LANGUAGE ACQUISITION.   Term Paper ID:30238 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Examines differing concepts of the rationalist and the empiricist theorists on how language is acquired.... More...

12 Pages / 2700 Words 11 sources, 37 Citations, APA Format $96.00 Return to List of Papers

Paper Abstract: Examines differing concepts of the rationalist and the empiricist theorists on how language is acquired. Compares the two approaches as applied to children's first language acquisition. The minds of young children. Structure-oriented & process-oriented groups. Environmental factors. Social interaction vs. cognitive theories. Semantic learning characteristics. Current research. Paper Introduction: Explaining the Mystery of Language Acquisition The fierce debate between the rationalist and the empiricist theorists on the issue of language acquisition has captured the imagination of the linguistic world for decades. Even though each group has produced results that contribute to the research on language acquisition, the complete process of language acquisition still remains a mystery. While the rationalists’ concept of specific language mechanisms in the brain has prevailed for many years, new research by connectionist theorists has tilted the balance towards the empiricists’ approach. In this paper, the two competing approaches will be examined and compared in detail. Their application in children’s discourse will be explored to assess their validity. Finally, the work Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. each group has producedresults that contribute to the research on new research by connectionist theorists hastilted the balance validity Finally the work by the connectionisttheorists and in first languageacquisition First promulgated by Noam Chomsky linguistic knowledge can children possibly overcome thecomplexities of language makes it difficult for children toacquire language solely from children isanalogized to a black box his subsequent work his version an universal grammar With exposure to specificlinguistic environments all theories lies in the rationalists' belief thatchildren become a plant children are programmed toacquire language However groups The first group of theoristsfocuses Golinkoff p Therefore they areinterested in how the children the process-oriented theorists concur with the children's linguistic knowledge for granted theprocess-oriented theorists want childrenmaster in order to acquire language For example Gleitman toacknowledge the component of development thelanguage acquisition process In this model children are presented asunindividuated in determining the outcome in the languageacquisition process the outsideworld children develop their language capacities Unlike the on howthe children acquire language from versuscognitive theories In the first school andgrammatical rules In time with consistent exposure and corrections ofungrammatical Hirsh-Pasek Golinkoff pp On the other hand the cognitive theorists language Instead they can employ theirgeneral cognitive skills contributes to the language acquisition Slobin highlights the Operating Principles counting their speech data childrencan amass their research take for granted the linguistic knowledge with the environment Although they claim that there is adirect with the outside-in approach isencapsulated in Chomsky's poverty-of-the examinations of the linguistic stimuli prove that the on children's use of language have illuminated the underlyingprocesses of low rates of overgeneralization and bestby providing them with concrete contexts and surface meanings In By thetime they are able to empiricists are unable to establish stages of children'sdevelopment in involved in figuring out the meaningsof words correctly them Inorder to respond appropriately in spontaneous This innate linguistic capacityallows them to interpret acquisition Thestudy by Weker Lloyd Cohen and Casasola on month-old to learn words corresponding to absent object such as shape color orsize Furthermore once children determining meanings and sentence structures fromvarious sentences Li Outline input Apparently both children and adults share children's acquisition of syntax and semanticssupport of alanguage-specific domain within the brain sounds plausible cognitive learning empiricists fail toilluminate the originating processes of supports the rationalists' position thatlanguage acquisition that her cognitive ability played mechanisms in language acquisition The research onAntony provides taught deliberately he would notbe able to grasp cognitiveability also prevented him from with other cognitive abilities Even though these individualsperformed of language-specificmechanisms Curtiss pp However the connection with her general cognitivelevel in other syntax and complex semantics in Antony's language cannot the mystery of children's ability to acquirelanguage the collection of computerized archives of spoken and writtenlanguage from ability is shaped by experience rather than to environmental input Bower p The be further investigated by learning about dismiss the power of the environment as asignificant linguistic that the search for the theorists seek to do is tounderstand language-specific mechanisms within children's brains They to discoverthe extent of the linguistic knowledge and chart remain to be explored For example the separation betweenthe mechanisms of creolization of languages shouldbe further investigated to that new studies will enlighten theresearchers about the incredible capacity Language and problems of knowledge The Managua pp N A Academic Press Hirsh-Pasek K Golinkoff R Language Development Online March Available http amma cogstud cornell index html Li C March Outline day Introduction to acquisition Language Development Online March Available http amma cogstud on the issue of language acquisition has concept of specific language mechanisms in the will be examined andcompared in detail Their application in language acquisition will be discussed Comparing rationalist the function of language acquisition In thismodel the children already thistheoretical approach The existence of abstract language concepts acquire languagewithout a pre-programmed language system within their brains do not derive from theinteraction with the environment is presented Before their interaction language in Hirsh-Pasek Golinkoff pp Therefore what fundamentally differentiates the his idea about language acquisition p The rationalist type theorists are language acquisition The structure-oriented theoriesare based on the the environment is a catalyst that can elicit or mechanisms usedin the process of language acquisition Unlike Golinkoff p Researchers who adhere to this perspective delveinto the basic language Hirsh-Pasek Golinkoff p However the level of the adult Furthermore thisapproach undermines the active knowledge and their environmental input However the children's interaction group of theories basically attribute first language acquisition to theenvironment childrenpossess significant linguistic knowledge prior to their further divided into two different schools in theirperception of how social interactionsprovide children with a variety of scripts and routines However the social interactionapproach does not provide Golinkoff pp According to these theorists children do not need to acquire language Hirsh-Pasek Golinkoff pp In his examination on patterns in various words or an adequateexplanation of the process of language acquisition the pre-existence of the children'sseemingly innate language abilities Furthermore these of abstract concepts that are not present in theenvironment Hirsh-Pasek them withadequate language training Therefore the interaction with Analysis of theories in children's acquisition percent of the responses wereincorrect from overgeneralization Marcus cases Marcus in Li Outline Day Empiricists are able to speak they are able to break downsyntactic structures This evidence reaffirmsthe position of theories in children's acquisition of words withintheir individual contexts Therefore the array of words and able to respond spontaneously and creatively children's early semantic learning also Li Outline Day Even when the objects rules Children tend to regard all new terms to label for the same object Inaddition the offer astrong suggestion of an addition they utilize the process of categorization shows that there has to be an alternative it in their studies Althoughtheir theories Studies on special cases like Genie and wasdiscovered matched the processes of language development of an extremely low I Q but possessedimpressive unable to utilize usefully the input from interactions with others and acquire hislinguistic knowledge conversation Curtiss pp Essentially the research on these special studies provide a strongsupport for to both language and nonlanguageareas For example Genie's strongest non-languagedevelopment such as simple semantics the above discussion appears to offer the rationalists' researchers have created computernetworks that are able to connectionist systems and babies According to these scientists were trained to breakdown units of speech thus Instead of attributing complete linguistic knowledge to thechildren's innate children's capacity to learn from the environment Bower without fully exploring the roleof the environment and experience Seidenberg therationalists' failure to explain how children's language evolves to becomethe to note is that connectionist theorists do notcompletely not believe that the black boxcontains language acquisition there are other understand the authentic relationship betweenthe two recent findings the rationalists'analysis seems to be an ReferencesBower B May Everybody's talkin' Language's great innate debate S Developmental dissociations of language MIT Press Li C March Outline March Available http amma cogstud part day index html Li C applying probabilistic constraints Science Slobin D I Cross-linguistic evidence Explaining the Mystery of Language language acquisition thecomplete process of language towards the empiricists' approach In this the implications on the future of the rationalist or the inside-out family of acquisition Hirsh-Pasek Golinkoff p Therefore the environment the environment Thus according to therationalist type called the Language Acquisition Device LAD This box of how childrenutilize their linguistic knowledge children need to do is to set the switches possess the complete potential to develop language depending on their environment they will eitherexcel in their language their research on the substantiation of universal linguisticprinciples For example manifest their linguistic knowledge Thesetheorists do not explore the fact thatlanguage acquisition stems from children's innate linguistic knowledge they to know how children apply their found thatchildren should know how to parse The rationalist theorists do notacknowledge the obvious reality that children's beings whose language abilities are for every child Hirsh-Pasek Golinkoff pp The empiricist advocates ofrationalist type theories the their interaction with the environment the empiricists propose thatchildren's social interactions constitute the key speech children will become increasingly proficient Theirinstinctive desire for socialization claim that the children'scognitive processing abilities to figure out grammar For example cognitiveskills such OPs that enable children topick up linguistic knowledge For pool of linguistic knowledge Slobin p Both already possessed bythe subjects in their ability to perform language-learning correspondence between the children's relationship with theirenvironment and their stimulus argument inHirsh-Pasek Golinkoff pp With regards to language thechildren's children'sbasic cognitive skills are not language acquisition In a study overregularization inother studies testify to the inbuilt linguistic capacities of reality children are able to grasp abstract concepts of language speak young children demonstrate a tremendousunderstanding of abstract linguistic principles which the latter does not possess linguistic knowledge aboutstructure children have to be able to engage in linguisticprocesses conversations childrencannot adhere to rigid scripts they have memorized by the meanings of words correctly and infantsdemonstrates that they are able to grasp relationships between words objects Tomasello Strosberg Akhtar in Li Outline Day learn a label for a particular object Day These features of children's semantic learning process demonstrate theincredible similar traits in their acquisition of newwords the case of the rationalists Essentially the fact that childrenare On the otherhand the empiricists often take for language acquisition Analysis of special cases occurs through language-specific mechanisms In spiteof her little part in enabling her toacquire language an excellent example that defies every aspect of theempiricists' models corrections or new ideas easily In addition he using mental skills to figure out thecomplexity of sentences Nonetheless poorly in nonlanguage areas they matched their peers research on Genie and Antony shows areas Curtiss p Therefore there may beaspects of language beadequately explained by the empiricists' model Curtiss p Critical current research in recent years adults and children show that there are plenty the UG intheir minds In connectionist theorists challenge Chomsky's innate model byattempting to find out theinteraction between the children and input for language acquisition The innateness answer to the mystery of languageacquisition is how the children reach grammatical milestones and track thestages just do not considerthese innate language mechanisms to be the its development Furthermore apart from the challenges that govern language and nonlanguage areas needs explore this creative construction of of children to acquire language This knowledge might be lectures Cambridge The MIT Press Cook V J Chomsky's universal M The origins of grammar Evidence edu spring part day index html Li C March Outline of semantics Language Development Online cornell edu spring part day index html Seidenberg M S captured the imaginationof the linguistic world for decades Even though brain hasprevailed for many years children's discourse will beexplored to assess their type and empiricist type theories possess tremendous linguistic knowledge Onlywith innate that areabsent from the surface of sentences Chomsky pp In Chomsky's original conception the mind of In Chomsky's Principles-and-Parameters Theory and with the environment children possess rationalist typetheories from the empiricist Like a seed that is meant to split between the structure-oriented and the process-oriented assumption that the children possess tremendous linguisticknowledge Hirsh-Pasek suppressthe language potential Hirsh-Pasek Golinkoff pp While the structure-orientedtheorists who take the specific grammatical rules and linguistic principles the rationalist type theories suffer from their failure participation of the children in with the environment should beconsidered to be crucial Through their interaction and experiences with experiences withtheir environment Therefore the empiricists focus their research children acquire language social interaction for them toacquire an understanding of the relationships between sentences adequate insight into the processes involved infirst language acquisition to possesslinguistic knowledge to acquire how the children's interaction with thelinguistic environment sentences p By gathering categorizing and In most of the studies the theorists tend tooversimplify the relationship between language acquisition and theinteraction Golinkoff pp Ultimately the fundamental problem the environmentcannot account for the children's language skills Various researchers'detailed of syntax and morphology Studies Pinker et al in OutlineDay The such as Slobin claim that children acquire syntax units and phonological units from a stream of utterances of the rationalists in their conception of children's innateUG Furthermore semantics Because of the complex thinking meaningschildren confront in their daily interactions will be baffling to shows that theypossess an internal linguistic mapping confirmthe validity of the rationalists' concept of language are not present researchers found that month-old children were able represent awhole object rather than one aspect of an interaction between syntactic and semantic bootstrappingassists children in internal linguistic makeup that predetermines thechildren's receptivity towards environmental language in organizing new words This discussion on the source of linguisticinput Therefore the rationalists' assertion of the existence research shows important relationships between language acquisitionand social interaction or Antony highlighted inCurtiss' article certainly children Unlike the empiricists' cognitive model Genie's development stronglysuggests linguistic knowledge further supports the significance oflanguage-specific theenvironment Therefore even if he were in that fashion Furthermore his limited cases indicatesconvincingly that there is little relationship between one's languageability the rationalists' position of the presence area of language was lexicalsemantics Her ability may suggest a Nonetheless the presence of theacquisition of analysisas the complete solution to figure out words in incomplete sentences Furthermore this ability indicates that the children'slanguage acquisition indicating that children acquire language byexposure capacities connectionist theorists believe that thisassumption needs to p In addition one should not p Thus the connectionists' challenge of the rationalists' positionindicates adult language What the connectionist reject the rationalists' conception of an innate the perfect linguistic language therefore they want phenomena related to languageacquisition that areas In addition the process oversimplified perspective that requires greaterexploration One day it is hoped continues to make noise Science News Chomsky N and cognition In Exceptional language and linguistics day Conclusions on phonology literacy and morphology cornell edu spring part day March Outline day Acquisition of the lexicon for the language-making capacity Acquisition The fierce debate between the rationalist and the empiricisttheorists acquisition still remains a mystery While therationalists' paper the two competing approaches linguistic research in thearea of first theories establishes the presence of unique brainmechanisms dedicated to does not play a prominent role in theorists children will not be able to contains all linguistic principles that to acquire language in their specificenvironments oncertain parameters that correspond to their Chomsky'sanalogy of children to a seed captures ability or fail to tap into their languagepotential in Cook they explore the ways in which these principlesare incorporated in children's innate linguistic knowledge Inthis perspective emphasize the need to discover the underlying language innatelinguistic abilities in the process of language acquisition Hirsh-Pasek sentences and understand sentencestructures in order to acquire language abilities evolveover time before they reach seemingly pre-determinedby their innate linguistic type theories otherwise known as the outside-in empiricists do not believe that the Hirsh-Pasek Golinkoff p Empiricists are to language acquisition Hirsh-Pasek Golinkoff p Essentially serves as a motivating force forchildren to practice their utterances play the most significant role indetermining their language development Hirsh-Pasek as hypothesis induction discovery of patterns can enablechildren example children learn to distinguishbetween familiar and unfamiliar of these empiricist approaches fail to provide tasks Therefore they cannot explain language abilities these theorists cannot accountfor the children's mastery experiences with the environment do not provide equivalent to linguistic knowledge Hirsh-Pasek Golinkoff pp that tested subjects onirregular and regular verb tenses only children thatenable them to respond correctly in most from a very youngage Even before infants such as differentiatingbetween parts of speech and sentence order and transformations-components of syntax Li Outline Day Analysis to construct an accurate interpretation of various rote The fact thatthey are respondappropriately Li Outline Day The characteristics of andobjects within minutes of introduction to them in Intheir semantic learning process children appear to abide by fundamentallinguistic itis difficult for them to accept another power of their linguistic abilities Furthermore they They are not restricted to learning concrete concepts In able to acquire language quickly without significant input from theenvironment granted the children's linguisticknowledge without attempting to account for like Genie within the context of these cognitive problems Genie's language performance after she Curtiss p The case study of Antony who had of language acquisition First his low-functioningability meant that he was could notgenuinely benefit from social he was able to use syntacticallycomplex sentences in normal in theirlinguistic abilities Therefore these case that there aregeneral cognitive skills that may apply development that can be associated with unresolved questions about language acquisition While has begun to challenge thesupremacy of this position Connectionist of statisticalregularities that can be learned by other research studies young infants more about the learning mechanisms of youngchildren the environment It is important tounderstand the oflanguage acquisition cannot be established far from over One of the unanswered issues is of development of language Bower p What is important primary force in languageacquisition The connectionist theorists do posed by this basic model offirst to bedetermined in order to better language Considering these factors and the used effectively to help children with speechdifficulties grammar An introduction Oxford Blackwell Curtiss from early language comprehension Cambridge The day Conclusions on acquisition of syntax Language Development Online March Available http amma cogstud cornell edu spring March Language acquisition and use Learning and each group has producedresults that contribute to the research on new research by connectionist theorists hastilted the balance validity Finally the work by the connectionisttheorists and in first languageacquisition First promulgated by Noam Chomsky linguistic knowledge can children possibly overcome thecomplexities of language makes it difficult for children toacquire language solely from children isanalogized to a black box his subsequent work his version an universal grammar With exposure to specificlinguistic environments all theories lies in the rationalists' belief thatchildren become a plant children are programmed toacquire language However groups The first group of theoristsfocuses Golinkoff p Therefore they areinterested in how the children the process-oriented theorists concur with the children's linguistic knowledge for granted theprocess-oriented theorists want childrenmaster in order to acquire language For example Gleitman toacknowledge the component of development thelanguage acquisition process In this model children are presented asunindividuated in determining the outcome in the languageacquisition process the outsideworld children develop their language capacities Unlike the on howthe children acquire language from versuscognitive theories In the first school andgrammatical rules In time with consistent exposure and corrections ofungrammatical Hirsh-Pasek Golinkoff pp On the other hand the cognitive theorists language Instead they can employ theirgeneral cognitive skills contributes to the language acquisition Slobin highlights the Operating Principles counting their speech data childrencan amass their research take for granted the linguistic knowledge with the environment Although they claim that there is adirect with the outside-in approach isencapsulated in Chomsky's poverty-of-the examinations of the linguistic stimuli prove that the on children's use of language have illuminated the underlyingprocesses of low rates of overgeneralization and bestby providing them with concrete contexts and surface meanings In By thetime they are able to empiricists are unable to establish stages of children'sdevelopment in involved in figuring out the meaningsof words correctly them Inorder to respond appropriately in spontaneous This innate linguistic capacityallows them to interpret acquisition Thestudy by Weker Lloyd Cohen and Casasola on month-old to learn words corresponding to absent object such as shape color orsize Furthermore once children determining meanings and sentence structures fromvarious sentences Li Outline input Apparently both children and adults share children's acquisition of syntax and semanticssupport of alanguage-specific domain within the brain sounds plausible cognitive learning empiricists fail toilluminate the originating processes of supports the rationalists' position thatlanguage acquisition that her cognitive ability played mechanisms in language acquisition The research onAntony provides taught deliberately he would notbe able to grasp cognitiveability also prevented him from with other cognitive abilities Even though these individualsperformed of language-specificmechanisms Curtiss pp However the connection with her general cognitivelevel in other syntax and complex semantics in Antony's language cannot the mystery of children's ability to acquirelanguage the collection of computerized archives of spoken and writtenlanguage from ability is shaped by experience rather than to environmental input Bower p The be further investigated by learning about dismiss the power of the environment as asignificant linguistic that the search for the theorists seek to do is tounderstand language-specific mechanisms within children's brains They to discoverthe extent of the linguistic knowledge and chart remain to be explored For example the separation betweenthe mechanisms of creolization of languages shouldbe further investigated to that new studies will enlighten theresearchers about the incredible capacity Language and problems of knowledge The Managua pp N A Academic Press Hirsh-Pasek K Golinkoff R Language Development Online March Available http amma cogstud cornell index html Li C March Outline day Introduction to acquisition Language Development Online March Available http amma cogstud on the issue of language acquisition has concept of specific language mechanisms in the will be examined andcompared in detail Their application in language acquisition will be discussed Comparing rationalist the function of language acquisition In thismodel the children already thistheoretical approach The existence of abstract language concepts acquire languagewithout a pre-programmed language system within their brains do not derive from theinteraction with the environment is presented Before their interaction language in Hirsh-Pasek Golinkoff pp Therefore what fundamentally differentiates the his idea about language acquisition p The rationalist type theorists are language acquisition The structure-oriented theoriesare based on the the environment is a catalyst that can elicit or mechanisms usedin the process of language acquisition Unlike Golinkoff p Researchers who adhere to this perspective delveinto the basic language Hirsh-Pasek Golinkoff p However the level of the adult Furthermore thisapproach undermines the active knowledge and their environmental input However the children's interaction group of theories basically attribute first language acquisition to theenvironment childrenpossess significant linguistic knowledge prior to their further divided into two different schools in theirperception of how social interactionsprovide children with a variety of scripts and routines However the social interactionapproach does not provide Golinkoff pp According to these theorists children do not need to acquire language Hirsh-Pasek Golinkoff pp In his examination on patterns in various words or an adequateexplanation of the process of language acquisition the pre-existence of the children'sseemingly innate language abilities Furthermore these of abstract concepts that are not present in theenvironment Hirsh-Pasek them withadequate language training Therefore the interaction with Analysis of theories in children's acquisition percent of the responses wereincorrect from overgeneralization Marcus cases Marcus in Li Outline Day Empiricists are able to speak they are able to break downsyntactic structures This evidence reaffirmsthe position of theories in children's acquisition of words withintheir individual contexts Therefore the array of words and able to respond spontaneously and creatively children's early semantic learning also Li Outline Day Even when the objects rules Children tend to regard all new terms to label for the same object Inaddition the offer astrong suggestion of an addition they utilize the process of categorization shows that there has to be an alternative it in their studies Althoughtheir theories Studies on special cases like Genie and wasdiscovered matched the processes of language development of an extremely low I Q but possessedimpressive unable to utilize usefully the input from interactions with others and acquire hislinguistic knowledge conversation Curtiss pp Essentially the research on these special studies provide a strongsupport for to both language and nonlanguageareas For example Genie's strongest non-languagedevelopment such as simple semantics the above discussion appears to offer the rationalists' researchers have created computernetworks that are able to connectionist systems and babies According to these scientists were trained to breakdown units of speech thus Instead of attributing complete linguistic knowledge to thechildren's innate children's capacity to learn from the environment Bower without fully exploring the roleof the environment and experience Seidenberg therationalists' failure to explain how children's language evolves to becomethe to note is that connectionist theorists do notcompletely not believe that the black boxcontains language acquisition there are other understand the authentic relationship betweenthe two recent findings the rationalists'analysis seems to be an ReferencesBower B May Everybody's talkin' Language's great innate debate S Developmental dissociations of language MIT Press Li C March Outline March Available http amma cogstud part day index html Li C applying probabilistic constraints Science Slobin D I Cross-linguistic evidence If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.