{"id":265,"date":"2020-08-17T19:23:54","date_gmt":"2020-08-17T23:23:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/psychcapilano\/chapter\/9-3-communicating-with-others-the-development-and-use-of-language\/"},"modified":"2021-09-07T19:42:33","modified_gmt":"2021-09-07T23:42:33","slug":"9-3-communicating-with-others-the-development-and-use-of-language","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/psychcapilano\/chapter\/9-3-communicating-with-others-the-development-and-use-of-language\/","title":{"raw":"9.3 Communicating With Others: Development and Use of Language","rendered":"9.3 Communicating With Others: Development and Use of Language"},"content":{"raw":"
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Learning Objectives<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/header>\n
\n
    \n \t
  1. Review the components and structure of language.<\/li>\n \t
  2. Describe the process by which people can share new information by using language.<\/li>\n \t
  3. Characterize the typical content of conversation and its social implications.<\/li>\n \t
  4. Characterize psychological consequences of language use and give an example.<\/li>\n \t
  5. Describe how children acquire language.<\/li>\n \t
  6. Describe theories of language development.<\/li>\n \t
  7. Explain the biological underpinnings of language.<\/li>\n \t
  8. Describe the use of language in non-human animals.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

    Human language is the most complex behaviour on the planet and, at least as far as we know, in the universe. Language involves both the ability to comprehend spoken and written words and to create communication in real time when we speak or write. Most languages are oral, generated through speaking. Speaking involves a variety of complex cognitive, social, and biological processes, including operation of the vocal cords and the coordination of breath with movements of the throat, mouth, and tongue.<\/p>\n

    Other languages are sign languages, in which the communication is expressed by movements of the hands. The most common sign language is American Sign Language (ASL), commonly used in many countries across the world and adapted for use in varying countries. The other main sign language used in Canada is la Langue des Signes Qu\u00e9b\u00e9coise (LSQ); there is also a regional dialect, Maritimes Sign Language (MSL).<\/p>\n

    Although language is often used for the transmission of information (e.g., \u201cturn right at the next light and then go straight\u201d or \u201cPlace tab A into slot B\u201d), this is only its most mundane function. Language also allows us to access existing knowledge, to draw conclusions, to set and accomplish goals, and to understand and communicate complex social relationships. Language is fundamental to our ability to think, and without it, we would be nowhere near as intelligent as we are.<\/p>\n

    Language can be conceptualized in terms of sounds, meaning, and the environmental factors that help us understand it. As we will discuss further, phonemes are the elementary sounds of our language, morphemes are the smallest units of meaning in a language, syntax is the set of grammatical rules that control how words are put together, and contextual information is the elements of communication that are not part of the content of language but that help us understand its meaning.<\/p>\n\n

    The Components of Language<\/h2>\n

    A phoneme<\/strong> is the smallest unit of sound that makes a meaningful difference in a language. In transcription, phonemes are placed between slashes. For example, the word \u201cbit\u201d has three phonemes: \/b\/, \/i\/, and \/t\/. The word \u201cpit\u201d also has three: \/p\/, \/i\/, and \/t\/. In spoken languages, phonemes are produced by the positions and movements of the vocal tract, including our lips, teeth, tongue, vocal cords, and throat, whereas in sign languages, phonemes are defined by the shapes and movement of the hands.<\/p>\n

    There are hundreds of unique phonemes that can be made by human speakers, but most languages only use a small subset of the possibilities. English contains about 45 phonemes, whereas other languages have as few as 15 and others more than 60. The Hawaiian language contains only about a dozen phonemes, including five vowels \u2014 a, e, i, o, and u \u2014 and seven consonants \u2014 h, k, l, m, n, p, and w.<\/p>\n

    Because the phoneme is actually a category of sounds that are treated alike within the language, speakers of different languages are able to hear the difference only between some phonemes but not others. This is known as the categorical perception of speech sounds<\/strong>. English speakers can differentiate the \/r\/ phoneme from the \/l\/ phoneme, and thus \u201crake\u201d and \u201clake\u201d are heard as different words. In Japanese, however, \/r\/ and \/l\/ are the same phoneme, and thus speakers of that language are not likely to tell the difference between the word \u201crake\u201d and the word \u201clake.\u201d Try saying the words \u201ccool\u201d and \u201ckeep\u201d out loud. Can you hear the difference between the two \/k\/ sounds? To English speakers they both sound the same, but to speakers of Arabic, these represent two different phonemes (see Figure 9.9<\/a>).<\/p>\n

    Infants are born able to understand all phonemes, but they lose their ability to do so as they get older; by 10 months of age, a child\u2019s ability to recognize phonemes becomes very similar to that of the adult speakers of the native language. Phonemes that were initially differentiated come to be treated as equivalent (Werker & Tees, 2002).<\/p>\n \n\n \n\n[caption id=\"attachment_289\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"600\"]\"This<\/a> Figure 9.9. When adults hear speech sounds that gradually change from one phoneme to another, they do not hear the continuous change; rather, they hear one sound until they suddenly begin hearing the other. In this case, the change is from \/ba\/ to \/pa\/ (Wood, 1976).[\/caption]\n

    Whereas phonemes are the smallest units of sound in language, a morpheme<\/strong> is a string of one or more phonemes that makes up the smallest units of meaning in a language. Some morphemes, such as one-letter words like \u201cI\u201d and \u201ca,\u201d are also phonemes, but most morphemes are made up of combinations of phonemes. Some morphemes are prefixes and suffixes used to modify other words. For example, the syllable \u201cre-\u201d as in \u201crewrite\u201d or \u201crepay\u201d means \u201cto do again,\u201d and the suffix \u201c-est\u201d as in \u201chappiest\u201d or \u201ccoolest\u201d means \u201cto the maximum.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Syntax<\/strong> is the set of rules of a language by which we construct sentences. Each language has a different syntax. The syntax of the English language requires that each sentence have a noun and a verb, each of which may be modified by adjectives and adverbs. Some syntaxes make use of the order in which words appear, while others do not. In English, \u201cThe man bites the dog\u201d is different from \u201cThe dog bites the man.\u201d In German, however, only the article endings before the noun matter. \u201cDer Hund beisst den Mann\u201d means \u201cThe dog bites the man\u201d but so does \u201cDen Mann beisst der Hund.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Words do not possess fixed meanings but change their interpretation as a function of the context in which they are spoken. We use contextual information <\/strong>\u2014 the information surrounding language \u2014 to help us interpret it. Examples of contextual information include the knowledge that we have and that we know that other people have, and nonverbal expressions such as facial expressions, postures, gestures, and tone of voice. Misunderstandings can easily arise if people are not attentive to contextual information or if some of it is missing, such as it may be in newspaper headlines or in text messages.<\/p>\n

    The following are examples of headlines in which syntax is correct but the interpretation can be ambiguous:<\/p>\n\n