Understanding Psychology (10th Ed)

phonology
The study of the smallest 
units of speech, called phonemes.
phonemes
The smallest units of speech.
syntax
Ways in which words and 
phrases can be combined to form 
sentences.
M O D U L E 2 5
Language 
Key Concepts 
How do people use language? 
How does language develop?
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266 Chapter 
8 
Cognition and Language
The third major component of language is  semantics,  the meanings of words 
and sentences. Semantic rules allow us to use words to convey the subtle nuances 
in meaning. For instance, we are able to make the distinction between “The truck hit 
Laura” (which we might say if we had just seen a truck crashing into Laura) versus 
“Laura was hit by a truck” (which we might say to explain why Laura didn’t show 
up for a party) (Richgels, 2004; Pietarinen, 2006).
Despite the complexities of language, most of us acquire the basics of grammar 
without even being aware that we have learned its rules. Moreover, even though we 
may have diffi culty explicitly stating the rules of grammar, our linguistic abilities are 
so sophisticated that we can utter an infi nite number of different statements. How 
do we acquire such abilities?
Language Development: 
Developing a Way with Words
To parents, the sounds of their infant babbling and cooing are music to their ears 
(except, perhaps, at three o’clock in the morning). These sounds also serve an 
important function. They mark the fi rst step on the road to the development of 
language.
 BABBLING 
Children  babble  —make speech-like but meaningless sounds—from around the age 
of 3 months through 1 year. While babbling, they may produce, at one time or 
another, any of the sounds found in all languages, not just the one to which they are 
exposed. Even deaf children display their own form of babbling, for infants who are 
unable to hear yet who are exposed to sign language from birth “babble” with their 
hands (Pettito, 1993; Locke, 2006).
An infant’s babbling increasingly refl ects the specifi c language being spoken in 
the infant’s environment, initially in terms of pitch and tone and eventually in terms 
of specifi c sounds. Young infants can distinguish among all 869 phonemes that have 
been identifi ed across the world’s languages. However, after the age of 6 to 8 months, 
that ability begins to decline. Infants begin to “specialize” in the language to which 
they are exposed as neurons in their brains reorganize to respond to the particular 
phonemes infants routinely hear. 
Some theorists argue that a critical period exists for language development early 
in life in which a child is particularly sensitive to language cues and most easily 
acquires language. In fact, if children are not exposed to language during this critical 
period, later they will have great diffi culty overcoming this defi cit (Bates, 2005; Shafer 
& Garrido-Nag, 2007). 
Cases in which abused children have been isolated from contact with others 
support the theory of such critical periods. In one case, for example, a girl named 
Genie was exposed to virtually no language from the age of 20 months until she was 
rescued at age 13. She was unable to speak at all. Despite intensive instruction, she 
learned only some words and was never able to master the complexities of language 
(Rymer, 1994; Veltman & Browne, 2001).