PSYC 2450 Chapter Notes - Chapter 12: Noam Chomsky, Oneword, Constant Contact

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 2450
• Professor: Karl Hennig

Document Summary

Humans are the only animals that have language a small number of individually meaningless symbols (sounds, letters, and gestures) that can be combined according to agreed-on rules to produce an infinite number of messages. Communication, in contrast, is the process by which one organism transmits information to and influences another. Vocables - unique patterns of sound that a prelinguistic infant uses to represent object, actions, or events. Linguistic universals an aspect of language development that all children share, such as babbling at 4 to 6 months, having the first word by 12 to 16 months. Pidgins structurally simple communication systems that arise when people who share no common language come into constant contact. Creoles languages that develop when pidgins are transformed into grammatically complex true" languages. Learning theorists emphasize imitation and reinforcement in their theories of language learning. Parents selectively reinforce grammatical speech, and children acquire much of their language knowledge by carefully listening to and imitating language.