Invitation to Psychology

ChapTer 3 Development Over the Life Span 85

You are about to learn...

• what a language is—and what it allows us to do
that other animals cannot.

• innate and learned aspects of acquiring
language.

• the importance of baby talk in the development
of language.

• some milestones in the development of
language.

Language Development

Try to read this sentence aloud:
Kamaunawezakusomamanenohayawewenimtuwa
maanasana.

Can you tell where one word begins and
another ends? Unless you know Swahili, the syl-
lables of this sentence will sound like gibberish.^1
Well, to a baby learning its native tongue,
every sentence must be gibberish at first. How,
then, does an infant pick out discrete syllables and
words from the jumble of sounds in the environ-
ment, much less figure out what the words mean?
And how is it that in only a few years, children
not only understand thousands of words but can
also produce and understand an endless number
of new word combinations? Is there something
special about the human brain that allows a baby
to discover how language works? Charles Darwin
(1874) thought so: Language, he wrote, is an in-
stinctive ability unique to human beings.
To evaluate Darwin’s claim, we must first
appreciate that a language is not just any old com-
munication system; it is a set of rules for combin-
ing elements that are inherently meaningless into
utterances that convey meaning. The elements are

usually sounds, but they can also be the gestures of

American Sign Language (ASL) and other man-

ual languages used by deaf or hearing-impaired

people. Because of language, we can refer not only

to the here and now but also to past and future

events and to things or people who are not pres-

ent. Language, whether spoken or signed, also

allows human beings to express and comprehend

an infinite number of novel utterances, created

on the spot. This ability is critical; except for a

few fixed phrases (“How are you?” “Get a life!”),

most of the utterances we produce or hear over a

lifetime are new. How in the world do we do this?

Language: Built in or Learned?

Many psychological scientists believe that an in-

nate facility for language evolved in human beings

because it was extraordinarily beneficial (Pinker,

1994). It permitted our prehistoric ancestors to

convey precise information about time, space, and

events (as in “Honey, are you going on the mam-

moth hunt today?”) and allowed them to negotiate

alliances that were necessary for survival (“If you

share your nuts and berries with us, we’ll share our

mammoth with you”). Language may also have de-

veloped because it provides the human equivalent

of the mutual grooming that other primates rely on

to forge social bonds (Dunbar, 2004). Just as other

primates will clean, stroke, and groom one another

for hours as a sign of affection and connection, hu-

man friends will sit for hours and chat over coffee.

At one time, the leading theory held that chil-

dren acquired language by imitating adults and

paying attention when adults corrected their mis-

takes. Then along came linguist Noam Chomsky

(1957, 1980), who argued that language was far

too complex to be learned bit by bit, as one might

learn a list of world capitals. Because no one actu-

ally teaches a toddler grammar, said Chomsky,

the human brain must contain an innate mental

module—a universal grammar—that allows young

children to develop language if they are exposed

to an adequate sampling of conversation. Their

(^1) Kama unaweza kusoma maneno haya, wewe ni mtu wa maana
sana, in Swahili, means “If you can read these words, you are a
remarkable person.”
language A system that
combines meaningless
elements such as sounds
or gestures to form
structured utterances
that convey meaning.

2. True or false: To develop normally, infants must sleep in their own cribs, apart from their
   mothers.


3. A baby left in the Strange Situation does not protest when his mother leaves the room, and he
   seems to ignore her when she returns. According to Ainsworth, what style of attachment does
   this behavior reflect?


4. In Item 3, what else besides the child’s style of attachment could account for the child’s
   reaction?
   Answers:
   the child’s own temperament and familiarity with being temporarily 4. insecure (avoidant) 3. false 2. contact comfort 1.

left alone