Early Language Acquisition

Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 2,0, University of Marburg (English Department), course: Psycholinguistics, 8 Literaturquellen, 4 Internetquellen entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: 1 Introduction Throughout the past century many philosophers and great thinkers have become aware of the complex and fundamental role of the human language for our thinking and understanding of the world. Yet, many linguists have successfully scrutinised the complexity of the human language according to its structure and function. However, we still face unsolved questions when it comes to the acquisition of this complex system of signs. We can neither say why a member of the species of man begins to speak at a certain point in his development, nor what exact mental processes are involved in doing so. The two opposed views of innateness vs. imitation seem both to contribute in parts to a sensible explanation of how we acquire language. Yet, both views alone lack evidence. An isolated human being will not be able to learn a language. And young infants are in the possession of the ability to form all sounds appearing in human languages. The former example disproves the theory of sole innateness, the latter shows that at least something must be innate (Clark 1977:297f.). The first section of this paper will outline the discussion of innateness vs. imitation briefly (nature vs. nurture) and approach the question of the origin of language. The second part will discuss the different stages of human language acquisition. What stages do humans go through until they have the full capacity of language? [...]