23rd November 2023

Language Development

‘Language is a set of arbitrary symbols which, taken together, makes it possible for a creature with limited power of discrimination and a limited memory to transmit and understand an infinite variety of messages.’ – Roger Brown

Language has a set of rules in grammar, which consists of phonology, semantics and syntax.

• Phonology – A language’s sound system. Basic sounds are called phones (or phonetic segments). English has 46 phones (Solso, 1995).
• Semantics – The meaning of language – Morphemes are a language’s basic units of meaning and consist mainly of words. Other morphemes are prefixes (such as ‘pre’ and ‘re’) and suffixes (word endings such as ‘s’ to make it plural).
• Syntax – Combining words into phrases and sentences. One example of syntax is word order, which is crucial for understanding language development.

Stages in language development

It is generally agreed that language development follows a universal timetable, irrespective of the culture or languages spoken. All children pass through these stages at around the same ages. But language is slower to develop in boys, in twins, in large families, in those from lower social classes and in those that lack speech stimulation, e.g. deaf and neglected children.

Prelinguistic stage (0-12 months)

In their first year, babies are prelinguistic. They make various sounds with their vocal organs (including crying) long before they can talk. By 1 month, babies are able to distinguish between phonemes (such as ‘ba’ and ‘pa’) and other sounds even though these may be acoustically almost identical. This perceptual ability (categorical speech perception) is probably innate. By six weeks, the child starts cooing. By six months, babbling is seen. Babbling is the repetitive production of speech sounds. Spontaneous babbling refers to the situation when the child enjoys making these sounds alone. All babies around the same age, irrespective of the culture, start bubbling. Even the deaf babies of the deaf-mute parents start babbling but stop at 9 to 10 months. The phonemic expansion refers to the expansion of the production of phonemes even if such phonemes are not seen in the native language.

One-word stage (12-18 months)

By the age of one, children produce their first words. Earliest words are context-bound – sometimes, they do not have any communicative purpose but are used as performatives to refer to actions. A child says ‘teddy’ only when the teddy is thrown up into the air while playing; thus, teddy refers to the ‘throwing’ action rather than the doll. In this stage, the child is holophrastic. In holophrastic speech, a single word is used to convey a much more complex message, such as ‘milk’ is used to convey ‘I want milk’ or ‘I have spilt my milk’.

Stage of two-word sentences

Like one word stage, two word stage is universal, Brown (1973) divides the two-word stage into stage one grammar and stage two grammar. 

Stage one grammar (18-30 months)

Here, the child’s speech is essentially telegraphic. Only those words that convey the most information are used. Purely grammatical terms such as verb ‘to be’ plurals and possessives are omitted. For example, children will say ‘there cow’ to convey the underlying message ‘there is a cow’. At this age, adults interact with children in a ‘motherese’ – short, simple, paraphrased language directed at infants. An important characteristic of telegraphic speech is maintaining a rigid ‘word order’ to seemingly preserve the word’s meaning. Word order is not as rigidly maintained in adult speech.

Stage two grammar (30 months – 4/5 years)

At this stage, the child’s vocabulary grows rapidly, and sentences become longer and more complex. Stage two grammar begins with using purely grammatical words like the use of ‘to be’ verbs and conjunctions. By the age of 5, children usually speak grammatically correctly, imitating adults. By the age of 13, English-speaking children have a vocabulary of 20,000 words, and by the age of 20, this will have risen to 50,000 or more.

Summary

6 weeks – Cooing.

3 months – Babbling.

12 months – Speaks two to three words.

18 months – Speaks up to 40 words.

24 months – Telegraphic speech, vocabulary of more than 240 words.

60 months – Language like adults.

Theories of language development

Operant conditioning theory

According to B.F. Skinner, verbal behaviour evidently came into existence when, through a critical step in the evolution of the human species, the vocal musculature became susceptible to operant conditioning. He argued that prelinguistic vocalisations like cooing and babbling were inborn, but adults shape the baby’s sound into words by reinforcing those that approximate the form of real words. Through selective reinforcement, correct grammar is reinforced, and incorrect grammar is ignored. He also believed that imitation plays an important role in babies’ language acquisition.

LAD theory

Although language cannot develop without some form of environmental input, Noam Chomsky believes that environmental factors could never explain language development adequately. He proposed the existence of an innate language acquisition device (LAD), whereby children are born already programmed to formulate and understand all types of sentences even though they have never heard them before. Chomsky’s theory led some researchers to believe there are ‘language genes’ in humans; unfortunately, no such search has been fruitful yet. The concept of transformational grammar (TG) is part of Chomsky’s theory; TG entails knowing how to transform a sentence’s meaning into the words that make it up (and vice versa).

Language Acquisition Support System (LASS) 

According to Bruner, learning a language consists of learning not only the grammar of a particular language but also how to realise one’s intentions by the appropriate use of that grammar. The emphasis on intent requires a far more active role from adults in helping the child’s language acquisition. Adults, primarily mothers, provide the input for LAD, and she herself acts as a LASS. 

Sociolinguistic theory of language codes

Basil Bernstein’s sociolinguistic theory of language codes refers to discrete ‘codes of language’. It primarily examined the ‘elongated’ and ‘restricted’ codes and how these were used in significantly different ways in households of different social classes, with ‘working class’ households almost exclusively using the restricted code. Restricted language code is characterised by short, incomplete sentences, which tend to be context-dependent, focus on the present, and have little room for expressing abstract thinking. The elaborate language code is characterised by longer, complex sentences that are context-independent. It focuses on the past and future and allows for the expression of abstract thought.

References

• Gross, R. (2020). Psychology: the science of mind and behaviour (8th ed.). Hodder.
• Sadock, B. J., & Sadock, V. A. (2007). Kaplan & Sadock’s synopsis of psychiatry: Behavioural sciences/clinical psychiatry (11th ed.). Wolters Kluwer.
• Gross, R (2012). Key studies in Psychology (6th ed.). Hodder.