Growing into Language: Developmental Trajectories and Neural Underpinnings PDF
Preview Growing into Language: Developmental Trajectories and Neural Underpinnings
Growing into Language Growing into Language Developmental Trajectories and Neural Underpinnings LILIANA TOLCHINSKY AND RUTH A. BERMAN GreatClarendonStreet,Oxford,OX26DP, UnitedKingdom OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford. ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship, andeducationbypublishingworldwide.Oxfordisaregisteredtrademarkof OxfordUniversityPressintheUKandincertainothercountries ©LilianaTolchinskyandRuthA.Berman2023 Themoralrightsoftheauthorshavebeenasserted Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,storedin aretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans,withoutthe priorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress,orasexpresslypermitted bylaw,bylicenceorundertermsagreedwiththeappropriatereprographics rightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproductionoutsidethescopeofthe aboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment,OxfordUniversityPress,atthe addressabove Youmustnotcirculatethisworkinanyotherform andyoumustimposethissameconditiononanyacquirer PublishedintheUnitedStatesofAmericabyOxfordUniversityPress 198MadisonAvenue,NewYork,NY10016,UnitedStatesofAmerica BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Dataavailable LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2022946566 ISBN978–0–19–284998–4 DOI:10.1093/oso/9780192849984.001.0001 Printedandboundby CPIGroup(UK)Ltd,Croydon,CR04YY LinkstothirdpartywebsitesareprovidedbyOxfordingoodfaithand forinformationonly.Oxforddisclaimsanyresponsibilityforthematerials containedinanythirdpartywebsitereferencedinthiswork. Contents Acknowledgments vi Prologue vii 1. Brainsforlanguage(andeverythingelse) 1 2. Languageforrecollection 38 3. Languageforactuality 75 4. Languagefor(im)possibleworlds 114 5. Languageforimagery 149 6. Languageforreflection(onlanguage) 187 7. Languageforliteracyandliteracyforlanguage 225 Afterthoughts 265 GlossaryI:Termsrelatedtobrainsitesandfunctions 278 GlossaryII:Termsrelatedtobrainsitesandneuro-imagingtechniques 288 References 294 AuthorIndex 327 SubjectIndex 338 Acknowledgments Theauthorsaregratefultothefollowingforhelpwithpreparingthemanuscript for submission to the publishers: Simon John Cook, who served as our main copyeditor, Sarah Winkler for help with copyediting and tracking down refer- ences,VeraRusyanovforherworkonreferences,andIttamarErbwithindexing. We would like to thank the team at OUP for their patience, their professional- ism,andgoodwill,particularlyJuliaSteer,VickiSunter,andSamAugustinDurai Ebenazer, our project editors. Thanks, too, to Pancho Tolchinsky and Catalina Estradaforhelpwiththegraphicdesignofthefigure.Wearegratefultoourrespec- tivepartners,EduardoLandsmanandYaacovYaar,fortheirsupportandwisdom throughouttheprocessofproducingthiswork.Andtoourmentors,colleagues, andstudents,withoutwhomthisbookwouldnothavematerialized. Prologue “Language is the most massive and inclusive art we know, a moun- tainousandanonymousworkofunconsciousgenerations.” EdwardSapir,1921,p.235 “Deathandlifeareinthepowerofthetongue.” Proverbs18:21 Weembarkedonthisendeavortoshowhowlanguagedevelops‘beyondagefive,’ fromchildhoodtoadolescenceandsubsequently.1Psychologistsandlinguists,like parents, have always been fascinated by the appearance of a child’s first words andhowrapidlychildrenturnintotalkers,somuchsothatumpteenbookshave beenwrittenontheirearlylanguage.Oursisabookonolderusersofalanguage. It deals with how schoolchildren and adolescents employ language in different communicativesettingsandfordifferentpurposes—totellstories,engageincon- versations, speculate about the future, speak metaphorically, make jokes, reflect onlanguagestructure,andevenwriteacademicessays. The miracle of early language is so amazing that many philosophers and lin- guistsregarditasaninnateendowment,agiftthatmustbeinthegenes.Howcan languagebealearnedbehaviorgivenwhattheycall‘thepovertyofthestimulus’?2 Parentsalmostneverspeakincompletesentences,theyconstantlyrepeatthem- selves, they often don’t correct their children’s mistakes. Besides, children, like grownups,saythingstheyhaveneverheardbefore. We will argue, instead, that there is abundant evidence that poverty of input makes children poor language users, while the opposite is true—a rich linguis- tic environment makes for better talkers and writers. In other words, the idea of language as an inborn, genetic endowment needs to be modulated by exter- nalfactorsofenvironmentandculture—ambientlanguage(s),homebackground, schooling,socio-economiccircumstances,andsoon.Acrossthebook,weinvoke bothinternalandexternalfactorsasinteractinginlanguagedevelopment:genes, environment,andthenatureofthetask.Theseinvolvewhatspeakersinheritby beinghuman,thesocioculturalhabitatinwhichtheyareraised,andthepurposes for which they use language, like writing a diary, chatting at the family dinner table,ordecidingiftwowordsmeanthesame. The authors of this book are linguists, originally trained in both structuralist (European)andformal(American)linguistics.Forthelastfiftyyears—yes,weare pre-boomerwomen—wehaveattemptedtoexplainhowlanguageoutputschange viii PROLOGUE withage.Overtheyearsofourscholarlycareers,eachofushasframedanapproach tolanguagedevelopmentinthecontextofgeneralcognitivedevelopment.Rather thantakingeitherdomain—languageorcognition—asprerequisitefortheother, weconceiveofthemasinconstantinteraction,supportingoneanotheralongthe lifespan. However, until recently, references to cognition and affect were rather vague, and the brain—the site of cognition and emotion—was largely missing frominquiryintolanguagedevelopment.Currentadvancesinneurobiologyhave enabledustointegratethebrainforprovidingadeeperexplanationof(someof the)developmentalchangesweobserveintheuseoflanguage.Forexample,whyis storytellingsuchanaddictiveactivity?Whydoadolescentsdevelopsuchapeculiar vocabulary?Whyaremetaphoricalmeaningsgraspedbeforeironicones?Howis itthat7-year-oldsareunabletodefinewhatisaword,eventhoughtheyhavebeen usingallkindsofwords(appropriately)sincetheageof2?Howisitthatchildren writebeforetheyread? Toachieveourgoalofilluminatinglanguageuseanddevelopmenthelpedby neurobiology,ourbookbeginswithanoverviewofthepropertiesoftheworking brain,stressingthatthecapacitytolearnandmemorizeaswellastopredictand correcterrorsremainsplasticatleastinto,possiblybeyond,lateadolescence.The factthatcrucialdevelopmentstakeplaceinnearlyeveryaspectoflanguageuse after early childhood justifies the scope of our inquiry. This initial overview on thebehaviorofthebrain,whatitdoesordoesnotenableustoknowanddowith language,providesthesettingfortherestofthebook.Subsequently,(ineachof Chapters2to7),wecommentontheneurobiologicalunderpinningsofparticular facetsoflanguageuse,andtheskillschildrenneedtodeveloptoexpressthemselves adequatelyindifferentrealmsofexperience. Thenextthreechaptersmovealongatimeline:Chapter2trackslanguageusage intheworldofpastexperiences,howpeoplerecounteventsfortellingstoriesin thenarrativegenre;Chapter3looksathowpeoplewieldlanguageintheactual worldofthepresent,forinteractingwithfamilyandpeersordescribingentities andpresentingarguments;Chapter4considersthewayspeoplereflectonpossible worldsandalternativeeventualitiesinthefuture. Wethenmovetotheclustersoflinguisticandcognitiveabilitiesrequiredfordif- ferentdomainsoflanguageuse.Chapter5takesustotheworldofimagery,where peoplespeakidiomatically,inculturallyfixedways,combiningwordsthatmake nosenseonthesurface,likesayingthatsomeonewhodiedkickedthebucket— a domain where people communicate by implication, indirect speech acts, and figurativeusages. Chapter6traceshowpeopleuselanguagetotalkaboutlanguage,howlanguage isturnedfromameansofcommunicationtoanobjectofreflection.Finally,before movingontoourconcluding‘Afterthoughts,’Chapter7tacklestheworldofliter- acy,fromdigitaltextingtoacademicessays,wherepeopleusewritingandreading asawayofthinking—andwedistinguishbetweenscript-literacyasmasteringthe PROLOGUE ix physical elements of a writing system and text-literacy as being able to handle differenttypesofwrittendiscourse.Eachofthesixusage-basedchapters(2to7) opensbysurveyingwhatphilosophers,cognitivescientists,and/orhistorianshave hadtosayaboutthetargeteddomains,proceedstooutliningthelinguisticmeans of expression that characterize them and their neurological underpinnings in the brain, and concludes with the developmental trajectories that children and adolescentstraverseineachoftheserealmsofexperience. Runningacrossthebookasawholeareseveralmotifs. (1)Development:Akeythemeisdevelopment—inthesenseoflanguagechange inthelifeofindividuals.3Inlinewithmainstreamlinguisticapproaches,weagree thatbeforeage5everynormalchildisalinguisticgenius.Thebookthatheralded thecomingofageofdevelopmentalpsycholinguisticssomefiftyyearsago(Brown, 1973)endeditsstudywhenthethreechildrenwhosespeechwasrecordedhadnot yetreachedfouryearsofage.Otherstudiesclaimtoshowthatbyage3,“children haveacquiredthebasicphonological,morpho-syntactic,andsemanticregulari- tiesofthetargetlanguage,irrespectiveofthelanguageorlanguagestobelearned” (Weissenborn & Ho¨hle, 2000, p. vii).4 Here we aim to show that, at each point indevelopment,children(andadults,too)needtocopewithdifferentproblems ofverbalcommunication,forwhichtheyconstantlyneedtodevelopfreshstrate- gies of adaptation and diverse forms of expression. For example, texting peers requires(linguistic)survivalstrategiesthatdifferfromthoseforconversingata family dinner table or answering a question in class—and each of these has its owncharacteristicsamonggrade-schoolerscomparedwithteenagers. Optimaldevelopmentofanorganismdependsonitsadaptationtovariedsur- roundingsratherthansolelyonafull-blownfinalenvironment(Lehrman,1953), sothatallspeciesoforganismshaveevolvedtoadapttotheiruniquenichesateach pointindevelopment.Hereweattempttoconveytoourreadershowchildrenand adolescentsadapttoparticularnichesatdifferentpointsintheirdevelopment,by relyingonrecentadvancesinneurobiologythatdemonstratebrainplasticityand thelengthydevelopmentofexecutivefunctions.5 Four main time spans can be identified in language development in general. Startingwithmovingintolanguagefrombirthto3years,childrencrosstoapsy- cholinguisticfrontieratlatepreschoolage(around4to5years).Subsequently,at around age 6 to 12 years, they ‘go conventional,’ adapting to the norms of the ambientsocietyintheiruseoflanguageasinotherdomains.Laterstill,around ages13to19years,youngpeopleshifttoincreasingautonomyandindividuality ofexpression,withadolescenceawatershedinthetransitionfromchildhoodto adulthoodinlinguisticproficiencyasinsexualmaturationandsocialbehavior.6 Ingoing‘beyondage5,’ourbookfocusesonthelattertwostages. (2) Neurobiological perspectives: We adopt a neoconstructivist approach (Karmiloff-Smith,1992)asadistinctiveframeworkinneurobiologythatshapes ourviewoftherelationshipbetweengeneticendowment,brainstructuring,and
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