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(3) Expressive function
(4) Phatic function
c) Recreational function
d) Metalingual function
¢Ú Language and thought may be viewed as two independent circles overlapping in some parts.
When language and thought are identical or closely paralleled to each other, we may regard thought as “subvocal speech”, and speech as “overt thought”
Nonverbal signals: facial expressions, grimaces, gestures, postures, or proxemic space can be used to express thoughts.
The relationship between the coding system of language on the one hand and the conceptualizing system of thought on the other is conventional rather than genetic. Bilingual speakers switch between the two languages concerned, not converting one mode of thinking into the other, but rather, making transition between the two linguistic coding systems.




Chapter 13  First Language Acquisition (FLA)
Language acquisition refers to children’s development of their first language, that is, the native language of the community in which a child has been brought up (naturally and successfully).
[A] The biological basis of language acquisition
What is meant by the biological, or nativist, view of language acquisition is that human are equipped with the neural perquisites for language and language use, just as birds are biologically “prewired” to learn the songs of their species.
No language is inferior, or superior, to any other language.
No single human is a better or worse language acquire than any other human.
Different languages have a similar level of complexity and detail, and reflect general abstract properties of the common linguistic system called the Universal Grammar (UG).
[B] Language acquisition as the acquisition of grammatical rules
Before 5, knowing most of the intricate grammatical system of their native language
What is acquired is not a bunch of utterances but a set of rules, conditions, and elements (fundamental grammatical rules) that allow one to speak and understand speech.
[C] The role of input and interaction, instruction, correction and reinforcement, imitation
¢Ù the role of input and interaction
Genetic predisposition + an appropriate linguistic environment
Access to language data and opportunities to interact with the input
Modified speechßrelationshipà language acquisition

Caretaker speech (babytalk, motheress, or parentese): without it doesn’t mean acquiring language slowly
Advantages: 1) help heighten its comprehensibility
2) make it easier for children to match linguistic forms with their meanings
¢Ú the role of instruction
“Children learn to speak because adults teach them to speak.”
1) this view overestimates what adults can do, and at the same time
2) this view underestimates what children can do, and what they actually do
Children require little conscious instruction. Parents often fail their attempt to teach children grammatical rules, and only playing a minor role at best
¢Û the role of correction and reinforcement
Assumption 1: children received constant correction for using a “bad” grammar and rewards when using a “good” grammar
Assumption 2: children learnt to produce sentence because they were positively reinforced when they said something right and negatively reinforced when they said something wrong.
Behaviorist learning theoryàa child’s verbal behavior was conditioned through association between a stimulus and a relevant response.
Correction plays a minor role; even when syntactic correction does occur, children often do not know what the problem is and are unable to make corrections.
¢Ü the role of imitation
The hypothesis that children learnt language by simply imitating the speech of those around them is not true.
A more reasonable explanation is that: children are attempting to construct and generalize their own grammatical rules.
Besides, children who cannot speak can learn the language spoken to them and understand what is said.
Children don’t blindly mimic adult speech in a parrot fashion, but rather exploit it in very restricted ways to improve their linguistic skills
[D] Stages of first language acquisition
In general, children begin uttering their first words sometimes during the second year of life. During the following 4 to 5 years, linguistic development occurs quite rapidly.
¢Ù the prelinguistic stage (babbling age)
3 months: /k/, /u/
3-4 months: babbling speech like sounds
6 months: able to sit up; produce a number of different vowels and consonants (meaningless), deaf baby, baby born of non-speaking deaf parents also babble
¢Ú the one-word stage à holophrastic sentences