Language Acquisition and Universal Grammar

Summary

In this episode of Ling Space, Moti Lieberman explores the theory of nativism in linguistics, suggesting that humans are biologically predisposed to learn language. Despite not being born with a specific language, babies universally progress through similar language acquisition stages, mastering it rapidly. This innate ability, known as Universal Grammar, is supported by evidence like consistent babbling patterns and the speed at which infants learn. Chomsky's theory is highlighted, emphasizing the brain's unique configuration for language.

Takeaways

• 👶 Babies are naturally equipped to learn language, suggesting that language acquisition is a biological trait.
• 🧠 The theory of nativism or generativism posits that humans are born with an innate ability to acquire and use language.
• 🌐 Despite the diversity of languages, all babies follow similar developmental stages when learning language.
• 🗣️ Early babbling among infants is not random and involves a preference for certain sounds across different languages.
• 👂 Even at 8 months, babies can differentiate between any pair of sounds used in any language.
• 📈 Babies acquire vocabulary at a rapid pace, with significant growth occurring between 18 months and 2.5 years.
• 🌟 Children's language development outpaces that of sophisticated computer models, indicating a specialized cognitive process.
• 🚫 Children rarely make certain grammatical mistakes, which suggests an inherent understanding of language structure.
• 🧑‍🎓 By 2.5 years old, children have a deep understanding of language rules, even though they may not grasp other complex tasks.
• 🌱 The concept of Universal Grammar (UG) by Noam Chomsky explains the underlying principles that govern all human languages.
• 🎥 The script is part of 'The Ling Space' series, which explores the science of language.

Q & A

What is the main idea presented in the Ling Space episode about babies and language?

The main idea is that the ability to learn and use language is biologically hardwired into the human brain, a concept known as nativism or generativism in linguistics.

Who is Moti Lieberman and what is his role in the Ling Space?

Moti Lieberman is the host of the Ling Space, where he discusses various topics related to language.

What does the term 'Universal Grammar' refer to in the context of the script?

Universal Grammar, or UG, refers to the set of fundamental principles of language that define what's possible and what's not in all human languages, as proposed by Noam Chomsky.

What evidence supports the idea that language acquisition is innate in babies?

Babies go through the same stages of development regardless of the language they are learning, and they master language much faster than can be explained by learning alone.

How do babies' early babbling patterns support the theory of nativism?

Babies' early babbling uses the same set of sounds across different languages, indicating an innate predisposition to language rather than learning it from their environment.

What is the significance of the study that examined babbling across 15 different languages?

The study showed that regardless of the language, babies prefer certain types of sounds, suggesting a universal pattern in language acquisition that supports the theory of innate language abilities.

At what age do most babies start getting their first words?

Most babies start getting their first words around 10-12 months old.

How fast do toddlers typically acquire new vocabulary after their first words?

After their first words, toddlers undergo a vocabulary spurt, picking up hundreds of words over the next few months.

What is the average rate at which a 2.5-year-old child learns new words?

The average rate at which a 2.5-year-old child learns new words is about 10 words a day.

Why do children make fewer mistakes in language acquisition compared to sophisticated computer models?

Children make fewer mistakes because they have an innate understanding of the abstract rule sets of language, which allows them to learn and apply language more effectively.

What does the script suggest about the linguistic abilities of a 2.5-year-old child?

The script suggests that by the age of 2.5, children have a deep understanding of language rules, including sound combinations, word order, question formation, and the use of modifiers.

Outlines

00:00

👶 Language Acquisition in Babies

The paragraph discusses the innate ability of babies to learn language, challenging the common notion that babies are not cognitive powerhouses. It introduces the concept of nativism or generativism, which suggests that humans are biologically predisposed to acquire language. Babies are not born with a specific language but with the capacity to understand the fundamental principles of language, known as Universal Grammar (UG). The paragraph presents evidence for this theory, including the consistent developmental stages babies go through regardless of the language they are exposed to, and their rapid language acquisition compared to other skills. It also highlights the universal patterns in babbling across different languages, indicating an innate predisposition to language learning.

05:01

🧠 The Biological Basis of Language Learning

This paragraph delves deeper into the biological basis of language learning, emphasizing that the process is not just about imitating sounds but involves a complex understanding of language structure. It points out that children make fewer mistakes in language acquisition than would be expected if they were learning purely through exposure. The paragraph also contrasts the ability of children to learn language with computer models' struggles to replicate language acquisition, suggesting that children have an innate blueprint for language in their brains. It concludes by emphasizing the remarkable linguistic knowledge of toddlers, such as understanding word order and question formation, which they acquire without explicit teaching, reinforcing the idea that language learning is an innate human ability.

Keywords

💡Biological hardwiring

Biological hardwiring refers to the idea that certain abilities or traits are encoded in an organism's genetic material and are therefore present from birth. In the context of the video, this concept is applied to the human ability to learn and use language, suggesting that the capacity for language is innate and not solely learned through environmental exposure. The video supports this by discussing how babies naturally acquire language without being explicitly taught its rules.

💡Nativism

Nativism, also known as generativism in linguistics, is the theory that the ability to acquire and use language is an innate faculty of the human mind. The video emphasizes this by stating that babies are not blank slates but come equipped with a predisposition to learn language, evidenced by their universal developmental stages and rapid language acquisition.

💡Universal Grammar (UG)

Universal Grammar is a concept introduced by Noam Chomsky, suggesting that all human languages share a common underlying structure or set of principles that are innate to humans. The video references UG to explain why children can learn any language they are exposed to and why there is a consistency in the errors they do not make in language acquisition.

💡Babbling

Babbling is the stage in infant development where babies produce random syllables and sounds. The video points out that despite being from different linguistic backgrounds, babies universally prefer certain sounds, like labial consonants, indicating an innate predisposition towards language learning.

💡Labial consonants

Labial consonants are speech sounds made with the lips, such as [p] and [b]. The video uses the preference of babies for these sounds in their babbling as evidence of biological hardwiring for language, as this preference is consistent across babies learning different languages.

💡Vocabulary spurt

A vocabulary spurt refers to the rapid increase in a child's word knowledge during certain developmental stages. The video highlights this phenomenon by noting that children around the age of 18 months to 2 years experience a significant acceleration in the number of words they learn and use.

💡Motherese

Motherese is a simplified, exaggerated form of speech often used by adults when talking to infants. The video mentions that regardless of whether babies hear motherese, they still follow the same developmental stages in language acquisition, suggesting that language learning is not solely dependent on the speech style of caregivers.

💡Language acquisition

Language acquisition is the process by which humans learn to understand and use language. The video discusses this process in the context of children acquiring language rapidly and efficiently, often making fewer mistakes than would be expected if they were learning purely through imitation or environmental exposure.

💡Stress system

The stress system in language refers to the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables that give rhythm to speech. The video recounts an experiment where computer models struggled to learn the English stress system, whereas young children easily master it, suggesting an innate ability to process language.

💡Generative capacity

Generative capacity is the ability to produce an infinite number of sentences despite a finite set of linguistic rules. The video implies that children's rapid language learning and their ability to create novel sentences are indicative of this capacity, which is a key aspect of the nativist theory of language.

💡Linguistic miracles

The term 'linguistic miracles' is used in the video to describe the remarkable ability of children to learn and produce complex language structures with ease. It emphasizes the idea that the process of language acquisition in children is so efficient and error-free that it seems miraculous, especially when compared to the struggles of computer models trying to simulate the same process.

Highlights

Babies are born with an innate ability to learn language, not as a cognitive powerhouse but as a natural instinct.

Language is biologically hardwired into the human brain, supporting the theory of nativism or generativism.

Babies are not born with any specific language but with the capacity to learn any language they are exposed to.

Noam Chomsky introduced the concept of Universal Grammar (UG), a set of principles that define the structure of all human languages.

Babies go through similar developmental stages regardless of the language they are learning.

Infants master language at an unusually fast pace, suggesting an inherent mechanism aiding their learning process.

Babbling in infants is not random; it uses a universal set of sounds across different languages.

A study found that babies prefer certain sounds like labial consonants and low vowels, irrespective of the language they will speak.

By 8 months, babies can differentiate between any pair of sounds used in any language.

The rate and stages at which babies acquire words are consistent across different languages.

By 10-12 months, babies start getting their first words, and by 18 months, they have about 50 words.

Between 18 to 24 months, babies experience a vocabulary spurt, acquiring hundreds of words.

The average 2.5-year-old learns new words at a rate of about 10 per day, outpacing language courses.

Children make fewer mistakes in language acquisition than would be expected if they were learning from scratch.

Computer models struggle to approximate aspects of language like the English stress system, while children master it easily.

By 2.5 years old, children have a deep understanding of language structure, including sound combinations, word order, and question formation.

The rapid language acquisition in children suggests they are born with abstract rule sets guiding language learning.

The consistency in language learning stages across different languages points to a biological configuration in the human brain for language.

Transcripts

So let’s talk about babies. Very cute, right? It’s hard to look at a baby smiling at you

and not feel good. But even the most devoted parents don’t generally think of their baby

as a cognitive powerhouse. But babies figure out how language works like little

geniuses. They’re just born that way. I’m Moti Lieberman, and this is the Ling Space.

Language is special. People can do a lot of amazing things - ride a unicycle, learn long

division, walk on the moon. But maybe the most

amazing thing that human beings do is language. Don’t believe me? Just wait.

So the most important idea for today’s episode is the theory that the ability to learn and

use language is biologically hardwired into the human brain.

Babies are made to pick up the language that they hear around them, just sponging up those glorious sounds and structures

and turning them into their mother tongues. The theory that language is something innate,

something you’re born with, is known in linguistics as nativism or generativism,

and it’s got a lot of really good evidence behind it.

Before we start getting into what this means, though, let’s be perfectly clear about what

it doesn’t. It doesn’t mean that we’re born with any particular language – no baby springs

into the world with the ability to speak perfect English or German or Japanese. We don’t

come equipped with the rules or sounds or vocabulary of any language - that’s all stuff we have to learn.

What babies don’t need to figure out is how language can work – what kinds of words

we can build, what types of sentences we can make, what sorts of interpretations we’re

allowed. These fundamental principles of language define what’s possible and what’s not,

and they’re the same for everybody. Anything that doesn’t stick to the rules will never

come up in any human language, ever. Given how many

different languages there are, it might seem unlikely that there's one set of principles that can rule

them all. But the idea comes to us from none less than the father of modern linguistics,

Noam Chomsky. He called it: Universal Grammar, or UG.

There are a lot of arguments to back up the nativist position, but for today, we’re just

going to focus on two of them. So the first is that babies go through the same stages in

development no matter what language they’re learning. The second is that infants master

language way faster than they should if they’re just little blank slate know-nothing babies.

To be that fast, there’s got to be something there to help them along.

Let’s start off with babbling, those adorable random syllables that little babies make. Except

they’re not really random. No matter what language they’re learning, this early babbling

uses the same set of sounds. One study examined the early babbling of babies from 15 different

languages, including English, Thai, Japanese, Arabic, Hindi, and Mayan – languages where

all they have in common is that they’re spoken by people. The study found that these

babies all prefer labial consonants, or sounds made with the lips, more than other consonants;

stop consonants like [p] and [b], where the air flow through the mouth is totally blocked,

over others; and vowels made low in the mouth like [æ] and [ɑ] over those that are made

higher up, like [i] and [u].

And all of that is independent of how often - or even whether

at all - these languages make use of these sounds! Babbling Hindi-learning babies make

the same amounts of the same sounds that Arabic-learning babies do.

In fact, your average 8-month-old baby can differentiate between any pair of sounds used

in any language in the world. Depending on your language, you might not be able to tell

the difference between [t̪ɑk] and [ʈɑk], or between [lɑk] and [ɹɑk],

but your baby can. It makes sense: a baby needs to be prepared

to pick up any language, so they better come equipped to hear anything that could be relevant.

It’s not just the way they deal with sounds that’s the same for all infants. They all

pick up words at the same approximate rate and stages, too, and that's regardless of how the language

they’re learning works. It doesn’t matter whether or not the babies hear motherese, that

way of speaking slow and using easy words and intonation, like “What a cute baby!

Where’s the kitty, baby?”

It doesn’t matter if the language has tone, like Mandarin, or doesn’t, like English,

or whether the verb comes at the beginning or end of the sentence.

In fact, all babies, in whatever language, will start getting their first words around

10-12 months old. By 18 months, they’ve got about 50 words. And then they undergo

a crazy vocabulary spurt, picking up hundreds of words over the next few months, so that

by around 2, they’ll have about 500. And then they start going even faster! Your average

2 and a half year old is glomming up new words at the rate of about 10 a day. That’s faster than

your average 3-credit undergraduate language course.

So the ways that kids make sounds, the way they pick up words, it’s all the same worldwide,

in Chicago or Tokyo or Cairo or Bangkok. And since the languages they’re learning are

all so different, this tells us something fundamental about the human brain. How babies

learn language is biological – our brains are configured for language.

If you’re still not convinced, how about this: there’s been a lot of research done

on other language acquisition theories, and the results there are just as clear.

Maybe you think that we can pick up language quicker than other behavioral skills, that

there’s nothing special about it except how fast we do it. Okay. First, of course

kids make mistakes - calling a deer “horsie” the first time they see one, saying “I eated”

instead of “I ate” - but there’s all sorts of mistakes that kids don’t make that it

seems like they should. For example, when asking a question, “Teddy is happy” can

turn into “Is Teddy happy?”, but “Teddy dressed up as Alice” can never turn into “Dressed

Teddy up as Alice?”. Kids never make mistakes like that.

Second, if language was just something you picked up without having a blueprint in your

brain, it should be possible to approximate some part of it with computer modeling. That’s

exactly what one linguist tried to do in 2011. She designed twenty different computer models

of how the English stress system could be acquired – so what syllables should be pronounced

more strongly than others, and what factors matter for deciding that. And the researcher

didn’t only run the experiment only once – she did it a thousand times for each model, with

different versions paying attention to different factors. So how many of these models nailed

English? Three. Three out of twenty thousand total trials.

And yet, basically every English speaking child gets this right. That strongly

suggests there’s something very special going on with language.

But it’s not just that all babies do the same things that makes us think that language

is innate, that it’s something we’re born with. It’s that kids get so good at language

so quickly. Let’s consider what your average 2 and a half year old knows about language.

They know what sound combinations are possible for their language, so they know what a possible

word sounds like. They know the word order for their language, so a Turkish kid will

know that the verb comes after the object, but a French kid will know it’s the other

way around. They know how to make questions, and what sorts of questions it's grammatically

okay to ask. They know how to use modifiers like adjectives or adverbs. Now, think about

what your average toddler knows about, like, everything else. They know a whole lot about how language

works, at an age where they can’t add 2 + 2. Or tie their shoes. Or reliably use a bathroom.

So why are kids so good? Why can they learn so fast, make so few mistakes, and succeed

where sophisticated computer models fail? How do they know all of this despite not having

it explicitly taught to them? It’s because they already know how language can work. Deep

in their brains, in their genes, they have the abstract rule sets that tell them what’s possible

and what’s not. All babies start the same way, with the same linguistic abilities. Then,

they apply the data they hear to the Universal Grammar in their heads, and they make little

linguistic miracles happen. Every single day.

So we’ve reached the end of the Ling Space for this week. We’ll be coming back to talk

more about child language in the future, but if you were paying attention this time, you

learned that nativist or generativist ideas mean that we think language is innate, but

not that any particular language is; that babies go through

the same stages of development regardless of what language they’re learning; and that

kids know a whole lot about how language works at a really early age.

The Ling Space is written and produced by me, Moti Lieberman. It’s directed by Adèle-Élise

Prévost, our production assistant is Georges Coulombe, and our music and sound design is by

Shane Turner. Our educational consultants are Level-Up Learning Solutions, and our graphics

team is atelierMuse. We’re down in the comments below, or you can bring the discussion over

to our website, where we have some extra material on this topic. Check us out on Twitter and

Facebook, and if you want to keep expanding your own personal Ling Space, please subscribe.

And we’ll see you next Wednesday. Mata raishuu!