PSYC 1100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Nicaraguan Sign Language, Language Acquisition Device, Guacamole

• School: UConn
• Department: Psychological Sciences
• Course: PSYC 1100
• Professor: Sumarga Suanda

Document Summary

Start with viral video of babies talking to each other and seeming to have a conversation. Learn how to take turns talking, use gestures, their tones change. Understand that these babies don"t have ability to form real sentences. Pragmatics: study of how language is used and understood in context. Example: if you could pass the guacamole, that would be awesome. Think of the literal meaning of this sentence is very strange. Literal meaning: a world in which you are capable of moving the guacamole over to me would be heavenly. There is an additional level of computation in our language, not only syntax/grammar, but using understanding the conventions of how words are used. Darwin makes the point that children have instinctive tendency to speak, it doesn"t need to be taught in the same way that writing does. Nativist theory: language development is best explained as an innate, biological capacity. Language acquisition device : a collection of processes that facilitate language.