Language Acquisition

UNIT 1 LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

Structure
1.0 Introduction
1.1 Objectives
1.2 Language and Cognition
1.3 Linguistics
1.3.1 The Structure of Language
1.3.2 The Buildings Blocks of Language
1.4 Language Acquisition
1.4.1 Stages of Language Acquisition
1.4.2 Language Acquisition and Cognitive Science
1.4.3 Language and Thought
1.5 Theories of Language Acquisition
1.5.1 Behaviouristic Theory
1.5.2 Limitations of Behaviourism Theory
1.5.3 Innateness Theory
1.5.4 Evidence to Support Innateness Theory
1.5.5 Limitations of Chomsky’s Theory
1.5.6 Cognitive Theory
1.5.7 Limitations of Cognitive Theories
1.5.8 Inputs or Integrationist Theories
1.5.9 Limitations of Inputs Theories
1.6 The Biology of Language Acquisition
1.6.1 Maturational Changes in Brain
1.6.2 Dissociations Between Language and General Intelligence
1.6.3 Neural Networks
1.7 Let Us Sum Up
1.8 Unit End Questions
1.9 Suggested Readings and References.

1.0 INTRODUCTION
People talk or use language incessantly. Language, to cognitive psychologists, is
a system of communication in which thoughts are transmitted by means of sounds
(as in speech and music) or symbols (as in written words and gestures). As you
read this text, you are engaging in one of the mind’s most enchanting processes
– the way one mind influences another through language. In this process, some
cell assemblies in your brain are permanently changed, new thoughts are made,
and, in a very real sense, you are changed.

Cognitive psychology concerns both language and thought and has been popular
only since the 1950s. Before that, many psychologists believed that the scientific
method could not be applied towards the study of a process as private as thinking.
From ancient Greek times, only philosophers and metaphysicians studied the
nature of language and thought. The metaphysician René Descartes, for example,
famously argued, “I think, therefore I am.”
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Language Today, thanks to increasingly sophisticated tools for studying brain activity,
cognitive psychology is a thriving science. Cognitive psychologists explore such
questions as how language affects thought, whether it is possible to create a
“thinking” machine, and why humans are motivated to create art.

1.1 OBJECTIVES
After reading this unit, you will be able to:
• Define and elucidate the concept of language;
• Describe language and cognition;
• Explain theories of language acquisition and their limitations; and
• Explain biology of language acquisition.

1.2 LANGUAGE AND COGNITION

The study of human language is important to cognitive psychologists for the
following reasons:
• Human language development represents a unique kind of abstraction, which
is basic to cognition. Although other forms of life (bees, birds, dolphins,
dogs and so on) have elaborate means of communicating and apes seem to
use a form of language abstraction, the degree of abstraction is much greater
among humans.
• Language processing is an important component of information processing
and storage.
• Human thinking and problem solving can be conceptualised as processes
involving language. Many, if not most, forms of thinking and problem solving
are internal, that is, done in the absence of external stimuli. Abstraction of
puzzles, for example, into verbal symbols provides a way to think about a
solution.
• Language is the main means of human communication, the way in which
most information is exchanged.
• Language influences perception, a fundamental aspect of cognition. Some
argue that how we perceive the world is affected by the language we use to
describe it. On the other hand, language development is at least largely
based on our perception of language. So the perceptual-language process is
one of interdependency; both significantly influence the other. Language
from this point of view operates as a window.

The processing of words, speech, and semantics seem to engage specific cerebral
areas and thus provide a meaningful link between neuro anatomical structures
and language. In addition, the study of pathology of the brain has frequently
shown manifest change in language functions, as in the case of aphasia.

1.3 LINGUISTICS
The study of linguistics is the formal description of the structure of language,
including a description of speech sounds, meanings, and grammar. Language as
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studied by linguists tends to be competency based (dealing with some ideal Language Acquisition
potential of the speaker-listener), while psychologists generally view language
in terms of performance, or how humans use language. The discipline that
incorporates both approaches to the study of language is called psycholinguistics.

1.3.1 The Structure of Language

Language is a system of symbols and rules that is used for meaningful
communication. A system of communication has to meet certain criteria in order
to be considered a language:

A language uses symbols, which are sounds, gestures, or written characters that
represent objects, actions, events, and ideas. Symbols enable people to refer to
objects that are in another place or events that occurred at a different time.

A language is meaningful and therefore can be understood by other users of that

language.

A language is generative, which means that the symbols of a language can be

combined to produce an infinite number of messages.

A language has rules that govern how symbols can be arranged. These rules
allow people to understand messages in that language even if they have never
encountered those messages before.

1.3.2 The Building Blocks of Language

Language is organised hierarchically, from phonemes to morphemes to phrases
and sentences that communicate meaning

Phonemes are the smallest distinguishable units in a language. In the English

language, many consonants, such as t, p, and m, correspond to single phonemes,
while other consonants, such as c and g, can correspond to more than one
phoneme. Vowels typically correspond to more bonhomie. For example, o
corresponds to different phonemes depending on whether it is pronounced as in
bone or woman. Some phonemes correspond to combinations of consonants,
such as ch, sh, and th.

Morphemes are the smallest meaningful units in a language. In the English

language, only a few single letters, such as I and a, are morphemes. Morphemes
are usually whole words or meaningful parts of words, such as prefixes, suffixes,
and word stems.
Example: The word “disliked” has three morphemes: “dis,” “lik,” and “ed.”
Syntax is a system of rules that governs how words can be meaningfully
arranged to form phrases and sentences.
Example: One rule of syntax is that an article such as “the” must come before a
noun, not after: “Read the book,” not “Read book the.”

1.4 LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

Language acquisition is one of the central topics in cognitive science. Every
theory of cognition has tried to explain it; probably no other topic has aroused
such controversy. Possessing a language is the quintessentially human trait: all 7
Language normal humans speak, no nonhuman animal does. Language is the main vehicle
by which we know about other people’s thoughts, and the two must be intimately
related. Every time we speak we are revealing something about language, so the
facts of language structure are easy to come by; these data hint at a system of
extraordinary complexity. Nonetheless, learning a first language is something
every child does successfully, in a matter of a few years and without the need for
formal lessons. With language so close to the core of what it means to be human,
it is not surprising that children’s acquisition of language has received so much
attention. Anyone with strong views about the human mind would like to show
that children’s first few steps are steps in the right direction.

In the past, debates about the acquisition of language centered on the same theme
as debates about the acquisition of any ability – the nature versus nurture theme.
However, current thinking about the language acquisition has incorporated the
understanding that acquiring language really involves a natural endowment
modified by environment (Bates and Goodman, 1999; Dehaene-Lambertz, Hertz-
Painter & Dubois, 2006; Lightfoot, 2003; Maratos, 2003). For example, the social
environment, in which infants use their social capacities to interact with others,
provides one source of information for language acquisition (Snow, 1999;
Tomasello, 1999). Thus the approach to studying language acquisition now
revolves around discovering what abilities are innate and how the child’s
environment tempers these abilities. This process is aptly termed innately guided
learning (see Elman & associates, 1996; Jusczyk, 1997).

Before examining the various theories of language acquisition, let’s take a look
at a series of stages that seem to be universal in language acquisition.

1.4.1 Stages of Language Acquisition

Around the world, people seem to acquire their primary language in pretty much
the same sequence and in just about the same way. Research on speech perception
finds the same overall pattern of progression. They develop from more general
to more specific abilities. That is, as infants we are initially able to distinguish
among all possible phonetic contrasts. But over time we lose the ability to
distinguish nonnative contrasts in favor of those used in our native language
environment (see Jusczyk, 1997). Infants have remarkably acute language-
learning abilities. They show these abilities even from an early age (Marcus et
al., 1999; Pinker, 1997, 1999).

Within the first few years of life, we humans seem to progress through the
following stages in producing language:

Cooing, which comprises of vowel sounds mostly. Cooing is the infant’s oral
expression that explores the production of vowel sounds. The cooing of infants
around the world, including deaf infants, is indistinguishable across babies and
languages. Infants are actually better than adults at being able to discriminate
sounds that carry no meaning for them (Werker, 1989). They can make phonetic
distinctions that adults have lost. During the cooing stage, hearing infants also
can discriminate among all phones, not just phonemes characteristic of their
own language.

Babbling, which comprises consonant as well as vowel sounds; to most people’s

ears, the babbling of infants growing up among speakers from different language
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groups sounds very similar (Oller & Eilers, 1998). At the babbling stage, deaf Language Acquisition
infants no longer vocalise. The sounds produced by hearing infants change.
Babbling is the infant’s preferential production largely of those distinct phonemes-
both vowels and consonants— that are characteristic of the infant’s own language
(Locke, 1994).

One-word utterances; these utterances are limited in both the vowels and the
consonants they utilise (Ingram, 1999). Eventually, the infant utters his or her
first word. It is followed shortly by one or two more. Soon after, yet a few more
follow. The infant uses these one word utterances — termed holophrases — to
convey intentions, desires, and demands. Usually the words are nouns describing
familiar objects that the child observes (example; car, book, ball, baby, toy, nose)
or wants (e.g. mama, dada, milk, cookie). By 18 months of age, children typically
have vocabulary of 3 to 100 words (Seigler, 1986). The young child’s vocabulary
cannot yet encompass all that the child wishes to describe. As a result, the child
commits overextension error. An overextension error is erroneously extending
the meaning of words in the existing lexicon to cover things and ideas for which
a new word is lacking. For example, the general term for any four legged animal
may be ‘doggie’.

Two-word utterances and telegraphic speech. Gradually, between 1.5 to 2.5 years
of age, children start combining single words to produce two-word utterances.
Thus begin an understanding of syntax. These early syntactical communications
seem more like telegrams than conversation. The articles, prepositions, and other
functional morphemes are usually left out. Hence, linguists refer to these early
utterances with rudimentary syntax as telegraphic speech. e.g. “want juice”,
doggie bite”, “mommy sit”. These simple pairings of words convey a wealth of
information about a child’s intentions and needs.

Basic adult sentence structure (present by about age 4 years), with continuing
vocabulary acquisition. Vocabulary expands rapidly. It more than triples from
300 words at about 2 years of age to about 1000 words at 3 years of age. Almost
incredible, by age of 4, children acquire the foundations of adult syntax and
language structure. By age of 5 years, most children also can understand and
produce quite complex and uncommon sentence constructions. By age of 10
years, children’s language is fundamentally the same as that of adults.

Normal children can differ by a year or more in their rate of language development,
though the stages they pass through are generally the same regardless of how
stretched out or compressed.

1.4.2 Language Acquisition and Cognitive Science

Language acquisition is not only inherently interesting; studying it is one way to
look for concrete answers to questions that permeate cognitive science. The
scientific study of language acquisition began around the same time as the birth
of cognitive science, in the late 1950’s. The historical catalyst was Noam
Chomsky’s review of Skinner’s Verbal Behaviour (Chomsky, 1959). At that time,
Anglo-American natural science, social science, and philosophy had come to a
virtual consensus about the answers to the questions listed above. The mind
consisted of sensorimotor abilities plus a few simple laws of learning governing
gradual changes in an organism’s behavioural repertoire. Therefore language
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Language must be learned, it cannot be a module, and thinking must be a form of verbal
behaviour, since verbal behaviour is the prime manifestation of “thought” that
can be observed externally.

Chomsky argued that language acquisition falsified these beliefs in a single stroke:
children learn languages that are governed by highly subtle and abstract principles,
and they do so without explicit instruction or any other environmental clues to
the nature of such principles. Hence language acquisition depends on an innate,
species-specific module that is distinct from general intelligence. Much of the
debate in language acquisition has attempted to test this once-revolutionary, and
still controversial, collection of ideas. The implications extend to the rest of
human cognition.

1.4.3 Language and Thought

Is language simply grafted on top of cognition as a way of sticking communicable
labels onto thoughts (Fodor, 1975; Piaget, 1926)? Or does learning a language
somehow mean learning to think in that language? A famous hypothesis, outlined
by Benjamin Whorf (1956), asserts that the categories and relations that we use
to understand the world come from our particular language, so that speakers of
different languages conceptualise the world in different ways.

Language acquisition, then, would be learning to think, not just learning to talk.
This is an intriguing hypothesis, but virtually all modern cognitive scientists
believe it is false (see Pinker, 1994a). Babies can think before they can talk.

Cognitive psychology has shown that people think not just in words but in images
and abstract logical propositions. Language acquisition has a unique contribution
to make to this issue. As we shall see, it is virtually impossible to show how
children could learn a language unless you assume they have a considerable
amount of nonlinguistic cognitive machinery in place before they start.

1.5 THEORIES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

How do we explain children’s course of language acquisition — most importantly,
their inevitable and early mastery? Several kinds of mechanisms are at work. As
we will see in the next section, the brain changes after birth, and these maturational
changes may govern the onset, rate, and adult decline of language acquisition
capacity. General changes in the child’s information processing abilities (attention,
memory, short-term buffers for acoustic input and articulator output) could leave
their mark as well. Language acquisition is so complex that one needs a precise
framework for understanding what it involves.

Over the last fifty years, several theories have been put forward to explain the
process by which children learn to understand and speak a language. They can
be summarised as follows: (Refer to table below)

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 Table 1.1: Theory and the central idea associated with author Language Acquisition

Theory Central Idea Individual

most often
associated
with theory
Behaviourist Children imitate adults. Their correct Skinner
utterances are reinforced when they get
what they want or are praised
Innateness A child’s brain contains special language Chomsky
learning mechanisms at birth
Cognitive Language is just one aspect of a child’s Piaget
overall intellectual development.
Interaction This theory emphasises the interaction Bruner
between children and their care givers.
We shall consider each of these in turn. Before we do, it is important to recognise
that they should not be seen simply as conflicting theories, replacing each other
in a sequence. Although Behaviourism is now seen as offering only a very limited
explanation, each theory has added to our overall understanding, placing emphasis
on different aspects of the process.

1.5.1 Behaviouristic Theory

The behaviourist psychologists developed their theories while carrying out a
series of experiments on animals. They observed that rats or birds, for example,
could be taught to perform various tasks by encouraging habit-forming.
Researchers rewarded desirable behaviour. This was known as positive
reinforcement. Undesirable behaviour was punished or simply not rewarded —
negative reinforcement. The behaviourist B. F. Skinner then proposed this theory
as an explanation for language acquisition in humans. In Verbal Behaviour (1957),
he stated: “The basic processes and relations which give verbal behaviour its
special characteristics are now fairly well understood. Much of the experimental
work responsible for this advance has been carried out on other species, but the
results have proved to be surprisingly free of species restrictions. Recent work
has shown that the methods can be extended to human behaviour without serious
modifications.” (cited in Lowe and Graham, 1998, p.68)

Skinner suggested that a child imitates the language of its parents or carers.
Successful attempts are rewarded because an adult who recognises a word spoken
by a child will praise the child and/or give it what it is asking for. The linguistic
input was key — a model for imitation to be either negatively or positively
reinforced. Successful utterances are therefore reinforced while unsuccessful ones
are forgotten. No essential difference between the way a rat learns to negotiate a
maze and a child learns to speak.

1.5.2 Limitations of Behaviourism Theory

While there must be some truth in Skinner’s explanation, there are many
objections to it.
Language is based on a set of structures or rules, which could not be worked out
simply by imitating individual utterances. The mistakes made by children reveal
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Language that they are not simply imitating but actively working out and applying rules.
For example, a child who says “drinked” instead of “drank” is not copying an
adult but rather over-applying a rule.

The vast majority of children go through the same stages of language acquisition.
Apart from certain extreme cases, the sequence seems to be largely unaffected
by the treatment the child receives or the type of society in which s/he grows up.

Children are often unable to repeat what an adult says, especially if the adult
utterance contains a structure the child has not yet started to use.

Few children receive much explicit grammatical correction. Parents are more
interested in politeness and truthfulness. According to Brown, Cazden & Bellugi
(1969): “It seems to be truth value rather than well-formed syntax that chiefly
governs explicit verbal reinforcement by parents — which renders mildly
paradoxical the fact that the usual product of such a training schedule is an adult
whose speech is highly grammatical but not notably truthful.” (cited in Lowe
and Graham, 1998)

There is evidence for a critical period for language acquisition. Children who
have not acquired language by the age of about seven will never entirely catch
up. The most famous example is that of Genie, discovered in 1970 at the age of
13. She had been severely neglected, brought up in isolation and deprived of
normal human contact. Of course, she was disturbed and underdeveloped in
many ways. During subsequent attempts at rehabilitation, her caretakers tried to
teach her to speak. Despite some success, mainly in learning vocabulary, she
never became a fluent speaker, failing to acquire the grammatical competence of
the average five-year-old.

1.5.3 Innateness Theory

Noam Chomsky published a criticism of the behaviourist theory in 1957. In
addition to some of the arguments listed above, he focused particularly on the
impoverished language input children receive. This theory is connected with the
writings of Chomsky, although the theory has been around for hundreds of years.
Children are born with an innate capacity for learning human language. Humans
are destined to speak. Children discover the grammar of their language based on
their own inborn grammar. Certain aspects of language structure seem to be
preordained by the cognitive structure of the human mind. This accounts for
certain very basic universal features of language structure: every language has
nouns/verbs, consonants and vowels. It is assumed that children are pre-
programmed, hard-wired, to acquire such things.

Yet no one has been able to explain how quickly and perfectly all children acquire
their native language. Every language is extremely complex, full of subtle
distinctions that speakers are not even aware of. Nevertheless, children master
their native language in 5 or 6 years regardless of their other talents and general
intellectual ability. Acquisition must certainly be more than mere imitation; it
also doesn’t seem to depend on levels of general intelligence, since even a severely
retarded child will acquire a native language without special training. Some
innate feature of the mind must be responsible for the universally rapid and
natural acquisition of language by any young child exposed to speech.

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Chomsky concluded that children must have an inborn faculty for language Language Acquisition
acquisition. According to this theory, the process is biologically determined - the
human species has evolved a brain whose neural circuits contain linguistic
information at birth. The child’s natural predisposition to learn language is
triggered by hearing speech and the child’s brain is able to interpret what s/he
hears according to the underlying principles or structures it already contains.
This natural faculty has become known as the Language Acquisition Device
(LAD).

Chomsky did not suggest that an English child is born knowing anything specific
about English, of course. He stated that all human languages share common
principles. (For example, they all have words for things and actions — nouns
and verbs.) It is the child’s task to establish how the specific language s/he hears
expresses these underlying principles.

For example, the LAD already contains the concept of verb tense. By listening
to such forms as “worked”, “played” and “patted”, the child will form the
hypothesis that the past tense of verbs is formed by adding the sound /d/, /t/ or /
id/ to the base form. This, in turn, will lead to the “virtuous errors” mentioned
above. It hardly needs saying that the process is unconscious. Chomsky does
not envisage the small child lying in its cot working out grammatical rules
consciously!

Chomsky’s ground-breaking theory remains at the centre of the debate about

language acquisition. However, it has been modified, both by Chomsky himself
and by others. Chomsky’s original position was that the LAD contained specific
knowledge about language. Dan Isaac Slobin has proposed that it may be more
like a mechanism for working out the rules of language:
“It seems to me that the child is born not with a set of linguistic categories but
with some sort of process mechanism — a set of procedures and inference rules,
if you will - that he uses to process linguistic data. These mechanisms are such
that, applying them to the input data, the child ends up with something which is
a member of the class of human languages. The linguistic universals, then, are
the result of an innate cognitive competence rather than the content of such a
competence” (cited in Russell, 2001).

1.5.4 Evidence to Support Innateness Theory

Work in several areas of language study has provided support for the idea of an
innate language faculty. Three types of evidence are offered here:
1) Slobin has pointed out that human anatomy is peculiarly adapted to the
production of speech. Unlike our nearest relatives, the great apes, we have
evolved a vocal tract which allows the precise articulation of a wide repertoire
of vocal sounds.
2) Neuro-science has also identified specific areas of the brain with distinctly
linguistic functions, notably Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area. Stroke victims
provide valuable data: depending on the site of brain damage, they may
suffer a range of language dysfunction, from problems with finding words
to an inability to interpret syntax.
3) Experiments aimed at teaching chimpansees to communicate using plastic
symbols or manual gestures have proved controversial. It seems likely that
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Language our ape cousins, while able to learn individual “words”, have little or no
grammatical competence. Pinker (1994) offers a good account of this
research.
The formation of creole varieties of English appears to be the result of the LAD
at work. The linguist Derek Bickerton has studied the formation of Dutch-based
creoles in Surinam. Escaped slaves, living together but originally from different
language groups, were forced to communicate in their very limited Dutch.

The result was the restricted form of language known as a pidgin. The adult
speakers were past the critical age at which they could learn a new language
fluently — they had learned Dutch as a foreign language and under unfavourable
conditions. Remarkably, the children of these slaves turned the pidgin into a full
language, known by linguists as a creole. They were presumably unaware of the
process but the outcome was a language variety which follows its own consistent
rules and has a full expressive range. Creoles based on English are also found, in
the Caribbean and elsewhere.

Studies of the sign languages used by the deaf have shown that, far from being
crude gestures replacing spoken words, these are complex, fully grammatical
languages in their own right. A sign language may exist in several dialects.
Children learning to sign as a first language pass through similar stages to hearing
children learning spoken language. Deprived of speech, the urge to communicate
is realised through a manual system which fulfils the same function. There is
even a signing creole, again developed by children, in Nicaragua (Pinker, 1994).

1.5.5 Limitations of Chomsky’s Theory

Chomsky’s work on language was theoretical. He was interested in grammar
and much of his work consists of complex explanations of grammatical rules.
He did not study real children. The theory relies on children being exposed to
language but takes no account of the interaction between children and their
caretakers. Nor does it recognise the reasons why a child might want to speak,
the functions of language.

In 1977, Bard and Sachs published a study of a child known as Jim, the hearing
son of deaf parents. Jim’s parents wanted their son to learn speech rather than
the sign language they used between themselves. He watched a lot of television
and listened to the radio, therefore receiving frequent language input. However,
his progress was limited until a speech therapist was enlisted to work with him.
Simply being exposed to language was not enough. Without the associated
interaction, it meant little to him.

Subsequent theories have placed greater emphasis on the ways in which real
children develop language to fulfil their needs and interact with their environment,
including other people.

1.5.6 Cognitive Theory

The Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget (1896-1980) placed acquisition of language
within the context of a child’s cognitive development. He argued that a child has
to understand a concept before s/he can acquire the particular language form
which expresses that concept. Cognitive theory views language acquisition within
the context of the child’s broader intellectual development. Since the cognitive
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theory of language acquisition is based on Piaget’s theory of cognitive Language Acquisition
development, a brief description and understanding of this theory is must.

Piaget suggested that children go through four separate stages in a fixed order
that is universal in all children. Piaget declared that these stages differ not only
in the quantity of information acquired at each, but also in the quality of knowledge
and understanding at that stage. He suggested that movement from one stage to
the next occurred when the child reached an appropriate level of maturation and
was exposed to relevant types of experiences. Without experience, children were
assumed incapable of reaching their highest cognitive ability. Piaget’s four stages
are known as the sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal
operational stages.

The sensory motor stage in a child is from birth to approximately two years.
During this stage, a child has relatively little competence in representing the
environment using images, language, or symbols. An infant has no awareness of
objects or people that are not immediately present at a given moment. Piaget
called this a lack of object permanence. Object permanence is the awareness that
objects and people continue to exist even if they are out of sight. In infants, when
a person hides, the infant has no knowledge that they are just out of sight.
According to Piaget, this person or object that has disappeared is gone forever to
the infant.

The preoperational stage is from the age of two to seven years. The most important
development at this time is language. Children develop an internal representation
of the world that allows them to describe people, events, and feelings. Children
at this time use symbols, they can pretend when driving their toy car across the
couch that the couch is actually a bridge. Although the thinking of the child is
more advanced than when it was in the sensory motor stage, it is still qualitatively
inferior to that of an adult. Children in the preoperational stage are characterised
by what Piaget called egocentric thoughts. The world at this stage is viewed
entirely from the child’s own perspective. Thus a child’s explanation to an adult
can be uninformative.

Three-year-olds will generally hide their face when they are in trouble—even
though they are in plain view, three-year-olds believe that their inability to see
others also results in others’ inability to see them. A child in the preoperational
stage also lacks the principle of conservation. This is the knowledge that quantity
is unrelated to the arrangement and physical appearance of objects. Children
who have not passed this stage do not know that the amount, volume or length of
an object does not change length when the shape of the configuration is changed.
If you put two identical pieces of clay in front of a child, one rolled up in the
shape of a ball, the other rolled into a snake, a child at this stage may say the
snake piece is bigger because it is rolled out. Piaget declared that this is not
mastered until the next stage of development.

The concrete operational stage lasts from the age of seven to twelve years of
age. The beginning of this stage is marked by the mastery of the principal of
conservation. Children develop the ability to think in a more logical manner and
they begin to overcome some of the egocentric characteristics of the preoperational
period. One of the major ideas learned in this stage is the idea of reversibility.
This is the idea that some changes can be undone by reversing an earlier action.
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Language An example is the ball of clay that is rolled out into a snake piece of clay. Children
at this stage understand that you can regain the ball of clay formation by rolling
the piece of clay the other way. Children can even conceptualise the stage in
their heads without having to see the action performed. Children in the concrete
operational stage have a better understanding of time and space. Children at this
stage have limits to their abstract thinking, according to Piaget.
The formal operational stage begins in most people at age twelve and continues
into adulthood. This stage produces a new kind of thinking that is abstract, formal,
and logical. Thinking is no longer tied to events that can be observed. A child at
this stage can think hypothetically and use logic to solve problems. It is thought
that not all individuals reach this level of thinking. Most studies show only forty
to sixty percent of American college students and adults fully achieve it.
Piaget’s suggestion, that cognitive performance cannot be attained unless
cognitive readiness is brought about by maturation and environmental stimuli,
has been instrumental in determining the structure of educational curricula.
Cognitive theory of language acquisition suggests that a child first becomes aware
of a concept, such as relative size, and only afterward do they acquire the words
and patterns to convey that concept. Simple ideas are expressed earlier than more
complex ones even if they are grammatically more complicated— Conditional
mood is one of the last. Conceptual development might affect language
development: if a child has not yet mastered a difficult semantic distinction, he
or she may be unable to master the syntax of the construction dedicated to
expressing it.
The complexity of a grammatical form has a demonstrable role in development:
simpler rules and forms appear in speech before more complex ones, all other
things being equal. For example, the plural marker -s in English (e.g. cats), which
requires knowing only whether the number of referents is singular or plural, is
used consistently before the present tense marker -s (he walks), which requires
knowing whether the subject is singular or plural and whether it is a first, second,
or third person and whether the event is in the present tense (Brown, 1973).
There is a consistent order of mastery of the most common function morphemes
in a language. Here’s an example from English: first— -ing, then in and on, then
the plural -s, last are the forms of the verb to be. Seems to be conditioned by
logical complexity: plural is simple, while forms of the verb to be require
sensitivity to both number and tense.
A good example of this is seriation. There will be a point in a child’s intellectual
development when s/he can compare objects with respect to size. This means
that if you gave the child a number of sticks, s/he could arrange them in order of
size. Piaget suggested that a child who had not yet reached this stage would not
be able to learn and use comparative adjectives like “bigger” or “smaller”.
Object permanence is another phenomenon often cited in relation to the cognitive
theory. During the first year of life, children seem unaware of the existence of
objects they cannot see. An object which moves out of sight ceases to exist. By
the time they reach the age of 18 months, children have realised that objects
have an existence independently of their perception. The cognitive theory draws
attention to the large increase in children’s vocabulary at around this age,
suggesting a link between object permanence and the learning of labels for objects.
16
Clearly there is some link between cognitive development and language Language Acquisition
acquisition; Piaget’s theory helps explain the order in which certain aspects of
language are acquired.

1.5.7 Limitations of Cognitive Theories

This theory does not explain why language emerges in the first place. Apes also
develop cognitively in much the same way as young children in the first few
years of life, but language acquisition doesn’t follow naturally from their
development. Bees develop the cognitive ability to respond to many shades of
colour, but bees never develop any communication signals based on shades of
color.
During the first year to 18 months, connections of the type explained above are
possible to trace but, as a child continues to develop, so it becomes harder to find
clear links between language and intellect. Some studies have focused on children
who have learned to speak fluently despite abnormal mental development. Syntax
in particular does not appear to rely on general intellectual growth.

1.5.8 Input or Integrationist Theories

In contrast to the work of Chomsky, more recent theorists have stressed the
importance of the language input children receive from their care-givers. Language
exists for the purpose of communication and can only be learned in the context
of interaction with people who want to communicate with the person.
Interactionists such as Jerome Bruner (1966,68) suggest that the language
behaviour of adults when talking to children (known as child-directed speech or
CDS) is specially adapted to support the acquisition process. This support is
often described to as scaffolding for the child’s language learning. Bruner also
coined the term Language Acquisition Support System or LASS in response to
Chomsky’s LAD. It has been noted that the turn-taking structure of conversation
is developed through games and non-verbal communication long before actual
words are uttered.
Children do not hear sentences in isolation, but in a context. Many models of
language acquisition assume that the input to the child consists of a sentence and
a representation of the meaning of that sentence, inferred from context and from
the child’s knowledge of the meanings of the words

1.5.9 Limitations of Input Theories

These theories serve as a useful corrective to Chomsky’s early position and it
seems likely that a child will learn more quickly with frequent interaction.
However, it has already been noted that children in all cultures pass through the
same stages in acquiring language. We have also seen that there are cultures in
which adults do not adopt special ways of talking to children, so child directed
speech may be useful but may not be essential.
As stated earlier, the various theories should not be seen simply as alternatives.
Rather, each of them offers a partial explanation of the process.

1.6 THE BIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

Human language is made possible by special adaptations of the human mind and
body that occurred in the course of human evolution, and which are put to use by
children in acquiring their mother tongue. 17
Language Most obviously, the shape of the human vocal tract seems to have been modified
in evolution for the demands of speech. Our larynxes are low in our throats, and
our vocal tracts have a sharp right angle bend that creates two independently-
modifiable resonant cavities (the mouth and the pharynx or throat) that defines a
large two-dimensional range of vowel sounds (Lieberman, 1984).

It is tempting to think that if language evolved by gradual Darwinian natural

selection, we must be able to find some precursor of it in our closest relatives,
the chimpanzees. In several famous and controversial demonstrations,
chimpanzees have been taught some hand-signs based on American Sign
Language, to manipulate colored switches or tokens, and to understand some
spoken commands (Gardner & Gardner, 1969; Premack & Premack, 1983;
Savage-Rumbaugh, 1991). Though artificial chimp signaling systems have some
analogies to human language (e.g., use in communication, combinations of more
basic signals), it seems unlikely that they are homologous. Chimpanzees require
massive regimented teaching sequences contrived by humans to acquire quite
rudimentary abilities, mostly limited to a small number of signs, strung together
in repetitive, quasi-random sequences, used with the intent of requesting food or
tickling (Terrace, Petitto, Sanders, & Bever, 1979; Seidenberg & Petitto, 1979,
1987; Seidenberg, 1986; Wallman, 1992; Pinker, 1994a). These contrasts sharply
with human children, who pick up thousands of words spontaneously, combine
them in structured sequences where every word has a determinate role, respect
the word order of the adult language, and use sentences for a variety of purposes
such as commenting on interesting objects.

This lack of homology does not, by the way, cast doubt on a gradualist Darwinian
account of language evolution. Humans did not evolve directly from chimpanzees.
Both derived from common ancestor, probably around 6-7 million years ago.
This leaves about 300,000 generations in which language could have evolved
gradually in the lineage leading to humans, after it split off from the lineage
leading to chimpanzees. Presumably language evolved in the human lineage for
two reasons: our ancestors developed technology and knowledge of the local
environment in their lifetimes, and were involved in extensive reciprocal
cooperation. This allowed them to benefit by sharing hard-won knowledge with
their kin and exchanging it with their neighbors (Pinker & Bloom, 1990).

1.6.1 Maturational Changes in Brain

The maturation of language circuits during a child’s early years may be a driving
force underlying the course of language acquisition (Pinker, 1994; Bates, Thal,
& Janowsky, 1992; Locke, 1992; Huttenlocher, 1990). Before birth, virtually all
the neurons (nerve cells) are formed, and they migrate into their proper locations
in the brain. But head size, brain weight, and thickness of the cerebral cortex
(gray matter), where the synapses (junctions) subserving mental computation
take place, continue to increase rapidly in the year after birth. Long-distance
connections (white matter) are not complete until nine months, and they continue
to grow their speed-inducing myelin insulation throughout childhood. Synapses
continue to develop, peaking in number between nine months and two years
(depending on the brain region), at which point the child has 50% more synapses
than the adult. Metabolic activity in the brain reaches adult levels by nine to ten
months, and soon exceeds it, peaking around the age of four. Synapses wither
from the age of two through the rest of childhood and into adolescence, when
18
the brain’s metabolic rate falls back to adult levels. Perhaps linguistic milestones Language Acquisition
like babbling, first words, and grammar require minimum levels of brain size,
long-distance connections, or extra synapses, particularly in the language centers
of the brain.

Similarly, one can conjecture that these changes are responsible for the decline
in the ability to learn a language over the lifespan. The language learning circuitry
of the brain is more plastic in childhood; children learn or recover language
when the left hemisphere of the brain is damaged or even surgically removed
(though not quite at normal levels), but comparable damage in an adult usually
leads to permanent aphasia (Curtiss, 1989; Lenneberg, 1967).

Newport and Gleitman (1995) shows how sheer age seems to play an important
role. Successful acquisition of language typically happens by 4 and is guaranteed
for children up to the age of six, is steadily compromised from then until shortly
after puberty, and is rare thereafter. Maturational changes in the brain, such as
the decline in metabolic rate and number of neurons during the early school age
years, and the bottoming out of the number of synapses and metabolic rate around
puberty, are plausible causes. Thus, there may be a neurologically-determined
“critical period” for successful language acquisition, analogous to the critical
periods documented in visual development in mammals and in the acquisition
of songs by some birds.

1.6.2 Dissociations Between Language and General Intelligence

Humans evolved brain circuitry, mostly in the left hemisphere surrounding the
sylvian fissure, that appears to be designed for language, though how exactly
their internal wiring gives rise to rules of language is unknown (Zurif, 2000).
The brain mechanisms underlying language are not just those allowing us to be
smart in general. Strokes often leave adults with catastrophic losses in language
(Zurif,2000; Pinker, 1994a), though not necessarily impaired in other aspects of
intelligence, such as those measured on the nonverbal parts of IQ tests.

There are also syndromes showing the opposite dissociation, where intact
language coexists with severe retardation. These cases show that language
development does not depend on fully functioning general intelligence. One
example comes from children with Williams Syndrome, an inherited condition
involving physical abnormalities, significant retardation (the average IQ is about
50), incompetence at simple everyday tasks (tying shoelaces, finding one’s way,
adding two numbers, and retrieving items from a cupboard), social warmth and
gregariousness, and fluent, articulate language abilities (Bellugi, et al., 1990).

1.6.3 Neural Networks

Some cognitive neuroscientists have created neural networks, or computer
models, that can acquire some aspects of language. These neural networks are
not preprogrammed with any rules. Instead, they are exposed to many examples
of a language. Using these examples, the neural networks have been able to
learn the language’s statistical structure and accurately make the past tense forms
of verbs. The developers of these networks speculate that children may acquire
language in a similar way, through exposure to multiple examples.

19
Language
1.7 LET US SUM UP
The topic of language acquisition implicates the most profound questions about
our understanding of the human mind, and its subject matter, the speech of
children, is endlessly fascinating. But the attempt to understand it scientifically
is guaranteed to bring on a certain degree of frustration. Languages are complex
combinations of elegant principles and historical accidents. We cannot design
new ones with independent properties; we are stuck with the confounded ones
entrenched in communities. Children, too, were not designed for the benefit of
psychologists: their cognitive, social, perceptual, and motor skills are all
developing at the same time as their linguistic systems are maturing and their
knowledge of a particular language is increasing, and none of their behaviour
reflects one of these components acting in isolation.

Learning anything about language acquisition at all, is only because a diverse set
of conceptual and methodological tools has been used to trap the elusive answers
to these questions: neurobiology, ethology, linguistic theory, naturalistic and
experimental child psychology, cognitive psychology, philosophy of induction,
theoretical and applied computer science. Language acquisition, then, is one of
the best examples of the indispensability of the multidisciplinary approach called
cognitive science.

1.8 UNIT END QUESTIONS

1) Describe some of the processes involved in language?
2) Why study of language is important for cognitive psychologists?
3) There is a universal course of development every child follows in the learning
of language. Describe.
4) How do we acquire the ability to use language?
5) Compare and contrast the behaviourism and innateness theories of language
acquisition.
6) Nature and nurture both influence the course of language development.
Explain with empirical evidence.
7) Illustrate cognitive theory of language acquisition in detail.
8) Give a sample of an utterance one might reasonably expect to hear from an
18 month old child.
9) Give a detailed biological account of language acquisition.
10) Make a worksheet showing the initial stages of language acquisition in a
child with elaborate examples and reference studies.

1.9 SUGGESTED READINGS AND REFERENCES

Bloom, P.1994). Language Acquisition: Core Readings. Cambridge: The MIT
Press

Brown, R. (1973). A First Language: The Early Stages. Cambridge: Harvard

University Press.
20
References Language Acquisition

Clark, E. V. (2003). First Language Acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press

Fletcher, P., & MacWhinney, B. (Eds.) (1995). The Handbook of Child Language.
Oxford: Blackwell.

Gleitman, L. R., Liberman, M., & Osherson, D. N. (Eds.) (2000). An Invitation

to Cognitive Science, 2nd Edition Volume 1: Language. Cambridge, MA: MIT
Press.

Ingram, D. (1989). First Language Acquisition: Method, Description, and

Explanation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Pinker, S. (1994). The Language Instinct. London: Penguin Books.

Tomasello, M. (2003). Constructing a Language. Cambridge: Harvard University

Press.

VanTatenhove, G. M. (2005).Normal Language Development, Generative

Language and AAC.

Yang, C. (2009)(Ed.). Language Acquisition. London: Routledge.

21
Language
UNIT 2 LANGUAGE PROCESSING
(COMPREHENSION AND
LANGUAGE EXPRESSION)
“Language is a process of free creation; its laws and principles are fixed, but
the manner in which the principles of generation are used is free and infinitely
varied. Even the interpretation and use of words involves a process of free
creation.”
– Noam Chomsky
Structure
2.0 Introduction
2.1 Objectives
2.2 Functions of Language
2.3 Structure of Language
2.3.1 Basic Units of Language: Phonemes and Morphemes
2.3.2 Higher Levels of Linguistic Analysis
2.3.3 Phase Structure of Sentences
2.3.4 Structure and Deep Structure in Sentences
2.4 Processes in Language
2.4.1 Production of Language
2.4.2 Speech Perception and Comprehension
2.5 Language Development
2.6 Comprehensive Model of Language Processing
2.6.1 Kintsch’s Model of Comprehension
2.6.2 Propositional Representation of Text and Reading
2.7 Let Us Sum Up
2.8 Unit End Questions
2.9 Suggested Readings and References

2.0 INTRODUCTION
One form of knowledge shared by all human societies is the knowledge of
language. Language is the principal means by which we acquire and express
knowledge; thus, the study of how language is used is a central concern of
cognitive psychology. In the previous chapter, we studied the modes of language
acquisition; here we will do an overview of the research on the processes of
language involving the comprehension and expression of language.

Language, like other cognitive functions, is a (dynamic) process. Such an

enterprise requires that we examine the microstructure of the entire process as it
occurs in real time. It is only through the careful examination of the temporal
course of mental operations involved in the various levels of analysis underlying
speech that we can hope to discover its nature.

How do we understand language, given its multifaceted encoding? One approach

to this question centers on the psychological processes involved in speech
22
perception (Hickok & Poeppel, 2000). It also considers how listeners deal with Language Processing
(Comprehension and
the peculiarities resulting from the acoustic (related to sound) transmission of Language Expression)
language. A, second, more linguistically oriented approach focuses on descriptions
of the grammatical structure of language. Finally, a third approach examines the
psycholinguistic processes involved in language comprehension at the discourse
macro-level of analysis. All three approaches overlap to some degree and offer
interesting insights into the nature of language, its use, and understanding.

2.1 OBJECTIVES
After reading this unit, you will be able to:
• Examine the basic features involved in the language processing;
• Explain the expression and comprehension of language;
• Elucidate the functions of Language;
• Analyse the structure of Language;
• Explain the processes in Language; and
• Describe Walter Kintsch’s model of comprehension.

2.2 FUNCTIONS OF LANGUAGE

Language serves many functions, which are all related to the fundamental process
of communication. Perhaps most important is that language conveys meaning
and is part of almost all kinds of social interaction. Language conveys intentions,
motives, feelings, and beliefs. Language is used to issue requests and commands;
and is also used to teach and to convey information. Language is useful because
it can represent ideas and events that are not tied to present. You can also describe
abstract ideas, such as beauty and justice, as well as concrete objects of everyday
experience. Thus, language is symbolic, in that speech sounds and utterances
stand for or represent various objects, ideas, and events.

Regardless of whether we are considering spoken language, written language, or

sign language, there are three elements of language expression and human
communication that have been identified as operating in the speaker-listener
situation: speech acts, propositional content, and thematic structure. A brief
description from the analysis by Clark & Clark (1977) is as follows:
i) Speech Acts: Speakers normally intend to have some influence on their
listeners. To do so, speakers get the listeners to recognise the speakers’
intentions. Indeed, failure to recognise these intentions can result in awkward
situations. Speech-act theory holds that all utterances can be classified as to
the type of speech act they represent. For example, speech acts may make
assertions, make verbal commitments, convey thanks, give a warning, or
issue a command. Typical examples of speech acts including the following:
“I insist that you turn down the volume on the stereo” (a command); “What
are your plans for weekend?” (a question); “I promise to pay you tomorrow”
(a verbal commitment), symbolise ordering, questioning, committing etc,
which are common direct speech acts.
Searle (1969) pointed out that some speech acts are indirect. When your
mother asks if you live in a barn, a guest in your house asks if you are chilly,
23
Language they are conveying information about their desires, but in a rather indirect,
nonliteral way. The meaning of any particular speech act, including whether
it is direct or indirect, will depend on the context in which it is uttered
(Gibbs, 1986), as well as its content.
ii) Propositional Content: The second element of communication concerns
the propositional content of a sentence. In communication, speakers want
to convey certain ideas, and to do this, they must be sure that they are
understood. Thus, the content around a speech act is very important. As a
general rule, the propositional content of a sentence is used to describe certain
states or events; it can be part of other propositions. For example, the sentence
“The bright student received an A in Mathematics” expresses two separate
propositions: “the student is bright” and “the student received an A in
Mathematics.” Combined into a single sentence, the propositions convey
what the speaker intends to convey. There is experimental evidence that we
represent as propositions. For example, the more propositions contained in
a sentence, the longer the time required to read the sentence (van Dijk &
Kintsch, 1983)(discussed in detail in last section).

iii) Thematic Structure: The third component in communication is thematic

structure. To communicate effectively, good speakers pay careful attention
to their listeners. Good speakers have to judge what listeners do and do
know, keep track of where they are leading their listeners, and regularly
examine any assumptions about the listeners’ knowledge of the topic being
discussed. In short, the speaker must be able to make reasonably accurate
judgments of the listener’s current level of understanding. All of these
features are present in good teachers, entertaining and effective storytellers,
and interesting conversationalists.

2.3 STRUCTURE OF LANGUAGE

A theoretical intervention about the process which leads to the understanding of
an utterance in communication should involve two aspects. Firstly, the aspects
of language linked to the recognition of the form of the utterance itself (phonology,
morphology, and syntax); secondly, questions about how the meaning of what is
understood can be defined, which are linked to semantics and pragmatics of the
communication process. These two aspects cannot be separated, and in order to
analyse the process of language, both are to be taken into consideration. Thus, to
understand the language processes, it is fundamental to understand the basic
structure of language first.

As should be evident by now, language can be divided into three basic parts,
each with its own structure and rules: phonology, syntax (grammar), and
semantics. The first of these, phonology, concerns the rules for pronunciation of
speech sounds. The second aspect of language, syntax, deals with the way words
combine to form sentences. And semantics focuses on the meaning of words and
sentences.

2.3.1 Basic Units of Language: Phonemes and Morphemes

All languages are made of basic sounds called phonemes. Adult human beings
can produce approximately 100 phonemes, and the English language is made up
24
of about 45 phonemes. Languages vary in the number of phonemes, ranging Language Processing
(Comprehension and
from as few as 15 to as many as 85. One reason why it is difficult for many Language Expression)
Americans to learn foreign languages is that different phonemes are used. For
instance, Germanic and Slavic languages contain phonemes never used in the
English language. (Phonemes and morphemes have already been defined in the
previous chapter).

2.3.2 Higher Levels of Linguistic Analysis

The study of speech sounds which make up a language is called phonology, and
the study of how these sounds combine to produce morphemes is called
morphology. However, psychologists are frequently interested in a more global
analysis of language than is provided by phonology and morphology.
Psychological investigations of language typically adopt words, phrases,
sentences, or prose, rather than more elementary speech sounds, as the most
fundamental unit of analysis.

There are several levels at which these higher-order analyses can be made.
1) First, one could analyse the lexical content of a sentence or of some other
unit of language production. When a lexical analysis is performed, the
question is simply, what words are used, and how many times they are used
in this sample of language? Information gained from lexical analysis of
language, such as that by Thorndike and Lorge, has proved to be very useful
in predicting the ease with which different words can be learned in laboratory
situations.
2) At another level of linguistic analysis, the syntactic content of language text
may be investigated. In the study of syntax, interest is focused on the
arrangement or ordering of words to form phrases and sentences. The
question asked in this type of analysis is, how is this phase (or sentence)
structured? Psychologists and linguists interested in syntactic theory have
attempted to specify rules that account for the productivity of language
(Chomsky, 1985). The set of rules indicating how the elements of the
language may be combined to make intelligible sentences is referred to as a
grammar. Although a large number of different grammars have been
proposed, there is little agreement about the necessary features of an adequate
grammar.
3) Another level of analysis of language is the one that considers the semantic
content or meaning of passage. This perspective on language results in the
asking of questions such as the following: What does the passage
communicate? What is the meaning of this particular sentence?
Word meaning is a function of the interaction between word features and
the extent to which they match those belonging to certain prototypical and
nonprototypical contexts (Lakoff, 1987). Here, both feature theory and
prototype theory are seen as important.
The critical role of semantics is not under question and has been clearly
demonstrated in a number of psychological investigations. In general, current
views of semantics and comprehension view the listener (or reader) as an
active participant who formulates hypotheses about subsequent input based
on context (both verbal and situational), on knowledge of constraints in the
language, and on knowledge of the world. This is in contrast to the more
25
Language passive view of the comprehended as someone who waits for the input before
acting upon it.

2.3.3 Phase Structure of Sentences

In order to understand language in an adult, it is necessary to examine the structure
of sentences. At one level of analysis, a sentence can be regarded simply as a
string of phonemes. At another level, a sentence can be regarded as series of
morphemes, which are grouping of phonemes. From this viewpoint, however,
the sentence is viewed as a string of words. Linguists have found it more useful
to describe a sentence in terms of phrases, which are grouping of words.

Analysis of a sentence into its various phrases describes the phrase structure of
a sentence. A sentence is viewed as composed of two basic phrases, a noun
phrase and a verb phrase, which in turn are composed of subcomponents.

Figure 2.1 shows the phrase structure of a simple sentence, “The boy ate an
apple.” The noun phrase is composed of a determiner and a noun, and the verb
phase is composed of a verb and noun phrase; the latter noun phrase is also
composed of a determiner and a noun. Pause in speech usually reflect underlying
phrase structure. For example, we are most likely to say, “The boy…ate…an
apple,” pausing ever so briefly after boy and ate. We are not likely to say,
“The….boy ate…an apple,” or “The… boy ate an….apple,” grouping boy, ate,
and an. While in normal speech a speaker may search and grope for a particular
word and, thus, alter the pauses, the listener still tends to understand the message.

Sentence

Noun Phrase Verb Phrase

Determiner Verb Nour Phrase

Noun
Determiner Noun

boy ate
The an apple

Fig. 2.1: Phrase structure in a sentence represented by a tree diagram (adapted from Hunt
& Ellis, 2006)

2.3.4 Structure and Deep Structure in Sentences

The surface structure is the organisation that describes the sequences of phrases
in a sentence as it is actually spoken (or read) and reflects the phonological
realisation of the complex, underlying linguistic structure.
Deep structure, in contrast, refers to the underlying structure that includes the
26 relevant string of linguistic units, the grammatical requirements for lexical (word)
selection, and the grammatical relations between words in sentences. The deep Language Processing
(Comprehension and
structure of a sentence, thus, specifies the derivations of both its surface structure Language Expression)
and meaning.

Consider the sentences, “Rohit threw the ball” and “The ball was thrown by
Rohit.” Both sentences convey the same meaning despite the fact that they sound
different. Hence their deep structure is same. But consider the sentence “The
lamb is ready to eat,” which can have two meanings. The lamb may serve as
food to be eaten, or as an animal, the lamb is prepared to eat food. Thus, the deep
structure can vary within the same sentence, depending on what meaning the
speaker wishes to convey. Evaluate the meaning of the following ambiguous
sentences” “Visiting relatives can be a nuisance,” “the corrupt police can’t stop
drinking.”

Sentences with essentially a single deep structure and two or more surface
structures are synonymous. Sentences with different deep structures and the same
surface structure are ambiguous. Thus, important problem remaining concerns
the theoretical rules by which the deep structure of a sentence comes to be realised
in a particular surface structure. Rules for the specification of this linkage process,
called transformational rules, have been developed by Noam Chomsky
(Chomsky, 1965, 1975) and other linguists.

Transformational rules have clear implications about what features of sentences

human beings do store in memory. If the sentence is simple, then features of the
surface structure may be stored. As sentences become more complex, what is
thought to be stored is some underlying base structure, or schema, plus one or
more “footnotes” that serve as rules necessary to regenerate the sentence in its
original surface form. Thus, what is stored is some coded representation of the
complex sentence.

Information contained in a linguistic message tends to be comprehended, and

sometimes is remembered, in syntactically defined chunks, although semantically
based chunking also may be used, depending on the demands placed upon the
listener and the nature of the material (Marschark, 1979). Thus, the phrase
structure of a sentence appears to play an important organisational role in language
processing at a very basic level (Ferreira & Clifton, 1986).
Self Assessment Questions
1) Explain language in your words.
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...............................................................................................................
2) What are the three functions of language?
...............................................................................................................
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27
Language
3) Explain surface structure and deep structure.
...............................................................................................................
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...............................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................

2.4 PROCESSES IN LANGUAGE

In this section we will examine some basic processes in language. The focus is
on three processes: (i) production of language, (ii) speech perception and
comprehension, and (iii) language development.

2.4.1 Production of Language

The beginning of a dialogue is usually the production of speech by one of the
participants, although a gesture or other sign may initiate such an interaction and
have its origins in a similar verbal plan (McNeil, 1985). But, before uttering a
sentence or manually expressing any information, the speaker must do some
planning based on the intended effect the utterance is to have on the listener;
based on the speaker’s knowledge of the listener’s scope of understanding
(example, is the listener familiar with the topic?); and based on the syntactic,
semantic, and pragmatic (or social) form that the production and its desired
effects requires. Thus, speaking is very much an instrumental act, which is to
say that speakers talk in order to produce an effect of some kind.
The process of speaking is basically concerned with planning and execution.
But just how is speech planned and executed? Clark & Clark (1977) described a
rough outline of this process, which involves five steps. The first step for speakers
is to decide on the kind of discourse to be initiated, which is the issue of discourse
plans. Do they want to engage in a conversation, to describe an event, to give
instructions, or to regale a friend with a humorous story? Each type of discourse
has a particular structure, and speakers must plan their utterances to fit that
structure.
For example, if you are telling a joke, you first describe the setting or context,
then describe the sequence of events, and end with the punch line. If you fail to
follow this structure, you obviously will not be an effective joke teller. If you
give away the joke by accidently telling the punch line before the appropriate
time, you will defeat your purpose. Similarly, instructions and conversations
have an orderly structure.
One set of guidelines that speakers and listeners seem to follow to foster good
communication during a conversation has been described by Grice (1975) and
others (e.g., Levelt, 1989). These “Gricean Maxims” are:
Quantity: Avoid running off at the mouth.
Quality: Don’t lie or stretch the truth.
Relation: Avoid making statements irrelevant to the topic of conversation.

28
Manner: Avoid vague or ambiguous statements.
Failure to follow these maxims often results in a conversational implicature. Language Processing
(Comprehension and
For example, imagine that you are reviewing an applicant’s letter of Language Expression)
recommendation for a highly technical job, and the letter reads as follows:

I am writing a letter on behalf of Gopal Bhatnagar. Gopal dresses very well and
has a charming wife. He also drives a nice automobile and sings in his church’s
choir. Thank you.

Would you hire Gopal based on this letter? Probably not. Clearly, the content of
this letter violates the Relation Maxim. Because of this, the letter writer has
conversationally implied that John is not the person for the job. Speakers (and
letter writers) usually adhere to these Gricean Maxims; but, as this example
demonstrates, it is quite informative when they don’t.

Planning discourse is planning at global level. The second stage of speech

production involves planning of sentences, the components of discourse. Once
the nature of discourse is decided, specific sentences that will accomplish the
objective must then be selected. The speech act, the propositional content, and
the thematic structure need to be determined. The order in which sentences are
produced and the type of information to be conveyed must be thought about. For
example, suppose you are describing your new house. You might first describe
the location; next, you might describe the overall type of house; then you might
proceed to describe the floor plan and arrangement of rooms and, finally, give
sfics of each room. Notice that there is a structure that involves going from
global, or general information, to progressively more specific details.

The third phase of speech production deals with constituent plans of the sentence.
Once a sentence is decided on, its components must then be planned. The
appropriate words, phrases, and so forth must be picked out and put in the right
order. These first three phases describe three levels of planning. At the most
general level, planning is directed towards the type of discourse. At the next
level, planning concerns the type of sentence to be uttered. At the third level,
planning deals with specific components of the sentence.

An interesting feature of slips of the tongue is that they point out regularities in
the planning stages of productions. For example, slips are seldom “illegal”
combinations of sounds for the language; morphemes tend to slip as entire units
(Clark & Clark, 1977). Some classics slips are known as “bloopers” in the world
of radio and television. Some bloopers are fairly obvious. For example, an
announcer for the ‘Friendly Homemaker Program’ said, “And now we present
our homely friendmaker. Another example is a remark of the commentator
covering visit of the king and queen of England: “When they arrive, you will
hear a 21 son salute.”

The fourth phase of speech production deals with what is called the articulatory
program. This concerns the plans for the execution of speech, which is a
coordinated sequence of muscular contractions in and about the mouth. And the
final phase of speech production is articulation itself. This is the actual output of
speech. Interested readers are referred to Clark & Clark (1977) and Levelt (1989)
for a detailed discussion of planning and execution of speech.

29
Language
2.4.2 Speech Perception and Comprehension
To understand speech is crucial to human communication. Hence, speech
perception is fundamental to language use in our day to day life. We are able to
perceive speech with amazing rapidity. On the one hand, we can perceive as
many as fifty phonemes per second in a language in which we are fluent (Foulke
& Sticht, 1969). On the other hand, we can perceive only about two thirds of a
single phonemes per second of nonspeech sounds (Warren et al., 1969). This is
why foreign languages are difficult to understand when we hear them. Even if
we can read them, the sounds of their letters and letter combinations may be
different from the sounds corresponding to the same letters and letter combinations
in our native language.

The comprehension of speech begins with the perception of raw speech sounds.
Comprehension starts where speech production ends. Speakers produce a stream
of sounds that arrive at the listener’s ears; then, listeners are able to analyse the
sound patterns and to comprehend them. Speech perception is not, however, the
simple identification of sounds.
It involves the complex processes of encoding and comprehension. In other words,
interpretative processes, meaning, contextual influences, and the like play
important roles in speech perception. Thus, the transformation from raw speech
sounds to propositions in memory is a complex process. The physical signal that
reaches the ear consists of rapid vibrations of air. While the sounds of speech
correlate with particular component frequencies, there is no direct one-to-one
correspondence between the sounds of speech and the perception of listeners.
Recognition of words is very much dependent on context, explanations, and
knowledge. For example, a hungry child can interpret the question “Have you
washed your hands for dinner?” as a call to come directly to dinner (i.e., as
indirect speech act rather than a direct question).
The role of context also can be easily seen in complete sentences in which context
allows words to be inferred quite easily. For example, the sentence “The young
girl was awakened by her frightening d….” allows listeners to infer dream. There
is no need to think about what the word might be; it just seems to pop out
automatically.
A similar context effect was studied in the laboratory of Warren (Warren &
Obusek, 1971) using phonemes. Subjects were read sentences that had a single
speech sound obscured. For example, the sentence “The state governors met
with the respective legislatures convening in the capital city” had the first s in
legislatures masked by a coughing sound. The experimenter then asked the
subjects to identify where the cough had occurred. [The results indicated that
subjects somehow “restored” the missing s sound and were unable to locate the
interjected cough.]
The phenomenon, appropriately called phonemic restoration, has been shown to
be even more likely when more than a single word can result from the restoration
(example: “_egion” can become either “legion” or “region”), indicating an active
word-searching process in speech perception (Samuel, 1987).
Many people have the impression that the words they hear are distinct, separate
combinations of sounds, but this impression in not correct. Cole (1979, 1980)
30
and other speech researchers have demonstrated that words usually run together Language Processing
(Comprehension and
as sound patterns. This is seen by use of a spectrograph, an electronic device for Language Expression)
measuring the variations in energy expended when a person talks. Moreover, it
is often the case that a single word cannot be recognised correctly when it is
taken out of its sentence context. This was shown some years ago by Pollack and
Pickett (1963), who played different segments of a normal conversation for
subjects. When the subjects heard just one word from the conversation, it was
often incomprehensible. Without the context of the meaningful sentence, the
single word could not be understood.

More generally, an important feature of speech perception is that speech is not

comprehended simply on the basis of the sounds per se. Rather, speech is
comprehended on the basis of many additional factors (e.g., intentions, context,
and expectations) from which an interpretation of what the speaker says is
constructed. (Tyler & Marslen-Wilson, 1986; see Paivio & Begg, 1981, for a
review).

One main approach equates processes of speech perception with processes of

auditory perception of other sounds. These kinds of theories emphasises either
template-matching or feature-detection processes. Such theories postulate that
there are distant stages of neural processing. In one stage speech sounds are
analysed into their components. In another stage these components are analysed
for patterns and matched to a prototype or template (Kuhl, 1991; Massaro, 1987).
One theory of this kind is the phonetic refinement theory (Pisoni et al.,1985),
which says that we start with an analysis of auditory sensations and shift to
higher level processing. A similar theoretical idea is embodied by the TRACE
model (McClleland & Elman, 1986). According to this model, speech perception
begins with three levels of feature detection: the level of acoustic features, the
level of phonemes, and the level of words. According to this theory, speech
perception is highly interactive. Lower levels affect higher levels and vice versa.

One attribute of these theories have in common is that they all require decision-
making process above and beyond feature detection or template matching. Thus,
the speech we perceive may differ from the speech sounds that actually reach
our ears. The reason is that cognitive and contextual factors influence our
perception of sense signal. For example, the phonemic-restoration effect involves
integrating what we know with what we hear when we perceive speech (Samuel,
1981; Warren, 1970).

2.5 LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

Language acquisition and development follows a fairly orderly course. (This
order has been discussed in detail in the earlier chapter on Language Acquisition).
Here we will focus on development of semantics which ultimately help the child
in comprehending the language.

Making speech sounds is only the first step in acquiring language. The sounds
must come to represent objects, symbols, and events in the child’s environment
and they must acquire meaning for the child.

Children are familiar with many aspects of their environment before they learn
to speak. Their parents, toys, pets, siblings, and household objects are familiar
31
Language stimuli. At this early stage of language development, their task is one of learning
to associate particular environment stimuli with particular sound symbols and
responses. For example, they must learn to associate the sight of mother with the
sound of Mama.

Only when such associations are acquired, the speech sound come to represent
or symbolise a specific object or event for the child. These associations are only
a part of language development. Thus, the development of meaning begins with
the acquisition of associations between objects/events and speech sounds.

One popular view of the acquisition of word meaning is that children learn
semantic features and then attempt to apply an original word that includes the
features to objects that share those features. For example, a child may learn the
word ball and then overgeneralise it to other round objects such as moon and
orange.

Gradually, the child begins to construct more complex sentences that take on the
characteristics of adult language. This is an enormously challenging task (Brown,
1973). What the child learns are sets of grammatical, semantic, and pragmatic
rules for constructing sentences. Usually, children are unable to verbalise the
rules, but their linguistic performance indicates that they do possess linguistic
competence, the knowledge necessary to produce all and only those situations of
a given language.

Indeed, many adults who speak grammatically acceptable English are unable to
specify the rules they use. But these rules allow us to generate the almost infinite
number of sentences. One of the best pieces of evidence for learning syntactic
rules is the phenomenon of overgeneralisation. For example, children learn to
say went correctly, apparently by rote, then learn the rule of forming the past
tense by adding ed, and then incorrectly as goed. They later learn the exception
to the rule and go back saying went. Similar overgeneralisations occur in deaf
child’s acquisition of sign language.

This brief description only begins to sketch some of the complexities of language
development. What is clear is that young children have an enormously complex
task in learning to speak, read, and use language in a meaningful fashion. The
fact that human beings can acquire and use language emerges as a remarkable
achievement.

Finally, relating language development to the earlier discussion on speech acts,

there have also been some interesting findings. For example, it appears that
younger children view the meaning of “I Promise” differently than do older
children and adults. According to philosopher Sourly (1969), certain conditions
must be present for a sincere promise to be made.

One condition is that the person making the commitment actually intends to
carry out the promised action. A second condition is that it is apparent that the
person to whom the promise is directed desires the action to be carried out. In a
recent study, Bernicot & Laval (1996) report that 3-year-olds have difficulty
understanding only the second condition. But, by age 10, children evaluate both
conditions equivalently well in determining the outcome of a scenario (concerning
the occurrence of the promised activity), where these conditions were
manipulated.
32
These findings indicate that the meaning of “I Promise” is quite different, Language Processing
(Comprehension and
depending on the age of the child to whom it is said. Specifically the understanding Language Expression)
of the contextual circumstances underlying the making of a verbal commitment
increments with age. Initially, children are primarily concerned with whether the
promised activity simply occurred; as they grow older, they begin to grasp the
intentions of the speaker in evaluating the likely outcome of that activity
(Astington, 1988).

2.6 COMPREHENSIVE MODEL OF LANGUAGE

PROCESSING
This chapter has progressed systematically from the simple linguistic entities
(phonemes and morphemes), to syntax and grammar, to speech perception and
comprehension. One might wonder, whether there are any comprehensive theories
of language. In fact there are many. One by Kintsch is particularly significant
because it incorporates many bits of wisdom from earlier studies and, at the
same time contains a model of the mind. Let’s discuss now the principal
components of the most influential, extensive and comprehensive model of
language processing by Kintsch and van Dijk (Kintsch, 1974, 1979, 1988, 1990;
Kintsch & van Dijk, 1978) briefly.

2.6.1 Kintsch’s Model of Comprehension

This model of comprehension is more than a system that deals with the way
textual information is understood. It is a theory that cuts across many topics in
cognitive psychology, including memory and comprehension of the written and
spoken language. Comprehension is dependent on two disparate sources that are
similar to top-down and bottom-up processing. [Borrowed from computer
language, bottom-up processing is cognitive processing initiated by the
components of a stimulus pattern which, when summed, lead to recognition of
the whole configuration; whereas top-down processing is hypothesis-driven
recognition of the whole stimulus configuration, which leads to the recognition
of component parts.] At the highest level is the goal schema, which decides what
material is relevant. At the opposite extreme of the model is the text.

The model is based on a proposition. A proposition is an abstraction, and, as

such, it is difficult to define concretely. However, some characteristics of
propositions can be identified: they are abstractions based on observations (such
as reading text material or listening to a speaker); they are retained in memory
and follow the laws governing memory processes; and, in Kintsch’s system,
they consist of a predicate and one or more arguments. Predicates corresponds to
verbs, adjectives, adverbs, or connectives in the words a person reads or hears.
This is called the surface structure, a term already discussed in previous sections.
Arguments correspond to nouns, noun phrases, or clauses. The model is illustrated
with the following little story:

The Swazi tribe was at war with a neighbouring tribe because of a dispute over
some cattle. Among the warriors were two unmarried men, Kakra and his younger
brother Gum. Kakra was killed in battle.

The first sentence is divided into five groups: the swazi tribe…..was at war
with….a neighbouring tribe…. because….a dispute over some cattle. According
33
Language to coherence analysis of this sentence, only first three of the factors are in working
memory. The predicate “was at war with” is considered the most important part
of this sentence insofar as comprehension of the story is concerned. The other
parts are clustered around it.

A significant feature of the model is that the initial processing of the text is
assumed to take place in Short Term Memory (STM), which we know has limited
capacity. Because of this constraint, only a portion of the propositions is held in
memory. With the reading of the second sentence, some of propositions from the
first sentence are still vital in STM. The reader tries to connect the old and new
propositions but finds no match between them.

Failing to find a match between the propositions in STM, the reader searches
Long Term Memory (LTM) for a possible match. This search in the LTM is
called reinstatement search and is one reason that text material may be hard to
read. In the example, the lack of a match between propositions in the first and
second sentence requires the reader to construct a new network for the ideas and
to attempt to relate the two sentences.

One inference that the reader makes is that the two men were members of the
Swazi tribe, a reasonable conclusion even though that the fact is not stated directly.
With the reading of more sentences, the semantic network begins to get more
complicated and interrelated. The reading of the sentence “Among the warriors
were…., Kakra and…….” Retains in memory the names of the men, which can
easily be related to the information in the last sentence “Kakra was killed in
Battle.”

2.6.2 Propositional Representation of Text and Reading

As stated before the model of comprehension holds that the underlying unit of
memory for text material is the proposition. Additionally, the model predicts
that sentences of greater propositional complexity are more difficult to
comprehend than sentences with simple propositional structure, even if the surface
complexity of the two sentences is about the same. Kintsch and Keenan (1973)
designed an experiment to test this prediction. A sample from many experiments
is reported here.

Subjects were asked to read ten sentences, all of which had about the same number
of words but varied greatly in the number of propositions. Some sentences had
as few as four propositions, and others had as many as nine. For example, read
the following two sentences:
Romulus, the legendary founder of Rome, took the women of Sabine by force.
Cleopatra’s downfall lay in her foolish trust in the fickle political figures of the
Roman world.
Which sentence was more difficult to read? If you are like the subjects in Kintsch’s
and Keenan’s experiment, you had more difficulty with the sentence about
Cleopatra than the sentence about Romulus. Even though the surface complexity
of the two sentences is about the same, they differ markedly in the number of
propositions and the macrostructures that are required to interconnect the
propositions.

34
In the Kintsch’s and Keenan’s experiment, subjects were presented with sentences Language Processing
(Comprehension and
similar to those just discussed above by means of slides. The subjects were asked Language Expression)
to read each sentence and then to write it. They could then advance the slides and
see the next sentence. Time taken in reading each sentence was noted. The authors
found an extraordinarily consistent relationship between the number of
propositions and the time required to read the sentences.

2.7 LET US SUM UP

In all, the approaches that have been taken in exploring many of the issues involved
in the perceptual analysis of language and lexical processing merely scratch the
surface of the complexity of both theory and fact that must be developed to
provide a sufficient characterisation of the cognitive system. Language processing
requires a multidisciplinary examination. To conclude, we can say that, like many
other cognitive process, language processing is a very dynamic and complex
process. No single method, function or theory can explain the process of language
completely in itself; only a comprehensive approach should be appropriate and
applied for the comprehension of language.

2.8 UNIT END QUESTIONS

1) Note the various experimental tasks that have been used to study language
comprehension. Have you run into any of them before in this course?
2) It is intuitively obvious that context facilitates word interpretation, but how
can it interfere with interpretation?
3) What is the role of context and expectations in the interpretation of speech?
How has the influence of context been studied experimentally?
4) What are several major features of language development?
5) Compare and contrast the role of speech perception, syntax and semantics
in the development and understanding of language.
6) What are the different processes involved in language comprehension?
7) The exposition of Kintsch’s model is necessarily abstract and therefore
difficult to comprehend. Preserve in your reinstated searches! See if you
can use it to deal with a new example of text selected from another course.
8) What factors are included in Kintsch’s model? How does the reader enter
into this model?
9) Give an example of a humorous violation of one of Grice’s four maxims of
successful conversation.

2.9 SUGGESTED READINGS AND REFERENCES

Clark, H. H. (1996). Using Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Clark, H., & Clark, E. (1977). Psychology and Language: An Introduction to

Psycholinguistics. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

Garrod, S. & Pickering, M.J. (2001). Language Processing. East Sussex:

Psychology Press.
35
Language References
Gleitman, L. R., Liberman, M., & Osherson, D. N. (Eds.)(2000). An Invitation
to Cognitive Science, 2nd Ed. Volume 1: Language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Hunt, R. R., & Ellis, H.C. (2006). Fundamentals of Cognitive Psychology. New
Delhi: Tata McGraw Hill.

Jurafsky, D., & Martin, J.H. (2009). Speech and Language Processing: An
Introduction to Natural Language Processing, Computational Linguistics, and
Speech Recognition. NJ: Prentice Hall.

Just, M.A., & Carpenter, P.A. (1987). The Psychology of Reading and Language
Comprehension. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Reed, S.K. (2010). Cognition: Theories and Applications. London: Cengage.

Solso, R.L. (2006). Cognitive Psychology. New Delhi: Pearson Education.

Sternberg, R.J. (2009). Applied Cognitive Psychology: Perceiving, Learning,

and Remembering. London: Cengage.

36
 Language Processing
UNIT 3 MULTILINGUALISM AND (Comprehension and
Language Expression)
COGNITION

“To have another language is to possess a second soul.” — Charlemagne (742/

7 – 814), King of the Franks

Structure
3.0 Introduction
3.1 Objectives
3.2 Multilingualism — Basic Concepts
3.2.1 The Structure of Multilingualism
3.2.2 Multiligualism in India
3.3 Multilingualism and Cognition
3.3.1 Relations Between Languages and Their Users
3.3.2 Rule-governed Language Choice
3.3.3 Mixing is Rule-Governed Too
3.4 Multilingualism and Thinking
3.4.1 Other Benefits
3.5 Acquisition of a Second Language
3.5.1 Single-System Versus Dual-System Hypotheses
3.6 Neural Mechanism of Multilinguals
3.7 Let Us Sum Up
3.8 Unit End Questions
3.9 Suggested Readings and References

3.0 INTRODUCTION
Multilingualism is the natural potential available to every normal human being
rather than an unusual exception; it is only the environmental factors which may
fail to provide the opportunity to learn another language that produce monolingual
speakers: “Given the appropriate environment, two languages are as normal as
two lungs” (Cook, 2002).
Every child is born with a language acquisition device having innate properties
that plays a role in acquiring knowledge of language. This innateness is a
biological endowment that Chomsky refers to as “Principles and Parameters”.
According to this theory, there is a universal grammar – where “Principles” are
general features, while “parameters” are variables left open in the statement of
principles that account for the diversity found in languages. Grammar is a
collection of choices (example, a choice between SOV and SVO patterns of
sentences). They define the limited numbers of grammatically permitted choices
from the universal grammar menu of options. There are also lexical facts. Once
the vocabulary is learnt and grammatical patterns are fixed, the whole system
falls in its place and general principles programmed into general organ, just churns
away to yield all the particulars of the language concerned (Chomsky as quoted
in Jenkins, 2000).
In other words, there are different grammatical systems based on the choice of
different parameters, when the child is exposed to them, his/her innate capacity 37
Language gets activated and he/she acquires knowledge of the rules of the language while
using it for communication. When the child is exposed to more than one such
linguistic system, he/she acquires more than one language and is known as
multilingual.

3.1 OBJECTIVES
After reading this unit, you will be able to:
• Define basic concepts and structure of multilingualism;
• Explain multilingualism and cognition;
• Define acquisition of language; and
• Explain neural mechanism of multilinguals.

3.2 MULTILINGUALISM – BASIC CONCEPTS

Multilingualism is the knowledge of more than one language by a person or
within a social group; it assumes the ability to switch from one language to
another in speech, in writing, or in reading. Other terms describing this
phenomenon include bilingualism, polylingualism, plurilingualism, diglossia,
and languages-in-contact. Multilingualism may be personal, social, or
intersubjective. A generic term for multilingual persons is polyglot. Poly (Greek
word) means “many”, glot (Greek) means “language”; and for the monolinguals
is monoglot. Personal multilingualism refers to the knowledge and verbal
behaviour of an individual, not necessarily shared by the whole community. Social
multilingualism refers to the communicative practices of a nation, tribe, or other
social group that sustains two or more languages. As in India, nearly 200 languages
are spoken by its natives.

3.2.1 The Structure of Multilingualism

For many years, the popular belief was that a multilingual person should have
learnt all of his or her languages simultaneously in early childhood and that he or
she should have a native — like oral and written competence in all of them
(Bloomfield 1933).

Today, a broader definition is more common. Accordingly, a person may be called

multilingual if s/he uses his or her languages on a regular base and is able to
switch from one to another where ever it is necessary, independently from the
symmetry of his/her command of the languages, of the modalities of acquisition
and of the distance between the varieties (Haugen 1953, Oksaar 1980 & Grosjean
1982). Thus, an Indian guest worker who learnt enough Swiss German dialect
for his struggle for life in Switzerland may be considered bilingual with the
same right (but not, of course, in the same way) as an interpreter working at the
European Union and having systematically extended his or her ‘native’ French-
English bilingualism.

Generally speaking, multilingualism is of two kinds: Elite – Language learned

in a formal setting through planned and regular instruction as in a school system.
Neighborhood – Here the language is acquired in a natural setting, acquired
through the interaction with people speaking different languages. Theoretically
38
bilingualism is referred to as — additive and subtractive bilingualism. In additive Multiligualism and
Cognition
bilingualism, a second language is acquired in addition to a relatively well-
developed first language. In subtractive bilingualism, elements of a second
language replace elements of the first language.

Researchers also distinguish between simultaneous bilingualism, which occurs

when a child learns two languages from birth, and sequential bilingualism, which
occurs when an individual first learns one language and then another (Bhatia &
Ritchie, 1999). Either form of language learning can contribute to fluency. It
depends on the particular circumstances in which the languages are learned
(Pearson & associates, 1997).

It is known, however, that infants begin babbling at roughly the same age. This
happens regardless of whether they consistently are exposed to one or two
languages (Oller & associates, 1997). In the United States, many people make a
big deal of bilingualism, perhaps because relatively few Americans born in the
United States of nonimmigrant parents learn a second language to a high degree
of fluency.

In other cultures, however, the learning of multiple languages is taken for granted.
For example, in parts of India, people routinely may learn as many as four
languages (Khubchandani, 1997). In Flemish-speaking Belgium, many people
learn at least some French, English, and/or German. Often, they learn one or
more of these other languages to a high degree of fluency.

No society or state has just one language, nor can language be isolated from
culture. Societies are multilingual because of minorities that live within the
dominant language group, and also because the official language itself presides
over numerous dialects. In the Austro-Hungarian Empire, many linguistic and
cultural communities had their own territories in a common state, dominated by
German.

Language cannot be isolated from culture, because every language is a repository

of values, images and memories: the semiotics of culture. The boundary between
the semantics of language and the semiotics of culture is blurred, so that
multilingualism shades into multiculturalism.

At the end of the 20th century, one or another form of multilingualism affect 60
per cent of the world’s population. In other words, monolingualism is a boundary
case of multilingualism, originated by very specific cultural conditions — and
bilingualism is a particular form of multilingualism.

3.2.2 Multiligualism in India

India is said to be a socio-linguistic giant and the nerve system of this giant is
multilingualism. “Indian multilingualism is huge in size, having 1620 mother
tongues reduced to 200 languages….With the population of many of minorities
larger than European countries”(Annamalai E. 2001).

This multilingual character of India is represented by its metropolitan cities like

Mumbai and New Delhi, where people from all over come and settle down. For
example, in Mumbai every child is exposed to at least four languages right from
its infancy (Pai, 2005). Government of India has introduced the Three Language
39
Language Formula in its educational system, which means every child has to study two
more languages other than their first language. The two languages are introduced
simultaneously at upper primary level.

3.3 MULTILINGUALISM AND COGNITION

What all this means is that the monolingual approach is neither appropriate nor
adequate for the investigation of language use in a society where multilingualism
was endemic and where, for the education at least, mono lingualism was the
exception and not the norm” (Trotter, 2000).

3.3.1 Relations Between Languages and Their Users

Multilingualism is a particularly timely issue concerning language competence.
A state of multilingualism may be achieved naturally, when a person grows up
with two parents speaking different languages, or is a member of a minority, or
lives in a multilingual community. In many parts of the United States, children
are exposed to two or more languages as they grow up. Some children learn one
language at home and another in a school setting.

Other children learn both languages at home, where, for example, the grandparents
speak one language to the child, but the parents and siblings speak another. Still
other children immigrate to this country speaking one language and then learn a
second language in school once they are settled in their new environment. It may
also be acquired later in life, through immigration or learning. Regardless of
how one actually learns his or her languages, the result is an individual who has
a greatly enhanced ability to think and communicate.

In terms of language processing, multilingualism offers a rich source of

information about the organisation and use of the structure and processes of
language already discussed in earlier chapter – not only concerning bilinguals or
multilinguals but monolinguals as well.

Participant languages may be associated with different communicative media:

conversation, writing, reading, and symbolic systems can use different, and not
necessarily overlapping, languages. Three recent issues about multilingualism
are briefly explored here:
1) The first concerns “code-switching”, the ability of multilinguals to select
words from either of their languages during the course of uttering a sentence.
Code switching maximizes the bilingual’s ability to convey his/her intended
message to another bilingual and to understand another bilingual’s code-
switching message.
What is fascinating is that code-switching often requires no additional time
(and may, in fact, use less time) than when words from only one language
are selected or perceived. One interesting study of this ability is by
Peynircioglu & Tekcan (1993). In this study monolinguals and bilinguals
searched a completed crossword puzzle for words in their language (Turkish
and English). The bilinguals were equivalent to the monolinguals in the
time they took to locate words in only one of their languages. But bilinguals
were faster than monolinguals when they collectively located words in either
of their languages. This finding indicates an advantage for bilinguals over
40
 monolinguals in word recognition, which can be demonstrated when they Multiligualism and
Cognition
are allowed to use a strategy of identifying all of the words they know (from
both languages).
2) The second important issue concerns the treatment of lexical (grammatical)
and semantic knowledge by multilinguals. One theoretical view places lexical
knowledge in language-specific memory stores but semantic knowledge in
a common conceptual memory store (Kroll & Sholl, 1992), whereas the
other theoretical view places both types of knowledge in language-specific
memory stores (Paivio, 1986).
The first theory predicts, for example, that semantic processing of a word in
one language (e.g., translating a word presented in a categorized list into
another language) should facilitate memory for that word (relative to
translating that word when it is presented in a random list), whereas the
second theory predicts that no such facilitation would take place (because
contacting the meaning of a word in one language should not involve
contacting the meaning of the word in other language).
To date, the evidence supports the first theory, known as “Concept
Mediation” account, especially in fluent multilinguals (Amrhein & Sanchez,
1997; De Groot, Dannenburg, & Van Hell, 1994; Kroll & Sholl, 1992).
3) The third issue concerns how language familiarity influences a person’s
ability to correctly identify another person’s voice. In a study conducted by
Goggin, Thompson, Strube, & Simental (1991), English monolinguals and
Spanish-English multilinguals heard texts read by the same person in either
English, Spanish, or Spanish-accented English. A short time later, these
subjects then heard a voice “line-up” of individuals reading a different text,
again in either English, Spanish, or Spanish-accented English. Goggin &
colleagues (1991) found a distinctly different pattern in the responses for
monolinguals and bilinguals. For monolinguals, actual correct identifications
were highest for their respective language. However, for bilinguals, correct
identifications were generally the same across the three voice types.
Collectively, these findings indicate that bilinguals’ knowledge of two languages
aids in their identification of the voice source of the messages they encounter
and represents an interesting interaction between speech perception and higher
level of language analysis. These findings also represent an advantage
multilinguals have over their monolingual counterparts.

3.3.2 Rule-governed Language Choice

How does a multilingual person make an appropriate choice from among the
varieties that constitute his/her repertoire? There is consensus among specialists
that this choice is not arbitrary but governed by rules (Grosjean 1982, 145).
Macrosociolinguistic research established the existence of domains appropriate
for the use of one or the other language in diglossic societies (Fishman 1967).

Multilinguals would thus choose the appropriate variety taking into account
whether it is a private or public affair, whether the conversation concerns the
professional world or leisure activities, religion or education, etc. Where domains
entwine (e.g. when an adolescent speaks with a minister [religion] about football
[leisure] in the school building [education]), individual factors are isolated and
pondered over. Language choice would be determined by characteristic bundles
41
Language of situational factors (Grosjean 1982). The same applies to heterogeneous
diglossic societies. In all these cases, the value of each language is thoroughly
appreciated. By choosing one or the other variety of his/her repertoire, the
multilingual speaker makes the most rewarding use of his communicative
resources.

3.3.3 Mixing is Rule-governed Too

Sometimes the choice of the appropriate language is not evident. Multilinguals
can choose between a monolingual mode and a bilingual mode (Grosjean 1985),
i.e. between monolingual and bilingual speech (Lüdi & Pym, 1984) respectively.

In the first case, the language that is not used is ‘switched off’ as far as possible.

In the second case, the speaker’s whole repertoire is activated. Possible criteria
for the choice of the monolingual or bilingual mode are: the interlocutors’
repertoire, the degree of formality of the situation, normative representations of
the interlocutors, etc. In other words, the situation is not ‘automatically’ bilingual
even if both interlocutors are similarly bilingual. Bilingual mode requires a —
locally established — mutual agreement on its appropriateness. This holds true
for balanced as well as for unbalanced bilingualism (e.g. in the case of learners).

Systematic observations of examples like this have led to the hypothesis that
there are rules and norms that overlap single languages and govern the harmonic,
i.e. the ‘grammatical’, mixing of elements from different languages. It may be
assumed that the matrix language chosen for various reasons (level of competence
of the speaker, presumed level of competence of the audience, conformity with
the situation) is activated and provides the cognitive scaffolding for the semiotic
organisation of a representation (Talmy, 1985, 1995).

Searching for the appropriate words for what he wants to say, the speaker then
scans both of his lexica (or both subsets of his global bilingual lexicon). To fill
the gap of words he does not know, that are momentarily not accessible or that
may not even exist in the matrix language — or to achieve a special discourse
effect —, he will switch to the embedded language. But this is only possible if
the lemma of the embedded language word matches the slot provided by the
matrix language.

If this is not the case, the speaker will choose to switch to the embedded language
for a larger stretch and produce an “embedded language island” (Myers Scotton,
1993). Thus, a model of bilingual speech must provide control procedures for
the local matching of both language systems (Myers Scotton, 1993; Jake 1995;
Jake & Myers Scotton 1997).

Recently, MacSwan (1997, 1999) presented a minimalist approach to

intrasentential code-switching. He claims that “nothing constrains code switching
apart from the requirements of the mixed grammars”, a claim that does not entail
a theory about which principles of grammar are relevant to code switching, but
“leaves open any and all independently motivated considerations in linguistic
theory to the analysis of codeswitching data”.

A theory of a multilingual competence should thus be identical with any linguistic

theory in general. Consequently, it can be concluded that a linguistic theory must,
42
in order to be complete, give a full account of the ways multilingual repertoires Multiligualism and
Cognition
can be used to produce mixed utterances. Thus, new research on the bilingual or
multilingual lexicon (e.g. de Groot and Nas 1991, Cenoz et al. 2003) must be
taken into account by every general theory of the lexicon.

Vice versa, each lexical — and language — theory will have to be judged by its
capacity to account for bilingual speech.

3.4 MULTILINGUALISM AND THINKING

Suppose a person can speak and think in two or more than two languages. Does
that person think differently in each language? Further, do multilinguals – people
who can speak two and possible more languages – think differently from
monolinguals – people who can speak only one language? What differences, if
any, emanate from the availability of multiple languages versus just one? Might
multilingualism affect intelligence, positively or negatively?

Does multilingualism make thinking in any one language more difficult, or does
it enhance thought processes? The data are somewhat self-contradictory (Hakuta,
1986). Different participant populations, different methodologies, different
language groups, and different experimenter biases may have contributed to the
inconsistency in the literature. Consider what happens when bilinguals are
balanced bilinguals, who are roughly equally fluent in both languages, and when
they come from middle-class backgrounds. In these instances, positive effects of
bilingualism tend to be found but negative effects may result under other
circumstances.

Let us distinguish between additive versus subtractive bilingualism (Cummins,

1976). As we have studied earlier, a second language is acquired in addition to a
relatively well-developed first language in additive bilingualism; whereas, in
subtractive bilingualism, elements of a second language replace elements of the
first language.

It appears that the additive form results in increased thinking ability. In contrast,
the subtractive form results in decreased thinking ability (Cummins, 1976). In
particular, there may be something of a threshold effect. Individuals may need to
be at a certain relatively high level of competence in both languages for a positive
effect of bilingualism to be found.

In a study by Eleanor (1993), the relationships among language proficiency,

learning mode, learning style, abstract reasoning, and age of second language
acquisition in 227 adults was investigated. The subjects, most of whom were
university students, included 17 monolinguals, 120 partial multilinguals, and 90
competent multilinguals.

For comparison with competent multilinguals, the monolinguals and partial

multilinguals were grouped together. All were tested for language proficiency,
learning style (diverger, assimilator, converger, accommodator), learning mode
(concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualisation, active
experimentation), and analogy-solving ability. Native English-speakers had higher
analogy-solving scores than native speakers of other languages, regardless of
language proficiency; competent multilinguals scored highest.
43
Language Among competent multilinguals, native English-speakers scored higher than non-
native speakers. Competent multilinguals scored lower on reflective observation
than did other subjects. There was also a significant negative correlation between
learning mode and analogy-solving ability.

No significant difference was found in learning styles, and no significant

interaction effect between language proficiency and learning mode or style on
analogy-solving ability. Individuals learning the second language after age 12
had higher analogy-solving scores than those learning it earlier. However, early-
second-language-learners were more likely to be competent multilinguals.

3.4.1 Other Benefits

The advantages that multilinguals exhibit over monolinguals are not restricted
to linguistic knowledge only, but extend outside the area of language (Cook,
1999, 2002), and the substantial long-lived cognitive, social, personal, academic,
and professional benefits of enrichment bilingual contexts have been well
documented (Thomas & Collier, 1998).
Children and older persons learning foreign languages have been demonstrated to:
1) Have a keener awareness (Galambos & Goldin-Meadow, 1990; Ewert, 2006,
2008) and sharper perception of language (enhanced metalingual abilities,
e.g. detection of anomalous sentences; Bialystok, 2001).
2) Foreign language learning “enhances children’s understanding of how
language itself works and their ability to manipulate language in the service
of thinking and problem solving” (Cummins, 1981);
3) Be consistently better able to deal with distractions, which may help offset
age-related declines in mental dexterity (Bialystok et al,. 2004);
4) Have a better ear for listening and sharper memories (Ratte ,1968; Lapkin et
al., 1990);
5) Develop not only better verbal, but also spatial abilities (Diaz, 1983);
6) Display generally greater cognitive flexibility, better problem solving and
higher-order thinking skills (Hakuta, 1986).
7) They have better ‘measures of conceptual development’, ‘creativity’ and
‘analogical reasoning’ (Diaz, 1985), divergent thinking and figural creativity
(Landry, 1968, 1972, 1973, 1974).
8) Bilinguals or multilinguals are more used to switching thought patterns and
have more flexible minds.
9) Foreign language learners consistently outperform their peers in core subject
areas on standardised tests. For instance, multilingual children in Brussels
secondary schools outperform their monoglot schoolmates in problem-
solving and fraction exercises;
10) They possess extra skills in language use, e.g. engage in transfer, borrowing,
insertional, alternational, inter- and intra-sentential code switching (Grosjean,
1989), mixing, and translation patterns that are usual and natural rather
than exceptional (as is in the case of monoglots), and analyse as psycholinguistically
motivated hybrid utterances serving different interactional, linguistic, pragmatic,
cognitive and strategic functions (Majer, 2006).
44
Thus, just like Latin once used to be taught as an academic exercise, mental Multiligualism and
Cognition
gymnastics with the aim of cognitive training, it has been demonstrated that
people who know more than one language usually think more flexibly than
monolinguals.

3.5 ACQUISITION OF A SECOND LANGUAGE

Languages are learnt at different ages, in different situations and up to very
different levels of competence. This has of course consequences for the way
multilingual repertoires will be structured. It is thus crucial to analyse the social
context in which the different varieties making up a multilingual repertoire have
been acquired. Recent research has shown for instance that “passive” exposure
to other languages during childhood can lead to an unfocussed form of language
learning and to a form of competence that can be reactivated at later stages if
necessary (Ellis 1995, Franceschini 1996, 1999).
A significant factor believed to contribute to acquisition of a language is ‘age’.
Research has shown that some aspects of a second language, such as vocabulary
comprehension and fluency, seem to be acquired just as well after adolescence
as before. The mastery of nativelike pronunciation, however, seems to depend
on early acquisition. In any case, there do not appear to be critical periods for
second-language acquisition (Birdsong, 1999). The possible exception is the
acquisition of native accent.
Adults may appear to have a harder time learning second languages because
they can retain their native language as their dominant language. Young children,
in contrast, who typically need to attend school in the new language, may have
to switch dominant language. They thus learn the new language to a higher level
of mastery.
It is assumed that learning a (second) language is a series of cognitive procedures
by which the learner progressively constructs the grammar of the new language,
not only assisted by a “language acquisition device” (more for L1, less for L2),
but also with the support from more competent members of the community
(Vygotsky 1978) in the compass of a “language acquisition support system” based
on social interaction (Bruner 1982, 1983).
Research on second language acquisition has shown the importance of a set of
interactive procedures. These may be observed in exolingual situations that
provide the non-native speaker the necessary help not only to communicate, but
also to continue his/her learning process (e.g. Krafft & Dausendschön-Gay 1994).
What kinds of learning experiences facilitate second-language acquisition? There
is no single correct answer to this question (Bialystock & Hakuta, 1994). One
reason is that each individual language learner brings distinctive cognitive abilities
and knowledge to the language-learning experience. In addition, the kinds of
learning experiences that facilitate second-language acquisition should match
the context and uses for the second language once it is acquired.
For example, consider four different individuals. Ria, a young child, may not
need to master a wealth of vocabulary and complex syntax to get along well with
other children. If she can master the phonology, some simple syntactical rules,
and some basic vocabulary, she may be considered fluent.
45
Language Similarly, Kishen needs only to get by in a few everyday situations, such as
shopping, handling routine family business transactions, and getting around town.
He may be considered proficient after mastering some simple vocabulary and
syntax, as well as some pragmatic knowledge regarding context-appropriate
manners of communicating.
Meenakshi must be able to communicate regarding her specialised technical
field. She may be considered proficient if she masters the technical vocabulary,
a primitive basic vocabulary, and the rudiments of syntax.
Sumesh is a student who studies a second language in an academic setting. Sumesh
may be expected to have a firm grasp of syntax and a rather broad, if shallow,
vocabulary. Each of these language learners may require different kinds of
language experiences to gain the proficiency being sought. Different kinds of
experiences may be needed to enhance their competence in the phonology,
vocabulary, syntax, and pragmatics of the second language.
When speakers of one language learn other languages, they find the languages
differentially difficult. For example, it is much easier, on average, for a native
speaker of English to acquire Spanish as a second language than is to acquire
Russian. One reason is that English and Spanish share more roots than do English
and Russian. Moreover, Russian is much more highly inflected than are English
and Spanish. English and Spanish are more highly dependent on word order.
The difficulty of learning a language as a second language, however, does not
appear to have much to do with its difficulty as a first language. Russian infants
probably learn Russian about as easily as U.S. infants learn English

3.5.1 Single-System Versus Dual-System Hypotheses

One way of approaching multilingualism is to apply what we have learned from
cognitive-psychological research to practical concerns regarding how to facilitate
acquisition of a new language. Another approach is to study multilingual
individuals to see how multilingualism may offer insight into human mind. For
example, some cognitive psychologists have been interested in finding out how
the different languages are represented in multilingual’s mind. The single-system
hypothesis suggests that two or more languages are represented in just one system
or brain region (see Hernandez & associates, 2001, for evidence supporting this
hypothesis in early multilinguals).

Alternatively, the dual-system hypothesis suggests that two/different languages

are represented somehow in separate systems of mind (De Houwer, 1995; Paradis,
1981). For instance, might German language information be stored in a physically
different part of the brain than English language information?

One way to address this question is through the study the multilinguals who
have experienced brain damage. Suppose a multilingual person has brain damage
in a particular part of the brain. An inference consistent with the dual-system
hypothesis would be that the individual would show different degrees of
impairment in the different languages. The single-system view would suggest
roughly equal impairment in all the languages. The logic of this kind of
investigation is compelling. But the results were not. When recovery of language
after trauma is studied, sometimes the first language recovers first, sometimes
the second/latter acquired language recovers first. And sometimes recovery is
46
about equal for all the languages .
In a related situation, an early bilingual aphasic was trained in his native language Multiligualism and
Cognition
but was given no training in his second language (Meinzer & associates, 2006).
The researchers found significant recovery of the first language but no change in
the individual’s ability to use the second language.

The conclusions that can be drawn from all this research are equivocal.
Nevertheless, the results seem to suggest at least some duality of structure. A
different method of study has led to an alternative perspective on multilingualism.
Two investigators mapped the region of cerebral cortex relevant to language use
in two of their bilingual patients being treated for epilepsy (Ojemann & Whitaker,
1978). Mild electrical stimulation was applied to the cortex of each patient.
Electrical stimulation tends to inhibit activity where it is applied. It leads to a
reduced activity to name the objects for which the memories are stored at the
location being stimulated. The results for both patients were the same.

The results of this study suggest some aspects of the two languages may be
represented singly. Other aspects may be represented separately.

3.6 NEURAL MECHANISM OF MULTILINGUALS

The question whether we may speak of one entwined or several separated systems
cannot be fully answered alone by the experimental studies discussed above.
Neurosciences may offer additional insights. The functional magnetic resonance
imaging (fMRI) has been able to throw light on a large number of factors.
Answers to questions like whether there is a difference between balanced and
unbalanced bilinguals, Whether there is a, relation between the neuronal network
constructed when learning a second language and the ‘classical’ language centre,
whether the first be integrated into the latter and whether.
The research findings in the neuroanatomy of bilinguals are still contradictory
and the analysis of cases of bilingual speech used by speakers with different
kinds of multilingual competencies could shed new light on these questions.
Early bilinguals seem to build up a network in sufficiently adaptable to allow the
integration of later acquired languages. Late bilinguals have to establish new
neural areas to guarantee development of their late-acquired languages. These
results could have an important impact on the structure of an integrated language
theory. Such a theory will consider multilingual repertoires and their use in
different contexts the default case, monolingual competencies and monolingual
speech representing just one many cases to be explained. It will match new ways
of modelling the dynamics of intercultural communication and contribute to it.

3.7 LET US SUM UP

To summarize, different languages seem to share some, but not all, aspects of
mental representation. Learning a second language is often a plus, but it is probably
most useful if the individual learning the second language is in an environment
in which the learning of the second language adds to rather than subtracts from
the learning of the first language.

Moreover, for beneficial effects to appear, the second language must be learned
well. In the approach usually taken in schools, students may receive as little as 2
47
Language or 3 years of second-language instruction spread out over a few class periods a
week. This approach probably will not be sufficient for the beneficial effects of
bilingualism to appear. However, schooling does seem to yield beneficial effects
on acquisition of syntax.

This is particularly so when a second language is acquired after adolescence.

Furthermore, individual learners should choose specific kinds of language-
acquisition techniques to suit their personal attributes. These attributes include
abilities, preferences, and personal goals for using the second language.

3.8 UNIT END QUESTIONS

1) Describe the various processes involved in multilingualism?
2) Why study of multilingualism is important for cognitive psychologists?
3) What can multilingualism tell us about language structures and processes?
4) What are the advantages of being bilingual? Can you think of any
disadvantages?
5) Give a detailed account of language acquisition of a second language.
6) Suppose you are an instructor of English as a second language. What kinds
of things will you want to know about your students to determine how much
to emphasise phonology, vocabulary, syntax, or pragmatics in your
instruction?

3.9 SUGGESTED READINGS AND REFERENCES

Cenoz, J., & Genesee, F. (Eds.) (1998). Beyond Bilingualism: Multilingualism
and Multilingual Education. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Edwards, J. & Edwards, J.R. (Eds.) (1994). Multilingualism. London: Routledge.
Hunt, R. R., & Ellis, H.C. (2006). Fundamentals of Cognitive Psychology. New
Delhi: TataMcGraw Hill
References
Gleitman, L. R., Liberman, M., & Osherson, D. N. (Eds.)(2000). An Invitation
to Cognitive Science, 2nd Ed. Volume 1: Language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Lleó, C. (Ed.)(2006). Interfaces in multilingualism: Acquisition and
representation. PA: John Benjamins Publishing Co.
Pattanavak, D.P. (Ed.) (1990). Multilingualism in India. Clevedon: Multilingual
Matters.
Pavlenko, A., Blackledge, A., Piller, I., & Teutsch-Dwyer, M. (Eds.)(2001).
Multilingualism, second language learning, and gender. NY: Walter de Gruyter
Sternberg, R.J. (2009). Applied Cognitive Psychology: Perceiving, Learning,
and Remembering. London: Cengage.
Tomasello, M. (2003). Constructing a Language. Cambridge: Harvard University
Press.
Yang, C. (2009)(Ed.). Language Acquisition. London: Routledge.
48
 Multiligualism and
UNIT 4 LANGUAGE AND SPEECH Cognition

DISORDERS

“Language comes so naturally to us that it is easy to forget what a strange and

miraculous gift it is.” – Steven Pinker

Structure
4.0 Introduction
4.1 Objectives
4.2 Defining Language and Speech Disorders
4.3 Language Disorders
4.3.1 Aphasia
4.3.2 Autism
4.3.3 Learning Disability
4.3.4 Alzheimer’s Disease
4.3.5 Specific Language Impairment
4.3.6 Developmental Phonological Disorders
4.3.7 Dyspraxia
4.4 Speech Disorders
4.4.1 Voice Disorders
4.4.2 Speech Sound Disorder
4.4.3 Fluency Disorders
4.4.4 Apraxia of Speech
4.4.5 Dysprosody
4.4.6 Dysarthria
4.5 Let Us Sum Up
4.6 Unit End Questions
4.7 Suggested Readings and References

4.0 INTRODUCTION
Communication is so pervasive in any community in its day-to-day activities
that it is often taken for granted (Sternberg, 2001). Normal language develops
over a period and it is sequential or ordered (Crystal, 1992). A child acquires
vocalisation, speech sounds (vowels and consonants) and then prosodies. This
acquisition is in recognisable stages that entail acquisition of form, content, and
use (Seymour & Nober, 1997). The form is the system of symbols that convey
meaning and it is made up of the phonology, morphology, and syntax of a
language. The content includes the individual words and combinations of words
to produce meaning in the language. Content is made up of the semantics of a
language. Use involves how we use words in contexts and is made up of the
pragmatics of a language.

Many things could go wrong with the natural order of language acquisition and
development. In every community, we encounter individuals with language and/
or a speech disorders. One in 10 people in the United States is affected by a
communication disorder (speech, language, or hearing disorders). Unfortunately,
49
Language there is much ignorance as far as identifying these disorders is concerned. The
ignorance more often than not leads to mishandling of the persons with language
and speech disorders.

4.1 OBJECTIVES
After reading this unit, you will be able to:
• Define language and speech disorders;
• Explain speech disorders;
• List the causes for speech disorders;
• Enumerate the language disorders; and
• Explain treatment for the speech and language disorders.

4.2 DEFINITION OF LANGUAGE AND SPEECH

DISORDERS
Language and speech are said to be disordered or impaired if they differ from
what is considered the norm. As already indicated, the yardstick is embedded in
the culture of each language; what may be considered disordered in one language
will not necessarily be disordered in another language. There is need, therefore,
to distinguish between genuine speech disorder and people’s cultural tendencies
or practices. For example, Kim (1985) notes that Asian Americans favour verbal
hesitancy and ambiguity to avoid offence. They also avoid making spontaneous
or critical remarks. One should respect such a community’s culture and thus the
hesitancy should not be confused with a fluency disorder.

The unique nature of the language and speech disorders is that they are not visible
since mostly they are not physically manifested, except defects that affect
articulation. Most disorders are not evident until a person opens her/his mouth
to speak. The disorders, for the same reason, are often not considered a disability,
even by the persons who have them.

Language and speech disorders may be due to factors such as physical, mental,
or socialisation defects (Crystal, 1988). Though language and speech disorders
are classified together they are slightly different from each other. Let’s take them
one by one:

4.3 LANGUAGE DISORDERS

Language is the rule-based use of speech sounds to communicate (Sternberg,
2000). Language disorders or language impairments involve the processing of
linguistic information. Problems that may be experienced can involve grammar
(syntax and/or morphology), semantics (meaning), or other aspects of language.
Disordered language may be due to a receptive problem, that is, a difficulty in
understanding speech sounds (involving impaired language comprehension). It
can also be due to an expressive problem, that is, a difficulty in producing the
speech sounds (involving language production), that follow the arbitrary rules
of a specific language. A language disorder can also be due to problems in both
reception and expression. Examples include specific language impairment and
50
aphasia, among others. Language disorders can affect both spoken and written Language and Speech
Disorders
language, and can also affect sign language; typically, all forms of language will
be impaired.

Note that these are distinct from speech disorders, which involve difficulty with
the act of speech production, but not with language. Language disorders, therefore,
refer to the following:

The use of speech sounds in combinations and patterns that fail to follow the
arbitrary rules of a particular language is a language disorder. For instance, the
lack of communication etiquette is considered a language disorder. Talking out
of turn, not talking when it is your turn, or not responding when you are expected
to could be disorders if frequently observed in one’s language behaviour.

The delay in the use of speech sounds relative to normal development in the
physical, cognitive, and social areas is another language disorder. Most language
disorders are often diagnosed in conjunction with other developmental delays
— for instance, health, sensory, motor, mental, emotional, and behavioural
development.

Language disorder is a disorder that is found in the development or use of the

knowledge of language. It shows the breakdown in the development of language
abilities on the usual developmental schedule. The disorders that come under
language disorders are: Autism, Learning Disability, Specific Language
Impairment, Developmental Phonological Disorders Aphasia, Dyspraxia, etc.
We shall discuss the most common language disorders in detail:

4.3.1 Aphasia
Aphasia is an impairment of language functioning caused by damage to the left
hemisphere of the brain (Garrett, 2003; Hillis & Caramazza, 2003). There are
different type of aphasias, example; Broca’s aphasia and Wernicke’s aphasia.

Wernicke’s aphasia is caused by damage to the left temporal lobe of the brain. It
is characterised by notable impairment in the understanding of spoken words
and sentences. People with Wernicke’s aphasia have generally fluent phonetic
and syntactic but semantically coherent speech.

This coherence is exhibited through the creation of nonsense words for real-
world concepts and improper substitutions of function words for content words
(e.g., nouns, verbs). It also typically involves the production of sentences that
have the basic structure of the language spoken but that make no sense. They are
sentences without any meaning, e.g. ‘Yeah, that was the pumpkin furthest from
my thoughts’ and ‘the scroolish prastimer ate my spanstakes’ (Hillis & Caramazza,
2003).

In the first case, the words make sense, but not in the context they are presented.
In the second case, the words themselves are neologisms, or newly created words.
Treatment for patients with this type of aphasia frequently involves supporting
and encouraging nonlanguage communication (Altschuler et al., 2006).
Broca’s aphasia is caused by damage to the brain’s premotor area, responsible,
in part, for controlling motor commands used in speech production. A person
suffering from Broca’s aphasia exhibits speech containing excess pauses and
51
Language slips of tongue, and s/he has trouble finding words when talking. The person
also fails to make use of function words such as a, the, and of. For this reason,
Broca’s aphasics also produce ungrammatical sentences (Tartter, 1987).
Furthermore they have problem using syntactic information when understanding
sentences (Just & Carpenter, 1987). For example, while a Broca’s aphasic has no
trouble understanding a sentence such as “The bicycle that the man is holding is
blue”, but s/he has trouble comprehending a sentence such as “the dog that the
woman is biting is grey.”
This difference is due to the fact that while the first sentence can be understood
using real-world knowledge (e.g. bicycle, not people, are blue), the second
sentence cannot (because it is unlikely that a woman would bite a dog). Because
understanding the second sentence requires correctly using syntactic information,
which Broca’s aphasics have difficulty doing, the sentence poses problem for
them (Berndt & Caramazza, 1980).
Broca’s aphasia differs from Wernicke’s aphasia in two key aspects. First is that
speech is agrammatical rather than grammatical, as in Wernicke’s. Second is
that verbal comprehension is largely preserved.
Diseases like Broca’s and Wernicke’s aphasia, while tragic, tell us much about
the critical functions of certain regions of the brain. Notably, their symptoms
suggest that (at least certain) phonological, syntactic, and semantic, language
information is stored and processed separately in the brain.
Global aphasia is the combination of highly impaired comprehension and
production of speech. It is caused by lesions to both Broca’s and Wernicke’s
areas. Aphasia following a stroke frequently involves damage to both Broca’s
and Wernicke’s areas. In one study, researchers found 32 % of aphasias
immediately following a stroke in Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas (Pedersen, Vinter,
& Olsen, 2004).
Anomic aphasia involves difficulties in naming objects in retrieving words. The
patient may look at an object and simply be unable to receive the word that
corresponds to the object. Sometimes, specific categories of things cannot be
recalled, such as names of living things (Warrington & Shallice, 1984).

4.3.2 Autism
Autism is a developmental disorder characterised by abnormalities in social
behaviour, language, and cognition (Jarrold & Happe’, 2003). It is biological in
its origins, although the genes responsible for it have not been conclusively
identified (Lamb et al., 2000). Children with autism are identified by around 14
months of age, when they fail to show expected normal patterns of interaction
with others. They display repetitive movements and stereotyped patterns of
interests and activities. When they interact with someone, they are more likely to
view their lips than their eyes. About half of children with autism fail to develop
functional speech. The speech they tend to develop is characterised by echolalia,
meaning they repeat, over and over again, speech they have heard. Sometimes
the repetition occurs several hours after the original use of the words by someone
else.

Children with autism show abnormalities in many areas of the brain, including
the frontal and parietal lobes, as well as the cerebellum, brainstem, corpus
52
callosum, basal ganglia, amygdala, and hippocampus. The disease was first Language and Speech
Disorders
identified in the middle of the twentieth century (Kanner, 1943). It is five times
more common in males than females. The incidence of diagnosed autism has
increased rapidly over recent years (Chen et al., 2007). Autism is diagnosed
today in approximately 60 out of every 10,000 children (Fombonne, 2003). The
increase in recent times may be a result of a number of causes, including changes
in diagnosing strategies or environmental pollution (Jick & Kaye, 2003; Windham
et al., 2006).

4.3.3 Learning Disability

Language-based learning disabilities are problems with age-appropriate reading,
spelling, and/or writing. Most people diagnosed with learning disabilities have
average to superior intelligence. . In language-based learning disability (or just
learning disabilities), many children with reading problems have spoken language
problems. Dyslexia has been used to refer to the specific learning problem of
reading.

Dyslexia — Dyslexia has been around for a long time and has been defined in
different ways. For example, in 1968, the World Federation of Neurologists
defined dyslexia as “a disorder in children who, despite conventional classroom
experience, fail to attain the language skills of reading, writing, and spelling
commensurate with their intellectual abilities.” Dyslexia is not due to mental
retardation, brain damage, or a lack of intelligence. It is caused by an impairment
in the brain’s ability to translate images received from the eyes or ears into
understandable language. The severity of dyslexia can vary from mild to severe.
It is found more often in boys than in girls. The sooner dyslexia is treated, the
more favorable the outcome; however, it is never too late for people with dyslexia
to learn to improve their language skills (Schulte-Körne, Warnke, & Remschmidt,
2006).

Letter and number reversals are the most common warning sign of dyslexia (Birsh,
2005). Difficulty in copying from the board or a book can also suggest problems.
The child may appear to be uncoordinated and have difficulty with organised
sports or games. Difficulty with left and right is common, and often dominance
for either hand has not been established. Auditory problems in dyslexia encompass
a variety of functions. Commonly, a child may have difficulty remembering or
understanding what he hears. Parts of words or parts of whole sentences may be
missed, and words can come out sounding funny. Children struggling with this
problem may know what they want to say but have trouble finding the actual
words to express their thoughts (Sperling et al., 2006).

There are several types of dyslexia that can affect the child’s ability to spell as
well as read (Heim, Tschierse, & Amunts, 2008). Primary dyslexia is a dysfunction
of, rather than damage to, the left side of the brain (cerebral cortex) and does not
change with age. Individuals with this type are rarely able to read above a fourth-
grade level and may struggle with reading, spelling, and writing as adults. Primary
dyslexia is passed in family lines through their genes (hereditary). Secondary or
developmental dyslexia and is felt to be caused by hormonal development during
the early stages of fetal development. Developmental dyslexia diminishes as the
child matures (Galaburda & Cestnick, 2003).

53
Language Dyslexia may affect several different functions. Visual dyslexia is characterised
by number and letter reversals and the inability to write symbols in the correct
sequence. Auditory dyslexia involves difficulty with sounds of letters or groups
of letters. The sounds are perceived as jumbled or not heard correctly. Dysgraphia
refers to the child’s difficulty holding and controlling a pencil so that the correct
markings can be made on the paper (Facoetti et al., 2003).

Many subtle signs can be observed in children with dyslexia. Due to the frustration
arising from the difficulty in reading, children may become withdrawn and may
show signs of depression and low self-esteem. Peer and sibling interactions can
become strained. The child may become unmotivated and develop a dislike for
school. The child’s success in school may be jeopardised if the problem remains
untreated.

4.3.4 Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s disease is a brain disorder which leads to a decrement in language
processing ability. This disease primarily afflicts elderly persons and causes
progressive, diffused, and irreversible damage to the cortical regions of the brain,
impacting markedly on memory functions. Comparison between the language
decrements due to the dementing effects of Alzheimer’s disease and those noted
for the aphasics is useful because the average age of onset of Alzheimer’s Disease
overlaps that of aphasias (around 50 to 60 years of age).

The language of an Alzheimer’s patient is marked by a striking simplification

process wherein words that once precisely described some event are now lost
and are replaced by more general terms because of a fundamental loss of
categorical organisation in semantic memory (Chan et al., 1993; Martin & Fedio,
1983). It appears, however, that in patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease,
phonological and syntactic knowledge and use is minimally affected. Finally, a
deficit in pragmatic knowledge, concerning the correct recognition of the intention
of a speech act (e.g., that an utterance is meant to be taken as a request), turntaking
in a conversation, and so on also occurs. Interestingly, this pattern of deficits and
nondeficits again argues for the distinctiveness of the various levels of language
information similar to what was seen for Broca’s and Wernicke’s aphasias (Bayles
& Kaszniak, 1987).

4.3.5 Specific Language Impairment

Specific language impairment (SLI) is a developmental language disorder in the
absence of frank neurological, sensorimotor, nonverbal cognitive or social
emotional deficits (see Watkins, 1994). SLI is used to refer to problems in the
acquisition and use of language, typically in the context of normal development.
Children with SLI lag behind their peers in language production and language
comprehension, which contributes to learning and reading disabilities in school.

One of the hallmarks of SLI is a delay or deficit in the use of function morphemes
(e.g., the, a, is) and other grammatical morphology (e.g., plural -s, past tense -
ed). Individuals with SLI exhibit problems in combining and selecting speech
sounds of language into meaningful units (phonological awareness).

These problems are different to speech impairments that arise from difficulties
in coordination of oral-motor musculature (Cohen, 2002). Symptoms include
54
the use of short sentences, and problems producing and understanding Language and Speech
Disorders
syntactically complex sentences. SLI is also associated with an impoverished
vocabulary, word finding problems, and difficulty learning new words, whereas
the basic tasks for development of phonology and syntax are completed in
childhood, vocabulary continues to grow in adulthood (Bishop, 1997).

Some researchers claim that SLI children’s difficulty with grammatical

morphology is due to delays or difficulty in acquiring a specific underlying
linguistic mechanism. For example, difficulty in acquiring the rule that verbs
must be marked for tense and number (“he walks”, not “he walk”) (Rice &
Wexler, 1994).

These children have a deficit in processing brief and/or rapidly changing auditory
information, and/or in remembering the temporal order of auditory information
(Tallal, et al., 1985). Children with SLI have poor short-term memory for speech
sounds (example, Gathercole, 1998). In a number of recent studies short-term
memory for speech sounds has been shown to correlate highly with vocabulary
acquisition and speech production. This has led to the hypothesis that a primary
function of this memory is to facilitate language learning.

Moreover, among SLI children, about 50% will go on to experience reading

difficulties and develop dyslexia (Bishop & Snowling, 2004).

4.3.6 Developmental Phonological Disorders

“Developmental Phonological Disorders, also known as phonological disability
or phonological disorders, are a group of language disorders that affect children’s
ability to develop easily understood speech by the time they are four years old,
and, in some cases, their ability to learn to read and spell. Therefore, Phonological
disorders involve a difficulty in learning and organising all the sounds needed
for clear speech, reading and spelling” (Bowen, 1998).

Individuals with this Communication Disorder of childhood demonstrate

impairment in their ability to produce sounds as expected for their developmental
level. Some children with developmental phonological disorders have other
speech and language difficulties such as immature grammar and syntax, stuttering
or word-retrieval difficulties.

The cause of phonological disorder in children is largely unknown. It has been

suggested that this disorder has a genetic component due to the large proportion
of children who have relatives with some type of similar disorder. However
there is no available data to support these observations. Developmental
phonological disorders may occur in conjunction with other communication
disorders such as stuttering, specific language impairment (SLI), or developmental
apraxia of speech. No matter what combination of difficulties a child with a
developmental phonological disorder has, appropriate speech-language pathology
treatment is usually successful in eliminating or at the very least, reducing the
problem (Bowen, 1998).

4.3.7 Dyspraxia
Developmental dyspraxia is a disorder characterised by impairment in the ability
to plan and carry out sensory and motor tasks (Dewey, 1995). Generally,
individuals with the disorder appear “out of sync” with their environment.
55
Language Symptoms vary and may include poor balance and coordination, clumsiness,
vision problems, perception difficulties, emotional and behavioural problems,
difficulty with reading, writing, and speaking, poor social skills, poor posture,
and poor short-term memory. Although individuals with the disorder may be of
average or above average intelligence, they may behave immaturely (Henderson
& Henderson, 2003).

Developmental dyspraxia is a lifelong disorder. Many individuals are able to

compensate for their disabilities through occupational and speech therapy.
Treatment is symptomatic and supportive and may include occupational and
speech therapy, and “cueing” or other forms of communication such as using
pictures and hand gestures. Many children with the disorder require special
education (Alloway & Temple, 2007).

4.4 SPEECH DISORDERS

Speech disorders are characterised by a difficulty in producing normal speech
patterns. Children go through many stages of speech production while they are
learning to communicate. What is normal in the speech of a child of one age may
be a sign of a problem in an older child. Speech is the vocal utterance of language
and it is considered disordered in three underlying ways: voice, articulation, and
fluency (Roseberry-McKibbin, 1995).

These disorders include voice disorders (abnormalities in pitch, volume, vocal

quality, resonance, or duration of sounds), speed sound disorders/articulation
disorders (problems producing speech sounds), and fluency disorders (impairment
in the normal rate or rhythm of speech, such as stuttering).

4.4.1 Voice Disorders

Voice involves the coordinated effects of the lungs, larynx, vocal chords, and
nasal passage to produce recognisable sounds. Voice can thus be considered
disordered if it is incorrectly phonated or if it is incorrectly resonated. In the
incorrect phonation an individual could have a breathy, strained, husky, or hoarse
voice. With the incorrect resonation an individual could have hyper-nasality or
hypo-nasality. The voice disorders could also be due to improper voicing habits.

Paralanguage issues, such as use of pitch, volume, and intonation, are diverse
for they are culturally determined. Every sound of voice has a possible range of
meanings that could be conveyed simply through the voice rather than the words
we use. The features that should be considered in determining a voice disorder
are:
Volume: how loudly or softly we speak
Pitch: how pleasant or unpleasant
Quality: the highness or lowness of one’s voice
Rate: the speed at which one speaks
Voice disorders are interpreted variously in different cultures. For instance, in
many African cultures masculinity and femininity are determined by paralinguistic
features. A man who speaks in a low volume, a high pitch, or a smooth and slow
voice, would be frowned upon and called upon to “speak like a man.”
56
4.4.2 Speech Sound Disorders Language and Speech
Disorders
These involve difficulty in producing specific speech sounds (most often certain
consonants, such as /s/ or /r/), and are subdivided into articulation disorders
(also called phonetic disorders) and phonemic disorders. Articulation disorders
are characterised by difficulty learning to physically produce sounds.

Phonemic disorders are characterised by difficulty in learning the sound

distinctions of a language, so that one sound may be used in place of many.
However, it is not uncommon for a single person to have a mixed speech sound
disorder with both phonemic and phonetic components.
i) Articulation disorders: Articulation involves the use of the tongue, lips,
teeth and mouth to produce recognisable speech sounds. Articulation is
disordered if sounds are added, omitted, substituted or distorted. Articulation
disorders may be caused by factors such as structural abnormalities, for
example, a cleft lip and/or palate, a tongue-tie, missing teeth, a heavy tongue,
or a deformed mouth; faulty or incomplete learning of the sound system; or
damage of the nervous system.
Apart from affecting articulation, such conditions also affect the self-concept
of the persons (Leonard et al., 1991). For instance, Pinky Sonkar, an eight-
year-old girl from Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh, (On her life the documentary
Smile Pinky was made by American filmmaker Magan Mylan, which won
Oscars for Best Documentary), had stopped smiling, even stopped going to
school because she was ashamed of her cleft lip, a deformity 35,000 children
are born with in India every year. Then in 2008, The Smile Train arrived in
Pinky’s village and a seemingly routine plastic surgery was offered free by
doctors’ abroad and her world was changed forever.
ii) Phonemic disorders: are speech disorders in which individuals have trouble
physically producing certain sounds. In the general population phonemic
disorders are sometimes called speech impediments. Usually individuals
with phonemic disorders have trouble distinguishing the sounds made by
certain letters so that some letters, for example all “t”s or all “c”s, are
always pronounced with an incorrect sound as a substitution. Phonemic
disorders usually improve with speech therapy, though how much
improvement may be made will depend upon each individual case.

4.4.3 Fluency Disorders

Fluency involves appropriate pauses and hesitations to keep speech sounds
recognisable. Fluency is disordered if sounds are very rapid with extra sounds
(cluttered), if sounds are repeated or blocked especially at the beginnings of
words (stuttered), or if words are repeated.

Fluency disorders are more prevalent in children and they are due to a combination
of familial, psychological, neurological, and motoric factors.

The social nature of communication is affected when one has disfluent speech.
Human beings are social and they spend much of their time together. They first
learn how to communicate in a social set up — for instance, with parents, siblings,
relations, or friends. Socialisation is adversely affected if one has a fluency speech
disorder. A person with disfluency is often mishandled at home, in school, or in
public place. Often the individual becomes withdrawn.
57
Language
4.4.4 Apraxia of Speech
Apraxia of speech, also known as verbal apraxia or dyspraxia, is a speech disorder
in which a person has trouble saying what he or she wants to say correctly and
consistently. The severity of apraxia of speech can range from mild to severe.

There are two main types of speech apraxia: acquired apraxia of speech and
developmental apraxia of speech. Acquired apraxia of speech can affect a person
at any age, although it most typically occurs in adults. It is caused by damage to
the parts of the brain that are involved in speaking, and involves the loss or
impairment of existing speech abilities. The disorder may result from a stroke,
head injury, tumor, or other illness affecting the brain. Acquired apraxia of speech
may occur together with muscle weakness affecting speech production (dysarthria)
or language difficulties caused by damage to the nervous system (aphasia)
(Epstein, Perkin, Cookson, & de Bono, 2003).

Developmental apraxia of speech (DAS) occurs in children and is present from

birth. It appears to affect more boys than girls. This speech disorder goes by
several other names, including developmental verbal apraxia, developmental
verbal dyspraxia, articulatory apraxia, and childhood apraxia of speech. DAS is
different from what is known as a developmental delay of speech, in which a
child follows the “typical” path of speech development but does so more slowly
than normal. The causes of DAS are not yet known. Some scientists believe that
DAS is a disorder related to a child’s overall language development.

Others believe it is a neurological disorder that affects the brain’s ability to send
the proper signals to move the muscles involved in speech. However, brain
imaging and other studies have not found evidence of specific brain lesions or
differences in brain structure in children with DAS. Children with DAS often
have family members who have a history of communication disorders or learning
disabilities. This observation and recent research findings suggest that genetic
factors may play a role in the disorder (Kasper et al., 2005).

People with either form of apraxia of speech may have difficulty putting sounds
and syllables together in the correct order to form words. They also tend to make
inconsistent mistakes when speaking. For example, they may say a difficult word
correctly but then have trouble repeating it, or they may be able to say a particular
sound one day and have trouble with the same sound the next day. They often
appear to be groping for the right sound or word, and may try saying a word
several times before they say it correctly. Another common characteristic of
apraxia of speech is the incorrect use of “prosody” — that is, the varying rhythms,
stresses, and inflections of speech that are used to help express meaning. The
severity of both acquired and developmental apraxia of speech varies from person
to person. It can range from so mild having trouble with very few speech sounds
to the severe cases of being not able to communicate effectively.

4.4.5 Dysprosody
Dysprosody is the rarest neurological speech disorder. It is characterised by
alterations in intensity, in the timing of utterance segments, and in rhythm,
cadence, and intonation of words. The changes to the duration, the fundamental
frequency, and the intensity of tonic and atonic syllables of the sentences spoken,
deprive an individual’s particular speech of its characteristics. The cause of
58
dysprosody is usually associated with neurological pathologies such as brain Language and Speech
Disorders
vascular accidents, cranioencephalic traumatisms, and brain tumors (Pinto, Corso,
Guilherme, Pinho, & Nobrega, 2004).

4.4.6 Dysarthria
Dysarthria is a motor speech disorder. It is a weakness or paralysis of speech
muscles caused by damage to the nerves and/or brain. The type and severity of
dysarthria depend on which area of the nervous system is affected. Dysarthria is
often caused by strokes, Parkinson’s disease, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS),
head or neck injuries, surgical accident, or cerebral palsy.

A person with dysarthria may experience any of the following symptoms,

depending on the extent and location of damage to the nervous system: “slurred”
speech, speaking softly or barely able to whisper, slow rate of speech, rapid rate
of speech with a “mumbling” quality, limited tongue, lip, and jaw movement,
abnormal intonation (rhythm) when speaking, changes in vocal quality (“nasal”
speech or sounding “stuffy”), hoarseness, breathiness, drooling or poor control
of saliva, chewing and swallowing difficulty etc.

A speech-language pathologist (SLP) can evaluate a person with speech

difficulties and determine the nature and severity of the problem. The SLP will
look at movement of the lips, tongue, and face, as well as breath support for
speech, voice quality, and more.

Children with isolated speech disorders are often helped by articulation therapy,
in which they practice repeating specific sounds, words, phrases, and sentences.
For stuttering and other fluency disorders, a popular treatment method is fluency
training, which develops coordination between speech and breathing, slows down
the rate of speech, and develops the ability to prolong syllables. Delayed auditory
feedback (DAF), in which stutterers hear an echo of their own speech sounds,
has also been effective in treating stuttering.

When a speech problem is caused by serious or multiple disabilities, a

neurodevelopmental approach, which inhibits certain reflexes to promote normal
movement, is often preferred. Other techniques used in speech therapy include
the motor-kinesthetic approach and biofeedback, which helps children know
whether the sounds they are producing are faulty or correct. For children with
severe communication disorders, speech pathologists can assist with alternate
means of communication, such as manual signing and computer-synthesised
speech.

4.5 LET US SUM UP

In this unit we have defined both speech and language disorders. We have also
indicated the various causative factors leading to these disorders. Language is
the rule-based use of speech sounds to communicate (Sternberg, 2000). Language
disorders or language impairments involve the processing of linguistic
information. Problems that may be experienced can involve grammar (syntax
and/or morphology), semantics (meaning), or other aspects of language.
Disordered language may be due to a receptive problem, that is, a difficulty in
understanding speech sounds (involving impaired language comprehension).
59
Language It can also be due to an expressive problem, that is, a difficulty in producing the
speech sounds (involving language production), that follow the arbitrary rules
of a specific language. A language disorder can also be due to problems in both
reception and expression. Examples include specific language impairment and
aphasia, among others. Language disorders can affect both spoken and written
language, and can also affect sign language; typically, all forms of language will
be impaired.

Note that these are distinct from speech disorders, which involve difficulty with
the act of speech production, but not with language. Language disorders, therefore,
refer to the following:

The use of speech sounds in combinations and patterns that fail to follow the
arbitrary rules of a particular language is a language disorder. For instance, the
lack of communication etiquette is considered a language disorder. Talking out
of turn, not talking when it is your turn, or not responding when you are expected
to could be disorders if frequently observed in one’s language behaviour.

Language disorder is a disorder that is found in the development or use of the

knowledge of language. It shows the breakdown in the development of language
abilities on the usual developmental schedule. The disorders that come under
language disorders are: Autism, Learning Disability, Specific Language
Impairment, Developmental Phonological Disorders include Aphasia, Dyspraxia,
etc.

Aphasia is an impairment of language functioning caused by damage to the left

hemisphere of the brain (Garrett, 2003; Hillis & Caramazza, 2003). There are
different type of aphasias, example; Broca’s aphasia and Wernicke’s aphasia.

Autism is a developmental disorder characterised by abnormalities in social

behaviour, language, and cognition (Jarrold & Happe’, 2003). It is biological in
its origins, although the genes responsible for it have not been conclusively
identified (Lamb et al., 2000). Children with autism are identified by around 14
months of age, when they fail to show expected normal patterns of interaction
with others. They display repetitive movements and stereotyped patterns of
interests and activities. When they interact with someone, they are more likely to
view their lips than their eyes. About half of children with autism fail to develop
functional speech. The speech they tend to develop is characterised by echolalia,
meaning they repeat, over and over again, speech they have heard. Sometimes
the repetition occurs several hours after the original use of the words by someone
else .

Language-based learning disabilities are problems with age-appropriate reading,

spelling, and/or writing. Most people diagnosed with learning disabilities have
average to superior intelligence. . In language-based learning disability (or just
learning disabilities), many children with reading problems have spoken language
problems. Dyslexia has been used to refer to the specific learning problem of
reading.

Alzheimer’s disease is a brain disorder which leads to a decrement in language

processing ability. This disease primarily afflicts elderly persons and causes
progressive, diffused, and irreversible damage to the cortical regions of the brain,
impacting markedly on memory functions. Comparison between the language
60
decrements due to the dementing effects of Alzheimer’s disease and those noted Language and Speech
Disorders
for the aphasics is useful because the average age of onset of Alzheimer’s Disease
overlaps that of aphasias (around 50 to 60 years of age).

The language of an Alzheimer’s patient is marked by a striking simplification

process wherein words that once precisely described some event are now lost
and are replaced by more general terms because of a fundamental loss of
categorical organisation in semantic memory .

Specific language impairment (SLI) is a developmental language disorder in the

absence of frank neurological, sensorimotor, nonverbal cognitive or social
emotional deficits (see Watkins, 1994).

Moreover, among SLI children, about 50% will go on to experience reading

difficulties and develop dyslexia (Bishop & Snowling, 2004).

“Developmental Phonological Disorders, also known as phonological disability

or phonological disorders, are a group of language disorders that affect children’s
ability to develop easily understood speech by the time they are four years old,
and, in some cases, their ability to learn to read and spell. Therefore, Phonological
disorders involve a difficulty in learning and organising all the sounds needed
for clear speech, reading and spelling” (Bowen, 1998).

Developmental dyspraxia is a lifelong disorder characterised by impairment in

the ability to plan and carry out sensory and motor tasks (Dewey, 1995). Generally,
individuals with the disorder appear “out of sync” with their environment.
Symptoms vary and may include poor balance and coordination, clumsiness,
vision problems, perception difficulties, emotional and behavioural problems,
difficulty with reading, writing, and speaking, poor social skills, poor posture,
and poor short-term memory.

Speech disorders are characterised by a difficulty in producing normal speech

patterns. Children go through many stages of speech production while they are
learning to communicate. What is normal in the speech of a child of one age may
be a sign of a problem in an older child. Speech is the vocal utterance of language
and it is considered disordered in three underlying ways: voice, articulation, and
fluency (Roseberry-McKibbin, 1995).

These disorders include voice disorders (abnormalities in pitch, volume, vocal

quality, resonance, or duration of sounds), speed sound disorders/articulation
disorders (problems producing speech sounds), and fluency disorders (impairment
in the normal rate or rhythm of speech, such as stuttering).

4.6 UNIT END QUESTIONS

1) Compare and contrast the speech errors made by individuals in different
speech disorders.
2) Based on the discussion of language disorders in this chapter, make a worksheet
of different kinds of language disorders and their symptoms and causes.
3) What do brain disorders like Broca’s and Wernicke’s aphasias tell us about
how a healthy brain processes phonological, syntactic and semantic
information?
61
Language 4) Speech disorders have a negative effect on the personality and overall
development of the children. Explain with examples, how?
5) What are several major features of speech sound disorder?

4.7 SUGGESTED READINGS AND REFERENCES

Cantwell, D.P., & Baker, L. (1987). Developmental Speech and Language
Disorders. NY: The Guilford Press.

Clark, H., & Clark, E. (1977). Psychology and Language: An Introduction to

Psycholinguistics. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

References
Damico, J.S., Miller, N., & Ball, M.J. (2010). The Handbook of Language and
Speech Disorders. Singapore: Blackwell.

Deputy, P. (2008). Human Communication Disorders.

Disability Info: Speech and Language Disorders Fact Sheet (FS11). National
Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities.

Eisenson, J. (1986). Language and Speech Disorders in Children. London:

Elsevier.

Hunt, R. R., & Ellis, H.C. (2006). Fundamentals of Cognitive Psychology. New
Delhi: Tata McGraw Hill.

Leonard, L.B. (2000). Children with Specific Language Impairment. NY: MIT
Press.

Sternberg, R.J. (2009). Applied Cognitive Psychology: Perceiving, Learning,

and Remembering. London: Cengage.

Yule, M, & Rutter, M. (Eds.)(1987). Language Development and Disorders.

London: McKeith Press.

62