities, including general abilities of learning and memory

Question 3

Productivity

Answer 3

The ability to use known symbols or linguistic units in new combinations to communicate ideas

Question 4

Evolutionary adaptations

Answer 4

Are genetically transmitted traits that give their bearers an advantage—specifically, an adaptive trait helps individuals with that trait to stay alive long enough to reproduce and/or to have many offspring

Question 5

Joint attention

Answer 5

The awareness between two or more individuals that they are paying attention to the same thing
E.g. looking at an object

Question 6

Syntax

Answer 6

In a given language, the set of ‘rules’ that specify how meaningful linguistic elements are put together so that their meaning can be clearly understood

Question 7

Recursion

Answer 7

“Nesting” of related clauses or other linguistic units within each other -> linguistic objects of the same kind (for example, John’s brother) to be nested within other
linguistic objects of the same kind (the girl who lives next door to John’s brother)

Question 8

Universal grammar

Answer 8

An innately understood system of combining linguistic units that constrains the structural patterns of all human languages

Question 9

Affective pathway

Answer 9

Sound production (vocalizations) arising from states of arousal, emotion, and motivation. Affective sound production is innate, doesn’t require learning, and is generally inflexible

Question 10

Cognitive pathway

Answer 10

Controlled, highly malleable sound production that requires extensive auditory learning and practice. Includes human language sounds and some birdsong

Question 11

Homesign

Answer 11

A personal communication system initiated by a deaf person to communicate
through gestures with others who, like the deaf person, do not know sign language

Question 12

Linguistic code

Answer 12

The system of symbols and combinatory rules that are conventionally agreed upon by a community of language users as conveying specific meanings. Often, the linguistic code is not enough to fully convey the speaker’s intended meaning, so that hearers must augment the linguistic code with inferences based on the context

Question 13

Sensitive period

Answer 13

A window of time during which a specific type of learning (such as learning
language) takes place more easily than at any other time. à In general, young children who
are exposed to a foreign language learn it quickly and in a native-like manner, whereas most
adults who start learning a foreign language never achieve native fluency

Question 14

Williams syndrome (WMS)

Answer 14

A genetic syndrome of particular interest to language
researchers, in which language function appears to be relatively preserved despite more
serious impairments in other areas of cognitive function -> Together with certain facial
features and cardiovascular problems, it usually results in learning disability, with the overall
IQs of affected individuals typically falling in the 50–70 range

Question 15

Mental age

Answer 15

A person’s overall level of cognitive functioning, related to the chronological age of a person with typical development

Question 16

Specific language impairment (SLI)

Answer 16

A disorder in which children fail to develop language
normally even though there are no apparent neurological damage or disorders, no general cognitive impairment or delay, no hearing loss, and no abnormal home environment that would explain this failure -> To some researchers, SLI appears to offer evidence that certain aspects of language structure behave as modules that are independent of other cognitive functions and that have a direct

Question 17

Domain-specific perspective

Answer 17

In regard to specific language impairment, the view that the
linguistic deficit strikes at mechanisms that are particular to language, rather than
mechanisms that are shared with other cognitive abilities -> their general approach is to
say that SLI is due to a genetically based disruption in the process of learning language structure. The end result is a “broken” grammar, or being stuck at a stage of arrested
development in the learning of complex language structure. In short, they take a domain-specific perspective on SLI

Question 18

Domain-general perspective

Answer 18

In regard to specific language impairment, the view that the
linguistic deficit is only one effect of more general cognitive problems that also affect non-linguistic processes -> Some researchers have argued that the non-linguistic impairments
are a clue that the underlying problem isn’t specifically linguistic after all. Instead, they
argue for a domain-general perspective

Question 19

Cultural transmission view of language change

Answer 19

The notion that languages change over time
to adapt to the human mind, with all the constraints, limitations, and abilities that human minds bring to the task of learning or using language. This view stands in contrast to the nativist view, which holds that the human mind has changed over time because it has
become adapted for the requirements of language.”