© Ane Venter
Chapter 8
Language and Cognition
1
,© Ane Venter
Language: Turning Thoughts into Words
1. The structure of language
2. Milestones in the process of language development
3. Theories of language acquisition
4. Culture, language, and thought
5. Learning more than 1 language: Bilingualism
6. Does learning 2 languages in childhood slow down language development?
7. Can animals develop language
→ Language follows a hierarchal structure
- - - - - Language Structure - - - - -
Medium of transmission Grammar Semantics (meaning)
Phonetics Phonology Morphology Syntax Discourse Lexicon
1. The Structure of Language
→ Language has the following characteristics:
○ Highly symbolic
System of signs and purposeful symbols that represent something
○ Infinitely generative
Can be rearranged and combined limitlessly to communicate ideas
○ Rule governed
Enables people to produce and interpret meaning universally
○ Send and receive information
Allows for communication and socialisation
Phonetics and Phonology
→ Phonetics: the study of sounds in human speech
○ Looks at physical production, sound transmission, and perception of the sound of speech
→ Phonology: the methodological organisation of sounds in languages
○ Describes the way sound functions within a given language to translate meaning
→ Unit of speech = “phone”
○ Can be seen as the smallest contrastive linguistic unit, used to bring about a change of meaning
→ Set of phones / sound features = “phonemes”
→ Phonological differences between languages play important role in learning to read and write different
languages
○ Esp. when certain phonemes are specific to a particular language
2
, © Ane Venter
→ English: “th” not common in other languages
→ Afrikaans: strong guttural and rasping “g” and “r”
→ isiZulu and Khoisan languages: up to 48 different click sounds – other speakers might find difficult
Grammar
→ Morphology: looks at the systems of meaningful forms in words
○ Identification, analysis, and description of the language system’s morphemes
○ Morphemes: smallest meaningful units of language that includes root words, prefixes, and suffixes
Made up of phonemes
→ Syntax: the order in which words are put together to form a sentence
○ Sentences are combined using specific or fixed rules
Sentence always has a subject and predicate
Meaning
→ Also known as semantics
→ Looks at the way in which words and their fundamental
meanings relate to each other
→ Lexicon:
○ A language’s word stock (language’s dictionary)
→ Discourse:
○ Signifies written and spoken communication
→ Phonology, morphology, and syntax are important to derive a word’s meaning
○ Meaning is also created in a context understood by both speaker and hearer
→ Pragmatics:
○ The study of how people use language in different contexts
○ Includes sociolinguistics (such as gestures and vocal inflections)
○ We modify our use of language based on the person we are talking to
2. Milestones in the Process of Language Development
→ Different stages of speech:
Stage Description
→ Attending to talking, hearing changes in sound, rhythm, and tone
Precursors of speech
→ Screams and cries still convey the emotion of the baby (therefore seen as
New-borns the early stages of language development)
→ Characterised by cooing and babbling
Vocalisation
○ Babbling: production of a wide variety of sounds that correspond to
3-4 months of age to
phonemes, and eventually, many repetitive consonant-vowel
9-12 months
combinations (such as “lalalalalalalalalal”)
3
Chapter 8
Language and Cognition
1
,© Ane Venter
Language: Turning Thoughts into Words
1. The structure of language
2. Milestones in the process of language development
3. Theories of language acquisition
4. Culture, language, and thought
5. Learning more than 1 language: Bilingualism
6. Does learning 2 languages in childhood slow down language development?
7. Can animals develop language
→ Language follows a hierarchal structure
- - - - - Language Structure - - - - -
Medium of transmission Grammar Semantics (meaning)
Phonetics Phonology Morphology Syntax Discourse Lexicon
1. The Structure of Language
→ Language has the following characteristics:
○ Highly symbolic
System of signs and purposeful symbols that represent something
○ Infinitely generative
Can be rearranged and combined limitlessly to communicate ideas
○ Rule governed
Enables people to produce and interpret meaning universally
○ Send and receive information
Allows for communication and socialisation
Phonetics and Phonology
→ Phonetics: the study of sounds in human speech
○ Looks at physical production, sound transmission, and perception of the sound of speech
→ Phonology: the methodological organisation of sounds in languages
○ Describes the way sound functions within a given language to translate meaning
→ Unit of speech = “phone”
○ Can be seen as the smallest contrastive linguistic unit, used to bring about a change of meaning
→ Set of phones / sound features = “phonemes”
→ Phonological differences between languages play important role in learning to read and write different
languages
○ Esp. when certain phonemes are specific to a particular language
2
, © Ane Venter
→ English: “th” not common in other languages
→ Afrikaans: strong guttural and rasping “g” and “r”
→ isiZulu and Khoisan languages: up to 48 different click sounds – other speakers might find difficult
Grammar
→ Morphology: looks at the systems of meaningful forms in words
○ Identification, analysis, and description of the language system’s morphemes
○ Morphemes: smallest meaningful units of language that includes root words, prefixes, and suffixes
Made up of phonemes
→ Syntax: the order in which words are put together to form a sentence
○ Sentences are combined using specific or fixed rules
Sentence always has a subject and predicate
Meaning
→ Also known as semantics
→ Looks at the way in which words and their fundamental
meanings relate to each other
→ Lexicon:
○ A language’s word stock (language’s dictionary)
→ Discourse:
○ Signifies written and spoken communication
→ Phonology, morphology, and syntax are important to derive a word’s meaning
○ Meaning is also created in a context understood by both speaker and hearer
→ Pragmatics:
○ The study of how people use language in different contexts
○ Includes sociolinguistics (such as gestures and vocal inflections)
○ We modify our use of language based on the person we are talking to
2. Milestones in the Process of Language Development
→ Different stages of speech:
Stage Description
→ Attending to talking, hearing changes in sound, rhythm, and tone
Precursors of speech
→ Screams and cries still convey the emotion of the baby (therefore seen as
New-borns the early stages of language development)
→ Characterised by cooing and babbling
Vocalisation
○ Babbling: production of a wide variety of sounds that correspond to
3-4 months of age to
phonemes, and eventually, many repetitive consonant-vowel
9-12 months
combinations (such as “lalalalalalalalalal”)
3
