LING 1P92 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Heritability, Specific Language Impairment, Sibilant
Document Summary
Mind has preexisting structure ( handwiring") that organizes & interprets language input. Not acquired by using general cognitive structu. Emphasis on what child is exposed to. Mind at birth is a blank slate". Some innate characteristics of the mind ( general"- not special) But bigger factor in language development is type of input a child receives. Some innate characteristics that help with language acquisition. Biggest factor is the time & amount of language input that children receive around them. Quality of language input is insufficient for learning. Innate: every child is biologically-prepared to learn language. Children are born with lad (language acquisition device) Allows child to listen to language, make hypotheses about how it works & derive rules. Doesn"t require explicit teaching, just a bit of exposure. Parents don"t reinforce kids on the correct grammar. Calling a big dog a little dog. They won"t correct that the dog is small they say that a big dog .
