Linguistics Essay

TOPIC- THEORIES RELATING TO HOW CHILDREN ACQUIRE THEIR FIRST LANGUAGE ABSTRACT – In the following essay ,language is explored from its initial stages of development in children. Language can be described in so many formats, due to its diversity and its complexity. One interesting description is from, (Edward Sapir), who sees language as an “art” saying; "Language is an anonymous, collective and unconscious art; the result of the creativity of thousands of generations." Although his version of language strikes interest, it is merely one of the countless accounts that many have given to illuminate this mystery of language. The human language system is said to consist of units, materials and combinations. The units are basically the words, the materials are small sets of sounds that the words are assembled from and when formed they actually are arranged into sentences. It sounds like a complicated process when dissected into these steps but realistically it is something we acquire as early as a baby to three years of age. This fact has fascinated many linguists, scholars and even theorists to the extent that they have all attempted to fathom and find suitable rationalisations for this phenomena called language. The list has ranged from theories like the innateness hypothesis, the imitation theory, the reinforcement theory, the active construction of a grammar theory and even connectionist and social interaction theories. It seems that the more scientists study language the theories increase. Amongst the numerous theories two most outstanding ones are the theory of innatess and the social interaction theory. Many arguments have centred on, whether language is solely the product of experiences,(Lock and Hunte), which is a view of empiricists, focusing on the environmental aspect of language. There has also been the other side of the argument that rationalists’

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