Make Millions Of Coals Go In There.

[rionaleonhart]

A couple of nights ago, I dreamt that I was being strangled by a Furby. They don't even have arms!

Anyway, I have been musing on the wonders of the Internet. One of the things I like most about the Internet is the way you can learn all sorts of pointless trivia as you leap about from page to page.

Therefore, here is a pointless trivia entry! Tell

Comments

Linguistics - language acquisition (could get a bit long ^_^;; )

[hikari_datenshi]

Oooh minims! I approve, maan. I approve~

Some basic things for my fact: a pidgin is a simplified language that's made up where two parties of people do not have one in common. They're mostly used for trading, etc.
A creole is when second-generation speakers of a pidgin grammaticalise and add rules and semantic shifts, as well as new vocabulary to it. It becomes a language in and of itself

Re: Linguistics - language acquisition (could get a bit long ^_^;; )

[rionaleonhart]

Feel free to continue if you want! I've already studied theories of language acquisition, but others might be interested. (And should be interested; language acquisition is fascinating.)

I'd heard the Nicaraguan sign-language pidgin story before, but the full significance of it hadn't occurred to me: this isn't a normal pidgin, formed by people who have native languages of their own but no common means of communication, but a language developed by people who haven't had any language exposure at all. That's incredible.

Re: Linguistics - language acquisition (could get a bit long ^_^;; )

[hikari_datenshi]

I know, right? It's why I find it so fascinating! I love telling people about it, hehe. We studied ISN and the creation of it in my Language Origins and Acquisition module in second year and I absolutely loved it.

I can just imagine all the linguists going into paroxysms of delight when it surfaced - I bet they loved it! Something else to argue about! Hurrah! I love how vehement the acquisition linguists are about their various theories.

Re: Linguistics - language acquisition (could get a bit long ^_^;; )

[sashwizzled]

Wow, that is seriously amazing. I wish I could have learned more about this stuff at university, it's so frickin' interesting.

If you want to continue, I totally wouldn't mind. >_>

Re: Linguistics - language acquisition (could get a bit long ^_^;; )

[hikari_datenshi]

Allow me to gather the fluff of my memories and I may just indulge you~

Re: Linguistics - language acquisition (could get a bit long ^_^;; )

[dracothelizard]

Yes! I remember that deaf children story from my Linguistics class! With the second generation development and all that awesomeness.

Re: Linguistics - language acquisition (could get a bit long ^_^;; )

[hikari_datenshi]

It always stuck out in my memory too! So interesting~

Re: Linguistics - language acquisition (could get a bit long ^_^;; )

[apiphile]

HAVE YOU BEEN READING PINKER BY ANY CHANCE? <3 [Sorry, I'm battling with that book right now. Much love]

Re: Linguistics - language acquisition (could get a bit long ^_^;; )

[hikari_datenshi]

Ooh I loved Pinker!! I read him for the course what, two/three years ago? XD I could never really decide whose theories I actually believed in, though, which I guess was a big help when it came to discussing them in the exam!

Re: Linguistics - language acquisition (could get a bit long ^_^;; )

[apiphile]

Erin informs me that he spends too much of the book "tossing Chomskyian salad" and too thoroughly rejects Sapier-Whorf; so far I have NO IDEA what I think because Pinker and I have issues with his prose (I am very dumb and need to be spoken to thusly, which is why V.S. Ramachandran's books work out better for me). HOWEVER this is still easier than How Minds Work.

Re: Linguistics - language acquisition (could get a bit long ^_^;; )

[hikari_datenshi]

I'm not too bothered by the rejection of Sapir-Whorf - I remember thinking that it was a bit of an odd one, when I read about it. The whole idea that a person's thoughts are limited by what language they speak seems unfeasible, to me, and bordering on language imperialism, somehow. But then again, parts of it are more believable - like the idea that many languages are able to be more semantically fine-tuned than English (the whole thing with multiple words for snow, etc

Re: Linguistics - language acquisition (could get a bit long ^_^;; )

[apiphile]

But then again, you also have to take into account the reports of feral children

That occurred to me today; feral children were a pet fascination of mine a few years ago, and it didn't quite seem to fit with what I understand of Chomsky.

So basically I have to pick and choose from a variety of linguistics and not just take one person's word as law? ;)

Re: Linguistics - language acquisition (could get a bit long ^_^;; )

[hikari_datenshi]

Yes! That's exactly it, hehe. And they all try to debunk each other anyway, so really, the best thing you can do is read widely and sort of... cobble together a feeling about what you think it's all about. If you can, I'd also try and have a look at language origins - that puts a different slant on things, plus it's super interesting, to boot. Skulls! Lots of skulls!!

Re: Linguistics - language acquisition (could get a bit long ^_^;; )

[apiphile]

What saddens me is that I'm looking to read about the bridge between linguistics and neuroscience, but googling "neurolinguistics" just gives me creepy websites about how to hypnotise women into sleeping with you.

Re: Linguistics - language acquisition (could get a bit long ^_^;; )

[hikari_datenshi]

That's the problem, really. Linguistics is a science, but there's not much cross-disciplinary action going on within it. It also doesn't help that everyone's still completely mystified where language comes from, let alone whether it's an actual place they can point to in the brain or not. XD

Re: Linguistics - language acquisition (could get a bit long ^_^;; )

[dracothelizard]

Have you tried looking on things like Pubmed? There might be some free research articles on the subject.