Learnability of a Language
analytical Essay
2875 words
Learnability of a Language
I.
A child must achieve competence with an infinite language based on a finite number of heard sentences. This is the essence of Noam Chomsky's "poverty of the stimulus" argument. As originally presented, it made a case for nativism, forcing empiricist theories to explain how such competence is achievable. In Stephen Pinker's Language Learnability and Language Development, he uses learnability both as a challenge to theories of language acquisition, and as a heuristic for evaluating them. Terrence Deacon, in The Symbolic Species, while dismissive of most of Chomskyan linguistics, still sees the learnability problem as a challenge to any theory that hopes to explain human linguistic knowledge. I will begin with a scrutiny of Pinker and Deacon's similar responses to the learnability problem, and will then examine Pinker's learnability criterion, which counters Deacon's aims.
II.
The views of Deacon and Pinker overlap to a surprising extent. Some shared ground, and potentially shared ground, are to be found in their views on learnability. Both feel compelled to respond to the formal version of the poverty of the stimulus argument, as originally stated in a mathematical learning theory paper by E. Mark Gold. Gold proved that without feedback about hypothesized grammars or examples of ungrammatical constructions, it is impossible to inductively learn the unique grammar that produces an infinite language, even with a learning algorithm that remembers all observed data (Gold 1967).
A number of responses to Gold's theorem have been offered. Gold himself proposed a likely solution: that "the class of possible natural languages is much smaller than one would expect from our present model of syntax"...
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...ological points of view.
Bibliography
Deacon, Terrence W. (1997). The Symbolic Species. New York: Norton.
Elman, Jeffrey L., E. A. Bates, M. H. Johnson, A. Karmiloff-Smith, D. Parisi, K. Plunkett (1996). Rethinking Innateness: A Connectionist Perspective on Development. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Gold, E. Mark (1967). Language Identification in the Limit. Information and Control 10,447-74.
Pinker, Stephen (1979). Formal models of language learning. Cognition 7:217-283.
Pinker, Stephen (1984). Language Learnability and Language Development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP.
Pinker, Stephen and Bloom, Paul. Natural Language and Natural Selection. In The Adapted Mind, eds. J.H. Barkow, L. Cosmides, J. Tooby. Oxford: Oxford UP, pp. 451-493.
Wexler, Kenneth, and Culicover, Peter W. (1980). Formal Principles of Language Acquisition. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how noam chomsky's "poverty of the stimulus" argument made a case for nativism, forcing empiricist theories to explain how such competence is achievable.
- Argues that pinker's one-sided use of parsimony is a serious problem for the linguistics of adult languages.
- Argues that the learnability problem has been productive in stimulating research, as the work of elman, wexler and culicover, newport, deacon and others has shown. pinker's continuity assumption is a poorly founded, relying on
- Describes elman, jeffrey l., bates, johnson, karmiloff-smith, parisi, and plunkett. rethinking innateness.
- Analyzes how deacon and pinker's views on learnability overlap to a surprising extent.
- Analyzes how pinker and deacon's view of the learning process reopen the debate between chomsky and piaget, between nativism and empiricism.
- Compares pinker and deacon's theories of language evolution, which have implications for the parsimony debate.
- Explains pinker, bloom, and wexler, kenneth. natural language and natural selection. in the adapted mind.
Related
- explanatory
- analytical
- Empiricist Views on the Innateness Hypothesisexplanatory essayBarbiero, in his note on framing the innateness hypothesis, mentions that "to frame the innateness question is to attempt to distinguish among the different constraints and mechanisms that can be attributed to the human biological endowment for language". In this note, I follow up on Barbiero's proposal by discussing empiricist views, mainly Quinean views, on the innate learning mechanisms that enable children to acquire not only the semantics but also the syntax of their language. Barbiero does mention empiricist theories. But he does not discuss the learning mechanisms that are assumed by these theories.
In this essay, the author
- Opines that barbiero's note on framing the innateness hypothesis focuses on empiricist views on the learning mechanisms that enable children to acquire the semantics and syntax of their language.
- Explains chomsky's claim that syntactic competence is not obtainable from examples by any sort of generalization known to psychology and philosophy.
- Explains that many organisms have a more sophisticated innate capacity to generalize according to other types of similarities, provided they undergo appropriate experiences.
- Explains that empiricists argue that functional similarities account for our syntactic competence. learning the meanings of relational terms includes a generalization from one 'is-bigger-than' situation to "similar" situations, and the classification of the variables in appropriate semantic categories.
- Explains that children learn the meanings of specialized relational terms, such as 'x who y', by performing a structural analysis of the relevant text.
- Explains that empiricists account for the children's syntactic competence. it derives from their sophisticated learning capacities, especially from the capacity to generalize according to functional similarities.
- Concludes that empiricists can account for the semantic and syntactic competence of children by acknowledging the psychological reality of the above-described learning mechanisms.
- Describes the works of chomsky, n., and goldiamond, i.
- Describes maratsos, m., gleitman, and wanner's language acquisition: the state of the art.
- Explains quine, w.v., and stemmer, n. (1973). an empiricist theory of language acquisition.
1293 wordsRead More - Language Acquisition in Childrenanalytical essayThe study of language development, one of the most fascinating human achievements, has a long and rich history, extending over thousands of years (Chomsky, 2000). As the nature-versus-nurture argument is inevitable to arise whenever human behaviors are discussed, it is not surprising that language experts have debated the relative influences of genetics and the environment on language development (Hulit & Howard, 2002). Among the various proposals concerning the mechanisms involved in acquiring a language, two opposing theoretical positions, the behaviorist and the nativist, are the most prominent and influential ones (Ayoun, 2003; Garton & Pratt, 1998; Owens, 2001). Due to the indefinite explanation of the exact process, the continuous interest of the inquiring people, and the sheer significance of the precise result, the controversy remains ongoing and popular. In view of the more obvious limitations of the behaviorist interpretation and the prevailing contributions of the nativist interpretation, the latter one is more rational to accept.
In this essay, the author
- Explains that the study of language development has a long and rich history, extending over thousands of years. the behaviorist and the nativist positions are the most prominent and influential.
- Explains that behaviorism focuses on people's behaviors, which are directly observable, rather than on the mental systems underlying them. language is viewed as a kind of verbal behavior and it is proposed that children learn language through imitation, reinforcement, analogy, and structured input.
- Explains that children's complex and creative utterances cannot be explained by a passive response to the language of the environment.
- Argues that children learn language through reinforcement, and that attempts to correct a child's language are doomed to fail.
- Opines that children learn language through analogy by putting words together to form phrases and sentences. however, problem arises constantly as children never move the first auxiliary of a relative clause.
- Argues that children learn language through structured input, while adults speak to them in a special "simplified" language called motherese.
- Analyzes how the behaviorist minimized comprehension and underlying cognitive process by emphasizing production. owens' failure to account for verbal behavior is a measure of the importance of factors omitted from consideration.
- Explains that the nativists claim that individuals are genetically endowed with a specific facility for language that is realized with minimal assistance from the environment.
- Argues that language is essentially the same experience for all human beings, no matter what language they speak, where they are or how they interact with their models.
- Explains that the nativists liken the child to a lad. it receives primary linguistic input and produces grammatical sentences of the language.
- Explains that the grammar a person ends up with is vastly underdetermined by linguistic experiences. the ug helps children extract the rules of their language and avoid many grammatical errors.
- Concludes that the behaviorist view that children become language users is psychologically active and linguistically creative in successfully making up the inadequacies of behaviorism. further research is needed to determine which part of the language is innate and universal.
- Cites ayoun, d., cattell, r. and chhomsky, n. in perspectives in the philosophy of language: a concise anthology.
- Explains garton, pratt, and howard, m. r. (2002). born to talk: an introduction to speech and language development.
1619 wordsRead More - Two Major causes of How Species Changedexplanatory essayBlasi, C., & Causey, K. (2010). Evolutionary psychology and evolutionary developmental psychology: Understanding the evolution of human behavior and development. Psicothema, 22(1), 1-3.
In this essay, the author
- Explains that evolution is defined as change over time in organisms. darwin's theory of natural selection explained adaptations that helped a species to survive.
- Explains the theory of sexual selection, which can explain the different adaptations that help a species reproduce.
- Defines cognitive psychology as the study of attention, memory, language processing, perception, problem solving, and thinking. evolutionary psychology contends that humans attention and memory are extremely selective.
- Explains that social psychology is the scientific study of how people think about, influence and relate to one another. it can't explain why we have evolved these behaviors.
- Explains that developmental psychology is the study of growth and development throughout the human life span. evolutionary psychology and developmental psychology have merged to form evolutionary development psychology.
- Explains that abnormal psychology is the scientific study of abnormal behavior in order to describe, predict, explain, and change abnormal patterns of functioning.
- Explains that clinical psychology is an integration of science, theory, and clinical knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing and relieving psychologically-based distress or dysfunctions.
- Explains evolutionary psychology unifies all sub-fields our psychology. everything that humans experience stems from adaptations that aided in survival and reproduction success.
- Explains that evolutionary psychology and evolutionary developmental psychology: understanding the evolution of human behavior and development.
1246 wordsRead More - Second Language Acquisition Theory Essayexplanatory essaySteven Krashen developed 5 theories of Second Language Development. The Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis states that people acquire language naturally, without any formal training, simply through their interactions with others (Freeman and Freeman p.62). Language learning, however, is a more complex process which requires instruction. Both of these processes are necessary for a person to acquire a second language. Implications for teaching include creating authentic social interaction time with peers in the classroom, collaboration with peers, modeling appropriate language use and using repetition (Vose).
In this essay, the author
- Explains that steven krashen developed 5 theories of second language development. the acquisition-learning hypothesis states that people acquire language naturally, without formal training, simply through their interactions with others.
- Explains krashen's natural order hypothesis that language learning follows a natural sequential and predictable order. teachers must know the scope and sequence of l2 development in order to scaffold them into the next stages of their language development.
- States monitor-hypothesis states that once students have attained an advanced level of l2 development, they will be cognizant of their own speech and language use and have the ability to self-correct.
- Explains krashen's theory of comprehensible input, which states that students should be at an i+1 level. scaffolding increases a students level of proficiency.
- Explains krashen's affective filter hypothesis, which says students who feel safe will achieve greater success because they will be more willing to take risks. engaging students in meaningful activities, teaching tolerance, and allowing for the natural error making, all allow students to have a low filter, opening them up for meaningful instruction.
- Explains jim cummins' introduction of bics and calp, which is social, conversational language that a person will pick up without specific instruction.
- Explains that cup, or common underlying proficiency, is based on the transfer of academic knowledge from l1 to l2. teachers can use cognates to help students make language connections.
- Explains jim cummins' task difficulty quadrant, which states that the level of difficulty of a task depends on the cognitive demand and the context.
- Opines that teachers must know their students and understand the difficulty of the task they are giving each student and the contextual support they may need.
- Explains cummins' definition of additive vs. subtractive bilingualism. additive bilingualism is when students continue to learn or maintain their l1 while learning l2.
- Explains that stephen krashen and jim cummins theories of language development show the need for continued evaluation and understanding of students' educational background and language.
1043 wordsRead More - Child Observation: Language Learning and Developmentexplanatory essayChomsky, N. (1965) The Aspects of the Theory of Syntax (pp 25) The MIT Press Cambridge, MA.
In this essay, the author
- Narrates how they met with reza two times before taking a language sample. they discussed fishing, hunting, and game on his mother's phone.
- Explains that reza's parents are active in engaging him with other children his age. they spend family time together and value education.
- Narrates how their second visit was at his mother's place of work. he was reading a book, followed along the pages, and invited them to read with him.
- Describes how reza took them for a ride on the bus, flying on an airplane, and driving to school in his mother’s car.
- Explains that piaget believes that reza is on target in the preoperational stage of cognitive development.
- Narrates how reza's mother told him it was time to clean up for supper, and rewarded him with a fruit roll up before dinner.
- Explains that grammar is defined as a set of rules we use to determine the correctness, or incorrectness of speaking.
- Explains that syntax is the way we structure a sentence. reza formed complete sentences most of the time.
- Explains that pragmatics encompasses three skills in communication: using language appropriately in different situations such as asking questions, making statements, or making an offer.
- Evaluates reza as well-mannered and enjoyable to chat with. he uses verbal and non-verbal cues and maintains eye contact during our discussions.
- Explains that phonology is the study of speech sounds and their patterns, and how we understand them.
- Narrates how reza's brother excluded him from playing basketball, leaving him playing alone. the boys worked out a way to stay in the game.
- Explains that morphology is the study of morphemes, which are the smallest units of sounds that are meaningful in language. reza has an understanding of the words in his vocabulary, and how to properly use them.
- Explains that semantics is the meaning in language. we can analyze, and sometimes over analyze how words are said, looking for unspoken meanings. reza used words that surprised them.
- Cites chomsky, n., erikson, piaget, & vygotsky in the aspects of the theory of syntax.
1844 wordsRead More - Framing the Innateness Hypothesisanalytical essayChomsky, Noam. Recent Contributions to the Theory of Innate Ideas: Summary of Oral Presentation. In Chomsky, Noam 1991 "Linguistics and Adjacent Fields: A Personal View" In Kasher, pp. 3-25.
In this essay, the author
- Opines that other hypotheses may address themselves to the phylogenetic and/or ontogenetic aspects of the biological endowment for language.
- Argues that the innateness hypothesis is based on an opposition between rationalism and empiricism.
- Analyzes how the rules of grammar are inductively generalized on the basis of input stimuli.
- Explains that the first and third hypotheses raise questions regarding the relationship between purely linguistic mechanisms and the cognitive mechanisms associated with generalized learning structures as well as non-linguistic representational systems.
- Posits the existence of innate principles, mechanisms, or faculties, proper to a protolanguage and separate from those associated with true language.
- Explains that all of the above hypotheses represent attempts to carve the language phenomenon at convenient explanatory joints.
- Explains that each link below leads to an appropriate citation in the common bibliography. this allows easy access to longer lists of related reading for interested parties and builds a dense framework of hyper-links.
1582 wordsRead More - Russell's Theory of Descriptions in On Denotinganalytical essayThis solution can be found in his article 'On Denoting' (Mind, 1905). What follows is an outline of the theory as it is proposed in that article.
In this essay, the author
- Explains that the source of the difficulties in the interpretation of denoting phrases can be found with the assumption that any grammatically correct denoted phrase can stand for an object.
- Explains russell's argument that infringement of the laws of contradiction can be avoided, while still maintaining the original assumption of grammatically correct denoting phrases can stand for genuine objects.
- Explains russell would like to test his theory by subjecting it to three puzzles which a theory of denoting ought to be able to solve.
- Analyzes how russell postpones the solution to the above puzzles and continues to elaborate on frege's distinction between a denoting phrase having both meaning
- Explains that the proposition is about the denotation of a definite description.
- Explains that if x wrote waverley, then y is identical with scott.
- Opines that 'scott was of waverley' does not contain any constituent for which we could substitute.
- Explains that russell tells us that the truth value of propositions inferred by substituting scott for ' of waverley' isn't affected so long as
- Explains that 'the present king of france is not bald' is a sentence that can be interpreted in two ways.
- Explains that the question appears as a result of the proposition 'if a and b don't differ, then the difference does not subsist'.
- Explains the purpose of the essay, which is to give an exposition of russell's theory of descriptions as it is first set forth in mind 1905.
- Explains russell's solution to the problem caused by the interpretation of denoting phrases.
- Analyzes how russell demonstrates the importance of the subject of denoting in the theory of knowledge.
- Explains russell's theory that denoting phrases have no meaning in isolation but that a meaning is attributed to the propositions in which they are contained.
- Analyzes how russell formalises his theory into symbolic logic. he takes as fundamental the concept of a propositional function's being always true.
- Explains how russell's proper analysis of propositions whose verbal expressions contain denoting phrases has dealt with phrases that are indefinite descriptions.
- Analyzes how russell formalizes denoting phrases into symbolic logic by stipulating that the function is true for one and only one value of the variable.
- Explains that if the function is not satisfied, every proposition that attributes something of 'the father of charles ii' is false.
- Explains that russell's theory has shown that denoting phrases have no meaning by themselves, just as the tooth of a cog wheel is unidentifiable in use.
- Analyzes meinong's view that phrases such as 'the present king of france' and "the round square" stand for genuine objects.
- Analyzes how frege avoids self-contradiction by showing that a denoting phrase's meaning is to be found in its constituent meanings.
- Analyzes how frege's theory shows that denoting phrases may express meaning, but according to russell, they may not denote a meaning.
- Explains that the exchange of a and b in any proposition does not change that proposition's truth value.
- Explains that if we enumerate all things bald, we will find the king of france on neither list.
- Opines that russell avoids meinong's use of'subsist' i.e. that subsistence is synonymous with being, not existence.
- Explains that russell states that the relation between c and 'c' is not just linguistic it is a logical relation.
- Analyzes the problem with speaking of the meaning of a denoting phrase or complex.
- Explains that russell has shown us that a denoting phrase is part of the sentence. it does not have any significance on its own.
- Explains that the property had by the phrase 'one and only entity wrote waverley' is that of identity with scott.
- Explains that when we say 'the so-and-so is true', it must be a proposition, and if the proposition contains denoting phrases, we can eliminate them.
- Explains that if the scope of 'not' is limited to its adjoining predicate, we are asserting that the present king of france is not bald. the distinction between primary and secondary occurrences is seen in symbolic logical form.
- Explains russell's meaning of denotation, stating that the difference between a and b has a denoted entity if the proposition is true, but not an entity when it is false
- Explains that whenever we use a proposition to talk about an object that we have no knowledge by acquaintance of, we are using denoting phrases to stand for these objects.
4035 wordsRead More - Language Acquisition Principles for ELL Studentsanalytical essayLanguage Acquisition Principles for ELL Students Abstract Within this paper we will take a brief look at the Language Acquisition Principles and how they work on the behalf of ELL students. We will see how these principles can be applied within our own learning environment. There is much information from Walqui article that gives a brief overview of ELL students and how things looked in the past for these students.
In this essay, the author
- Explains the language acquisition principles for ell students and how they can be applied within their own learning environment.
- Explains that professor ellis' article, "principles of instructed second language", gives an overview of eight principles that educators can use to help ell students.
- Analyzes how professor ellis explains that instruction needs to ensure that learners develop a rich repertoire of formulaic expressions and rule base competence.
- Analyzes how professor ellis states that we learn naturalistically by focusing on what we want to say rather than how we say things.
- Explains that sla needs to focus on the meaning and decode and encode messages to develop true fluency in l2 and be able to have real conversation.
- Explains that the teacher can achieve this by focusing on inductive and deductive grammar lessons. it allows and gives the learner specific practice on grammatical structure.
- Explains that instruction needs to focus on developing implicit knowledge of the second language while not neglecting explicit knowledge.
- Explains that teachers can apply his principles within their syllabus to help sla and ell students understand the english language by starting from ground zero.
- Opines that there have been some major changes over the years for ell students. there is still much needed improvement for our sla students, who are facing many challenges trying to learn the english language.
- Opines that educators must first develop reading skills for their ell students so that they will get in the habit of reading and writing.
980 wordsRead More - Noam Choomsky's Theory Of Language And Language Developmentanalytical essayIn linguist and psychologist Noam Chomsky’s Language and Mind, he asserts that a “universal grammar provides a highly restrictive schema to which any human language must conform” (55). The theory of universal grammar that Chomsky proposed states that the ability to comprehend and produce a language is already built in the human brain before birth. Even from an early age, children’s brain is programmed to constantly analyze grammar and syntax. To back up his claim, Chomsky elaborates on “the intrinsic structure of a language-acquisition device” (99). This device is a hypothetical instinctive system located in the cerebrum that permits children to develop language competence. Chomsky emphasizes that inborn mental biases in humans are often unconscious and uncontrollable. An example of these biases is seen when children learn by recognizing that labels refer to whole objects and not parts. In other words, when a parent points at a dog and repeats the word “dog” to his or her child, the child will automatically assume that the parent is referring to the entire object as a “dog” instead of just the dog’s head or tail. Another bias that is harbored is the assumption that labels represent whole classes of things and not just individual objects. What this means is that once a child learns to associate the word “dog” with the image of a dog, the child should be able to understand that every animal that barks is
In this essay, the author
- Argues that nature and nurture go hand-in-hand when explaining how children develop their language.
- Explains that innatism and behaviorism sparked numerous disputes among philosophers, psychologists and scientists. the idea of nativism and empiricism was first presented by plato in the seventeenth century.
- Argues that inborn mental biases in humans are often unconscious and uncontrollable. the theory of universal grammar states that the ability to comprehend and produce a language is already built in the human brain.
- Analyzes how stephen crain breaks down children's generalization into two types: undergenralization and overgeneralization.
- Explains that children's understanding accelerates their production ability. children could not have mastered the sophisticated process of learning language without the aid of their natural capacities.
- Explains that the analysis of brain structure advocates the idea that nature plays a primary role in language understanding.
1313 wordsRead More - Language and Brainexplanatory essayKoizumi, H. (2004). ScienceDirect.com - Brain and Development - The concept of developing the brain: a new natural science for learning and education. ScienceDirect. Retrieved April 1, 2014, from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii
In this essay, the author
- Explains that the nervous system is a biological information highway which can receive and interpret information via electrical signals.
- Explains that the human nervous system is composed of the central and the peripheral system.
- Explains that an axon conducts information in the form of electronic stimulation and transports chemical substances.
- Explains that synapses are the junction between two connected neurons. when neurotransmitters cross this gap, they send a neural signal that causes brain activity along specific circuits.
- Opines that the study of the brain and the nervous system will shed some light on how our linguistic behaviour is controlled and affected by brain.
- Explains that brown (2000) indicated that most discussions about age and acquisition claim that there is a biological time table for language acquisition in l1 and l2.
- Cites cox, t, farmer, k. j., gregg, d, mcdowell,
- Explains that the notion of language and brain has been highlighted in different scientific fields such as neurology, cognitive science, linguistics biology, technology and finally education.
- Explains that neurolinguistics is the study of the mental faculties involved in the perception, production, and acquisition of language. they also discuss the fact of neutral learning and language acquisition.
- Explains the importance of the biological and neural foundation of language learning by discussing the brain anatomy and language and brain.
- Explains that the human brain is located inside the head and protected by bones. it over controls the mental and physical activities.
- Explains that the brain is the most complex organ because it contains approximately 100 billion neurons. glial cells: play a significant role in the learning process by surrounding neurons and providing support.
- Explains that the brain is divided into three lobes: the occipital, the temporal, and the frontal. they serve as a bridge between science and practice.
- Explains that the human brain is divided into two cerebral hemispheres, the left and the right, which are both dominant and dormant.
- Explains how memory creates mental linkages by associating and placing new words into a context. long-term memory (ltm) manipulates newly learned information to build new dendrites, synaptic connections, and relational memory links.
- Explains that multi-levels of iterative brain-based accelerated learning experimentation enhance academic achievement and career goals.
- Explains that brain-based learning is a new paradigm of teaching, citing kahveci, ay, and koizumi.
1338 wordsRead More