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Language and Mind

2000 word Essay

Introduction
Language, a fundamental human activity, allows us to communicate by using
different methods, which include written, oral or dialectal forms. All of which, have
evolved through the centuries, and therefore serves a fundamental function for the
human race. Inevitably, understanding the evolution of language and how language
works, has led to theories and hypothesis in order to understand how the process of
acquiring language takes place. We will review discussions which shape our
understanding of linguistics and cover lexical developments, ideas and current
concepts, strengths and weaknesses of these concepts and scientific studies
(Robins 1997:1).

Pre-linguistic/ lexical development in children.

As babies grow from infants, toddlers to young children, it is not just a psychical
development which takes place, they are developing and acquiring a mass of
interaction skills, as a result of interaction with care givers, importantly for our
discussion, lexical development. It is during the early stage, the childs ability to
reproduce structures such as mine toy and I want mama, indicate the
developmental phase which is supported by a care giver, and allows the growth of
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the child, developing grammatical structures (Caplan 1987). This argument has a
strong empirical support as a recent study by Harris, Barrett, Jones & Brookes
(Barrett, Harris, and Chasin 1991), highlighted, that there is a strong relationship
between maternal speech and the children's initial word uses.
Firstly, Infants develop by making vegetative sounds, which are made between one
to six weeks. In addition, Infants have primitive vocal functions which are related to
eating and passing motions. At this early stage, babies are still developing the
control of air flow and the ability to produce sound (Shaffer and Kipp 2006).
At six to eight weeks, the baby learns how to control its tongue, cooing noises
develop as the baby starts to increase in awareness. The next stage, vocal play,
lasts between three to four months by experimenting with different sounds.
From around six months onwards, babies develop vocalisation with intonations, this
stage is known as the Babbling stage. They respond to their name being called and
to a human voice, without the need to visualise, and are able to identify angry or
friendly voice tones.
During the single word stage, the development for basic grammatical structure takes
place. This allows the child to produce sequences of single words typically focusing
on events, which are of interest to the child. Furthermore, words begin to have
associations such as gone, which may represent a parent leaving the childs
immediate vicinity or the child expressing an action which has taken place. These
begin to take place without the mediation of an adult (Finch 2005).
Between the ages of eighteen to twenty four months, is known as multiword or two
word utterance stage. During this stage, two words are put together to make primate

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sentences. These include sentences which combine a subject and verb forms, for
example cat jump or using intonations daddy gone.
Between the ages of two and three years is when the child begins to use telegraphic
sentences which have an emphasis on extra clause elements, Inflections, regular
past tense and plural all of which begin to manifest in the childs speech.
During the ages of four to five years, is known as the sorting out stage. Language
use begins to resemble adult form. The child begins learning adult forms of irregular
inflection patterns for plurals and past tenses. For example, he gave the ball to me
instead of he gived the ball to me (Finch 2005:204).
During five to ten years of age is known as the adult stage in which the development
of contrivance for linking sentences and complex subordination takes place. When
the child reaches five years of age, the development in learning language is mostly
achieved, although more to come with being linguistically competent. In essence, the
foundations for language acquisition have been established (Finch 2005:205).
These stages of acquisition highlight the evolution of the language process taking
place. By initially using Gestures, then sounds and then able to use words and
sentences, the child is demonstrating phonological advances in their selected
language. Furthermore, evolution continues in the form of simple to complex
sentences and declarative statements. The use of semantics is becoming evident as
the child begins to express itself meaningfully. Pragmatic communication is also
evident, as the adoption of language in reference to context of situations and people,
is also demonstrated (Smith, Cowie, and Blades 1997).
In his book key concepts in language and linguistics (2005:202), author Jeffrey
Finch a senior academic on English language and literature, argues, language as a
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process, is one where maturational and biological functions are at play, as

observations on children highlight similar stages in development.
The study of psycholinguistics and the mental processes underlying planning,
production perception and comprehensive of speech, highlight a comprehensive
understanding of how our mind works. Additional research in recent years as
advanced our understanding of language and the brain these developments have
taken place within the branch of Neurolinguistics. We will explore are number of
branches within the subject all of which provide a plausible case for the stages of
development discussed earlier.
Language acquisition has been argued in support of imitation and biological
branches. The behaviourists who suggest, imitation and environmental factors argue
the case that children learn languages they are exposed to. American psychologist
am the founder of the psychological school of behaviourism, John Watson
postulated, sense is acquired from our surroundings therefore the environment is a
key factor for this development (Butterworth 2014). His ideas were based on
learning theory, other key thinkers within the behaviourist school of thought included,
B.F Skinner (1904-1990) and Albert Bandura (Carroll 2008).
In response Chomsky(1968:2), Postulated there is an innate system of organising
the senses into meaningful propositions as experience alone is not able to organise,
collate and interpret experiences into meaningful form.

Innate Function & behaviourism

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Universal Grammar is the idea that humans are born with innate capacity for
language acquisition by means of Language Acquisition Device or language faculty
(Hands 2009). Furthermore, the application can be applied to different languages as
grammar does not relate to particulars of a specific language. Therefore the
essentials with any particular grammar can be acquired (Whitaker 2010:200)

In for language acquisition device to be activated, the child must have an

environment in which interaction with the language of choice is present. As such, a
child whose environment is immersed with speakers of English as the stimuli,
activates, the grammar of English. Likewise, a child whose immersion is in the
French language, the process of acquisition within the French discourse will take
place. Universal grammar coding is based on, input or adult speech, immersion of
general language learning principles, processed through grammatical knowledge of
rules and transmitted are via the child's speech (Steinberg 2001:290).
Evidence suggests (Dean 2003), the critical period is a crucial and optimum time to
acquire language. Chomsky argues that a childs ability to acquire language
propositions with speed and accuracy without the input of learnt experiences is
evidence of innate functions (Chomsky 2006).
In response, critics argue (Steinberg 2001) that before a child is a able to develop s
complete sentences, the child must be able to produce declarative sentences to form
statements. Only when this process has taken place, is the child able to acquire
phrase structure sentences, because they not understand the meaning of declarative
statements. Therefore the ability to comprehend phrase structures before moving
onto complex structures has been a learnt process. Other critics have argued,
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Putnam (1967) that exposure to a native language allows a child, time to develop the
language fundamentals and as the child is constantly being exposed to it.

Feral Children & Neurolinguistics

In two case studies, feral children used to try to understand composite of language
acquisition within and outside the critical period in order to substantiate process.
The first case was of a child named Genie, who was kept prisoner by her father in a
cellar, until the age of thirteen and importantly, was within the critical period. Her
vocabulary was regarded as basic and included a few words such as stop it and
mother (Rymer 1994).
Her exposure to sound was non-existent, when she required attention, she would
make a sound, which in turn would lead to her being beaten. When she was taken
into care, she began developing her speech and showed developmental progress
resembling a child of twenty-four months. Nativists argued the process of language
acquisition device was beginning to manifest itself (Rymer 1994).
Unfortunately, Genies progress appeared to come to an abrupt standstill even
though she was able to differentiate negative sentences, singular and plural nouns,
she was unable to develop further. Genie was unable to take the step form deep
structure utterance to surface structure.
The second case was of a child named Isabelle. Isabelle was kept with her mother in
isolation until the age of six when she was found. When she was tested for
intelligence and comprehension at six years of age, it was noted her mental capacity
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was that of an infant. Additionally, she was unable to speak and would croak in order
to communicate. After receiving intensive treatment for her condition, her
development was regarded as a success, and by the age of eight, she was
considered a child of normal ability (Steinberg 2001).
The differences which have been put forward in both cases of language acquisition
have included factors which would have to take into account that Genie was kept
isolated and not spoken to during her time in captivity and fundamentally, was found
at 13 years of age outside the at critical period. Isabelle on the other hand, was
found at six years of age, within the critical period (Whitaker 2010:178).
Evidence suggests environmental factors play a role with Genie as Isolation, neglect,
trauma, lack of stimulation, dietary malnutrition and privation, are contributing factors
which hinder her ability to form relationships and regression in her inability to use
language (Bloom 1970).
Scientific development in the form of PET scans, highlight-reduced ability in the
prefrontal cortex of socially deprived children. Impact on cognitions, memory,
emotion and thinking, have also been identified (Chugani et al. 2001). Damage to the
uncinate fasciculus, an area where there is a pathway for higher functioning in the
frontal lobe have also been identified. Although the symptoms do not provide a
diagnosis for Genie all feral children, what has to be noted is the impact of trauma on
these children such as social deprivation, neurological and biological.

Neurolinguistics
The earliest recorded study into brain and language development was in 1861 by a
French physician, Pierre Paul Broca (1824 1880) who identified localized
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functioning of the brain. In his study, his patient who was known as Tan was able to
understand instructions and function independently despite being mute. Broca
discovered a legion in Tans left frontal lobe, commonly identified as the frontal
cortex. Broca concluded the legion had affected Tans faculty for articulate language
(Eluvathingal et al. 2006).
The idea of the critical period is linked with Eric Lenneberg (1967). Lenneberg,
studied children still within the critical period to, identify if certain medical conditions
would affect their recovery in their ability to acquire language. Lennebergs research
highlighted in the case of adults, once puberty had been reached, they were unable
to establish the capacity to acquire language (Cromer 1980).
However since these early developments, science has evolved owned recent
research has shown, that there is a sizeable variation within the human brain
therefore damage to these areas does not always necessitate the impairments
highlighted. Furthermore, much more emphasis is placed on the link between
different areas of the brain and the functions of neurotransmitters which really and
carry this information

Conclusion
The issues discussed in this essay were in relation with brain and mind. Although
popularly the terms are used interchangeably, it is important that they are not to be
confused. Geoffrey Finch highlights that the brain is a physical organ which controls
bodily behaviour and thought and just as other organs it can be observed. The mind
however is made up of cognitive and emotional facets and in contrast with the brain,
we are unable to open and directly observe it. As the mind is dependent on the brain,
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a method of correlating the inner workings has not been established as of yet
(Eluvathingal et al. 2006; Finch 2005).
Psycholinguistics is involved much from the discipline of psychology and is
sometimes referred as a psychology of language. Much has been debated and how
we coordinate information in appropriating language and inevitably has expanded
into models and theories some of which we have discussed, it is important however
to understand that language comprehension is not an autonomous linguistic process
(Finch 2005). There are many processes, which we rely on, and there is evidence to
suggest that we construct schemas based on our perception of the world around us
and in doing so, we shape our language use based on that.

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