COGNITIVISM
Approaches to language acquisition which view the process as closely linked to general cognition and to cognitive development. Some accounts leave open the extent to which certain aspects of language are innate; but all take the view that acquisition is primarily driven by the way in which the infant’s cognitive abilities are brought to bear upon the input to which it is exposed. These cognitive abilities may reflect developing awareness of objects, spatial relations, defining characteristics etc., or they may take the form of perceptual biases which incline the child to recognise patterns in linguistic material. Among views on acquisition which can be characterised as ‘cognitive’ are:
An infant cannot express concepts in language unless it has previously developed them. Example: A child cannot use language to refer to objects that are not visible unless it has grasped the idea of object permanence. For Piaget, language was the product of cognitive and perceptual processes. His research with children led him to conclude that there were four stages of cognitive development. They represent a gradual progression and not a sudden shift in behaviour; and the age at which a particular child goes through each varies considerably. However, they are closely linked to linguistic development.
Both language and cognition are part of a staged maturation programme, in which they operate in parallel, supporting each other. For Vygotsky, thought exists pre-verbally. There is initially a separation between thought and language: the infant’s first words are devoid of thought. During three phases, the separate roles of thought and language become established.
Innate cognitive tendencies may predispose us:
To find patterns in language data (as in data in general). A theory of syntactic bootstrapping postulates that infants reach conclusions about words on the basis of their inflections and other grammatical properties: thus the child learns that the difference between It’s sib and It’s a sib serves to distinguish real-world entities that are mass from those that are count.
To adopt certain strategies in response to language data. Slobin (1973) concludes that infants apply a set of universal strategies or operating principles in order to deconstruct the input to which they are exposed. (Pay attention to the ends of words. Pay attention to the order of words and morphemes.) More cognitively complex features are acquired later.
To apply individual learning styles to language data. Some infants appear to break the input into words, while others acquire chunks of language in a holistic manner.
The infant’s limited cognitive capacity renders it more sensitive to the features of language than it might be before or later. The ‘less is more’ argument holds that it may be the very limitations of the infant’s early cognitive state which enable it to identify structure in language and to recognise that language constitutes a set of inter-related symbols.
See also: Bootstrapping, ‘Less is more’, Modularity1, Operating Principles, Piagetian stages of development, Vygotskyan
Further reading: Bates et al. (1995); Deacon (1997: Chap. 4); Piattelli-Palmarini (1980)
