Page 197 - DENG504_LINGUISTICS

Unit 14: Branches in Linguistics: Psycho-Linguistics

Both schools have said significant things, yet neither is perfect. The mentalists’ emphasis on the rule- Notes
learning is over-enthusiastic, and the behaviourists’ rejection of meaning entirely is unjust. Language
acquisition seems to be a process both of analogy and application, nature and nurture. The difference
between the empiricists’ approach and that of the rationalists can be summarised in the following
manner also:
Empirical or behavioural Approach Rationalistic or Mentalistic Approach

L.a. — Language acquisition
1. Language acquisition is a result of L. a. is result of condition.
experience.
2. L. a. is a stimulus-response process. L. a. is an innate, in-born process.
3. Language is a conditioned behaviour. Language is not a behaviour like other
behaviours but a species-specific and species-
uniform mental process.
4. Children learn language by imitation Children learn language by application.
and analogy.
5. Language learning is practice based. Language learning is rule based.
6. Language learning is mechanical. Language learning is analytic, generative and
creative.
7. Role of imitation, repetition, Role of exposure is very significant.
reinforcement, memory, motivation is
very significant in language learning
8. Language acquisition is the result of Language acquisition is the result of nature.
nurture.

Two points in particular have become clearer: (1) Language is a maturationally controlled behaviour,
and (2) child language is rule-governed, at every stage. Many types of behaviour develop ‘naturally’
at a certain age, provided that the surrounding environment is adequate and teaching is available at
the crucial time. Such behaviour is maturationally controlled. Arguments as to whether it is inborn or
learnt, are futile. Both nature and nurture, analogy and application, practice and exposure are
important. Innate potentialities lay down the framework Within this framework, there is wide variation
depending on the environment. From the age of around eighteen months, human infants are in a
state of ‘language readiness’. The urge for language in them at this time is very strong, and only very
extraordinary circumstances can suppress it. A child brought up in complete linguistic isolation, will
not acquire language. But all normal children and some abnormal ones—begin to speak if they hear
language going on around them at this time.
Having been exposed to a small number of utterances, the child begins to extract the principles
underlying the utterance and compose new utterances of his own. This is the way every child constructs
a mini-grammar of his native language. He uses this grammar to communicate in an intelligible
manner. He makes mistakes and produces ungrammatical sentences. His elders correct him. He feeds
this information into his mini-grammar, modifies some of the rules, and again produces new
utterances. In a period of about four years he is able to master and internalize all the essential rules of
language. He begins not only to speak but also to understand altogether new utterances of his language.
That is to say, the child does not learn individually all the idiosyncratic linguistic phenomena. He
learns and internalizes the regular linguistic phenomena. For example, in learning English, he does
not learn individually thousand of nouns: that pencil has a plural, that pen has a plural, and so forth.
He internalizes the general structure principle that any common noun referring to a concrete, individual
object has a plural. Mohan, honesty, and cheese are instances of nouns that normally do not have
plurals. Mohan is a proper noun or name, not a common noun, honesty is not a concrete object; and
cheese is not an individual object.

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